At The Observatory School, it is our intent to instil a love of History in our children. The History department works hard to provide an interesting and varied curriculum that interest and intrigues our children while meeting the needs of all backgrounds, cultures and abilities. By linking learning to a range of topics, children have opportunities to investigate and interpret the past, understand chronology, build an overview of Britain’s past as well as that of the wider world, and to be able to communicate historically 

IMPLEMENTATION

History is taught across Key Stage 2 and 3 and is delivered by our Base Teachers.

We believe that high-quality history lessons inspire children to want to know more about the past and to think and act as historians. By doing so, we develop children with the following essential characteristics:

• An excellent knowledge and understanding of people, events and contexts from a range of historical periods, including significant events in Britain’s past.
• The ability to think critically about history and communicate ideas confidently to a range of audiences.
• The ability to support, evaluate and challenge their own and others’ views using historical evidence from a range of sources.
• The ability to think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate the past by formulating and refining questions and lines of enquiry.
• A respect for historical evidence and the ability to make critical use of it to support their learning.
• A desire to embrace challenging activities, including opportunities to undertake high-quality research across a range of history topics.
• A developing sense of curiosity about the past and how and why people interpret the past in different ways.

Through our teaching, the use of artefacts and visits we aim to enhance our students understanding and excite and intrigue them to find out more about people and events from the past.

 History is taught on a topic basis, which in some classes will link across the curriculum with another subject. Topics are taught on a termly basis, with one lesson of History being taught per week. 

•  The impact of history within The Observatory School is to ensure students are equipped with the historical skills and knowledge that will enable them to be ready for the curriculum at Key Stage 3 and for life as an adult in the wider world.
• We strive for students to enjoy their history lessons and develop a want to find out more through independent research.
• Students will produce work to a good standard which will show a range of topics covered, cross-curriculum links and differentiated work. Students will make progress within prior learning.