Hajo Holborn
Intent
The school’s vision for History is driven by a belief that children learn best through discovery, curiosity, and rigorous analytical thinking. The curriculum is designed to develop six core disciplinary skills: chronology, change and continuity, inference, analysing sources, causes and consequences, and critical thinking. Through rich enquiry and carefully sequenced knowledge, children are encouraged to question narratives, investigate evidence, and uncover the complexity of the past for themselves. The passion behind the curriculum lies in empowering every learner to think like a historian—curious, reflective, and analytical—so they leave school equipped to understand the world around them and engage thoughtfully with its challenges
Implementation
Our history curriculum is driven by a core enquiry question, introduced at the start of the topic. This question provides the narrative thread for all learning: every lesson looks at a smaller guiding-question that contributes new knowledge or skills that help pupils build towards answering the enquiry in a final, evaluative outcome in the last lesson of that half term. To support coherence and progression, every topic is underpinned by a knowledge organiser. These organisers identify the core knowledge, key vocabulary, and disciplinary skills pupils must master with in that topic.
Our lesson structure is designed to ensure that learning is remembered and that children have ample opportunities to ‘think like a historian’. Our lessons encourage curiosity and exploration. Talk for learning is actively taught and scaffolded to promote vocabulary and clear communication of ideas.
At Bramingham, we have broken core historical skills into 6 categories. Skills are cumulative with years 1 and 2 focusing on ‘chronology’ and ‘change and continuity’, with subsequent phases focusing on an additional two skills at LKS2 and UKS2.
- Chronology:
The ability to place events, people, and periods in the correct order so children understand what happened when and how long things lasted. Pupils will use timelines, sequencing activities, and vocabulary such as before, after, past, and present to build a sense of historical time. - Change and continuity
- Analysing Source
- Inference
- Causes and Consequences
- Thinking Critically
