Parent FAQS

Quick Links Open/Close

St Thomas of Canterbury

In God's Love We Flourish
In Amore Dei Floremus

History

The study of history is the beginning of wisdom

Intent

The teaching of History at St. Thomas of Canterbury is to promote a love of learning of the subject. We aim to provide our students with a broad and ambitious curriculum that instils them with the key skills and knowledge to gain an in depth and critical understanding of the past and its complexities.

The school-wide History curriculum is carefully designed to emphasise particularly important content and concepts as this allows children to make links between topics, have a good chronology awareness of the past and develop their knowledge in regards to broader features of historical periods and places. The earlier curriculum affects pupils’ access and success with later learning; therefore, we have carefully selected key content throughout the year groups and this is continually emphasised and revisited to ensure that it is embedded.

Securing core knowledge enables children to remember key facts; this provides context for pupils to learn new material.  It also develops their disciplinary skills, allowing them to understand how historians learn and construct arguments of the past. These substantive and disciplinary concepts are explicitly taught and many recur throughout the curriculum. Teaching meaningful examples develops pupils’ conceptual understanding and deepens pupils’ knowledge, enabling them to create mental models and schema of these recurring concepts. Pupils’ can then develop a meaningful and increasingly intricate knowledge of how historians study the past and how historical accounts are constructed.

Implementation

History skills, knowledge, concepts and vocabulary are mapped and embedded through carefully sequenced lessons and themes, ensuring pupils develop a thorough knowledge of British History from the Stone Age to present times.  Narratives and stories are used as they are a highly effective way of teaching new content in history.  Teachers base their explanations on linking the new material with pupils’ existing understanding and explaining how they are connected.   We take an enquiry-based approach to teaching History whereby each topic is framed upon an enquiry question that guides the teaching.  Across the whole school curriculum, children study the key historical concepts of chronology; significance; change and continuity; cause/consequence and interpretation. These are taught within the historical contexts outlined within the National Curriculum. 

Pupils make progress in history by developing their knowledge about the past ‘substantive knowledge’ and developing their knowledge about how historians investigate the past, and how they construct historical claims, arguments and accounts ‘disciplinary knowledge’.

Deploying both substantive and disciplinary knowledge in combination is what gives pupils the capacity or skill to construct historical arguments or analyse sources. This is because knowledge of the past must be shaped by disciplinary approaches in order for it to become historical knowledge.

There are selected substantive concepts that reoccur in topics across the key stages, which enable children to gain a good understanding of chronology and make links between different periods of history. Teachers can make clear links by relating content from topics to broader narratives from across the past; this helps children to use timelines and it supports their chronological understanding. 

Adaptive learning ensures pupils are challenged. By using precise questioning, we can ensure that pupils are able to draw comparisons and make connections between time periods and their own lives. Pupils are encouraged to think like historians and debate, challenge, compare and contrast views while using primary and secondary sources.   Support for pupils with SEND focuses on their ability to access the breadth and depth of the curriculum.  We ensure that pupils are secure in the content and knowledge they will need to make sense of for the later curriculum.

Our ongoing assessment, at the beginning of each lesson, enables teachers to identify and close gaps in core knowledge. This assessment focuses on checking for understanding and retention of core knowledge.

Impact

Our well-designed history curriculum enables all pupils to develop rich and connected substantive and disciplinary knowledge.  They have an increasingly secure and complex knowledge of important content and concepts that support future learning. The curriculum includes abstract concepts and chronological knowledge that connects pupils’ knowledge to broader frameworks and narratives, making sure that it goes beyond isolated ‘facts’ about the past.  Pupils develop a secure understanding about how historians and others study the past and construct historical accounts. 

Pupil voice, regular monitoring of planning, achievements and lessons demonstrate that pupils are equipped to respond to their enquiry-based learning.  Pupils are confident and able to talk about what they have learnt in history using subject specific vocabulary. They are able to use their secure substantive knowledge to make clear links between topics then use this to identify how historians study the past and construct arguments (disciplinary knowledge). 

Repetition of key content equips children with ‘fingertip’ knowledge. This knowledge is secure and well-organised in pupils’ minds for them to be able to draw on and transform it to construct historical arguments.  Pupils’ work demonstrates that history is taught at an age-appropriate standard across each year group with opportunities planned in for pupils working at greater depth. Work demonstrates that pupils are acquiring knowledge, skills and vocabulary in an appropriate sequence.

Overall, the pupils at St. Thomas of Canterbury are encouraged to be active learners in history.  The well-taught lessons enable them to use their secure substantive knowledge of recurring concepts to discover how historians study the past and construct arguments.  High quality history teaching and learning is our ultimate goal as this forms part of a larger progressive curriculum as our pupils’ transition to KS3 and KS4.

Enrichment

Outstanding teaching and learning bring to life events from the past and creates memorable experiences.  Cross-curricular enrichment activities are planned in order to help immerse the children in the topic helping to make the learning unforgettable.  Trips and workshops, led by historians, have an impact on a student’s learning by creating memorable experiences both in the classroom and beyond; they immerse children into the topic and this supports them to make links and retain key knowledge.  Pupils also have access to a wide range of artefacts to inspire curiosity and enquiry about the past.  

Our local history is extremely important to us; therefore, we ensure that children have the opportunity to visit local landmarks and museums.  We link the local developments and events to the broader narratives on a national and international scale.  Some of the trips in the local area include: The local church, The Leather Museum, Walsall Arboretum, Walsall War memorial, Cannock Toy Museum and Staffordshire Barracks.   We invite historians into school to lead our workshops.  In Year 3, they take part in workshops about Ancient Egyptians and the Stone Age.  In Year 4, they take part in a workshop about The Romans and in Year 5, The Ancient Greeks.  The workshops are exciting, immersive and inspiring; they bring history to life.   The historians are true specialist in their subject and they love to share their knowledge with the children.