Martin Luther King Jr.
Willow Tree’s History curriculum has been designed to inspire a strong curiosity about the past in all of our learners. We believe that children should know what history is and ought to recognise the value of studying it, and so we aim for our pupils to gain a secure understanding of the past and how it relates to the present.
We believe that History should be enjoyable, engaging and reflective of the diversity of the past in our local area, Britain and the wider world. We want our pupils to learn from historians and become historians themselves. Our curriculum will help them to build upon their historical knowledge and skills, so that over time they can deepen their observations of the past and be able to both ask and answer historically valid questions.
The History curriculum will also encourage our learners to become critical thinkers. We want our pupils to be able to use and apply what they have learnt when interpreting historical sources and to understand that there are different perspectives of the past.
Finally, we aim for our children to leave primary school with a clear mental timeline of the periods that they have studied in both Britain and the wider world.
Historical learning happens throughout our school, from Nursery to Year 6.
Early Years Foundation Stage
In Nursery and Reception, the children do not study specific History topics; instead, teachers lay the foundations for future historical learning. Our EYFS curriculum achieves this by building in opportunities for the pupils to:
Key Stages One and Two
From Years 1 to 6, History is taught on a half-termly basis for at least one hour per week.
At Willow Tree, we use an enquiry-based approach to historical learning, which focuses on developing children’s historical knowledge and skills through their investigation of open-ended questions. For each new topic, our pupils are presented with a big question that they will work to answer over a series of lessons; as new knowledge is gained throughout the topic, the children are continuously encouraged to revisit and review this question.
Our History curriculum has been sequenced so that children are able to build upon the skills and knowledge that they have gained in previous years, and make clear links and comparisons between the different civilisations, periods, places and people that they have studied. Teachers help their pupils to achieve this by constantly referring back to the key learning completed in past lessons and year groups.
During History lessons, children are encouraged to talk frequently about how the information they have learnt helps them to answer the key questions that they are investigating. Talk is also used by teachers to assess historical understanding both during and after lessons.
Key historical terms have been mapped out into threads and are taught throughout key stages one and two, becoming more complex over time. The threads that we have decided to focus on in our school are:
History at Willow Tree is designed to meet the needs of all pupils. Whilst every child in the class is expected to explore the same key questions throughout a topic, lesson tasks will be differentiated appropriately so that all learners are given the opportunity to demonstrate their historical knowledge, skills and understanding in a way that best suits their educational needs and learning style.
To bring History alive, our pupils will visit relevant sites in the local area and will have the chance to participate in memorable experiences that enhance their learning.
Due to the delivery of a high-quality History curriculum, our children will:
Theodore Roosevelt
Herbert Hoover
