Expectations

This Charter helps to implement the intent of the History curriculum for every lesson by every Teacher. 

History Secondary Curriculum Intent 

The History Curriculum provides a curriculum that allows all students to develop a love of history through the ages. It is the intention, that all pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world, with a focus and emphasis on British values and Diversity. The knowledge rich curriculum will allow students to develop the academic skills needed to be an effective historian and a political and social understanding of the world they live in.  Every History lesson will provide opportunities for students to develop the life and employability skills that are essential for individuals to successfully contribute to society. 

The aims of the History Secondary Curriculum are to ensure that all pupils: 

• Develop key contextual knowledge of key historical events, which includes the place that these events have within our countries History and the long-term impact this has had on shaping Britain to be the country it is today. 
• To be able to understand key themes within History, such as British Values and Diversity. 
• To understand the relationship between Britain and other countries throughout the world and it’s impact on British society. 
• To be able to confidently recall prior key knowledge and apply this to key assessments. 
• Use discussion in order to learn and contribute to others’ learning; developing, extending elaborating and explaining clearly their understanding and ideas and reflecting on learning. 
• Learn to read and understand familiar and unfamiliar historical texts actively, fluently and with good understanding whilst developing their skills in inference analysis, comparison and source evaluation (Particularly at KS4) 
• Use grammatical and exam structures appropriately at KS4 to demonstrate precise understanding supported with key historical examples. 

Implementing the intent through the Charter 

• Check learning from last lesson has been retained through the Do It Now Activity (DIN)/starter. 
•  Introduce the learning objectives of the lesson making links to the ‘Historical Journey & Key Questions’ and real-life applications. 
• Model key concepts to cement understanding by “I do, we do, you do” activities. 
• Model and promote oracy as a way of developing spoken and written responses, using key terminology and exam techniques. 
• Present tier 3 vocabulary at the start of each unit and include it in exercise books through Knowledge Organisers. Reference it regularly in lessons. 
• Build in regular opportunities to check for understanding during the lesson, so that misconceptions can be identified and addressed quicky at the point of origin. 
• Ensure pupils take pride in their work and provide clear evidence in their books of development and understanding of key historical knowledge and exam skills. Ensure they are used as an aide-memoire for recall and revision. 
• Ensure that pupils develop a method of extended writing that shows their growing mastery of functional skills. Their writing should show their developing maturity in writing for different exam style questions and assessments. 
• As they progress through Key Stage 4, ensure that pupils’ notes are arranged in such a way that they can readily identify those which will support their revision and preparation for examinations in Year 11. 
• Provide opportunities for subject-specific enrichment both inside and outside of school, ensuring that opportunities are embedded across all Key Stages for learning to support opportunities to develop historical knowledge further and to foster a love of learning outside of the classroom.