Intent
The history curriculum at Riversdale aims to ignite curiosity in pupils about the past, helping them build a strong understanding of chronology, key historical events, influential figures, and periods. We aim for pupils to grasp how historical events have shaped the present world and to develop a sense of identity within a broader global context.
Our inclusive curriculum includes key themes such as migration, conservation, civil rights, and legacy/heritage, which are explored across both British and world history. These themes help support pupils in understanding their place in history, fostering a vision of where we have come from, where we are going, and how we can collectively move forward as a community.
We are committed to offering challenging and engaging lessons that promote deep thinking and encourage creative communication. By engaging with these themes and historical concepts like cause and consequence, change and continuity, and historical significance, pupils will develop critical thinking, questioning, source analysis, and evidence-based reasoning skills, which will support all pupils in reaching their full potential in history.
Implementation
The history curriculum at Riversdale is based on the National Curriculum Programmes of Study for Key Stages 1 and 2, as well as Development Matters in EYFS. At Riversdale we view history as more than simply knowing facts and dates, we view it as an important aspect of understanding the world around us. In Early Years, children develop a foundational understanding of history within living memory, through discussions around significant people both in our lives and in a local, national or global context. This is taught through themes such as 'Me and My Community' and children are immersed in key texts that initiate pupil engagement and interest in the study of these. Through this, they are also introduced to key historical vocabulary that is built on throughout Key Stage 1 and 2.
In Key Stage 1 and 2, children learn through enquiry questions such as "How did Florence Nightingale change nursing?" and "Why were the Pharaohs important to Egyptian society?". This provides pupils with a tangible answer by the end of each lesson, giving a context to the learning which builds over time to answer a larger question around a topic or theme. We encourage children to become historians, who explore and question the past in an exciting way, applying a range of historical skills such as using sources of evidence, historical interpretation and identifying cause and concequence. For each unit of learning, children revisit previously taught knowledge in order to retrieve and embed so enabling new knowledge to be effectively built. Based on this, teachers adapt their teaching to ensure that the needs of all pupils are met.
Our teachers make learning memorable and fun through drama and role play, reading stories and writing opportunities. When relevant, pupils are given opportunities to go on educational visits to local sites of historical importance or museums, where students can handle artefacts first hand and experience specialist teaching by historians or curators.
Curriculum Progression
At Riversdale Primary School we believe in the importance of all children developing a deep understanding of history and in embedding the substantive knowledge and disciplinary skills into their long-term memory. As such, the progression of history has been carefully mapped, with a consideration to connected subject matter and opportunities to revisit specific concepts over time. For example, in Year 3, Autumn 1, children will study the stone age, bronze age and iron age, whilst exploring the concept of chronology and how one time period progressed into the next. This is expanded on in Year 4 where pupils identify that various time periods took place simultaneously in different regions of the world.
You can find a copy of the 2024-25 History Progression Document here.
Lesson Delivery
All children are taught by their class teacher, in dedicated lessons that take place fortnightly (alternating with geography). We structure the timetable in such a way as to ensure pupils are building on knowledge and skills throughout the year, rather than in blocks, and use retrieval practices to move knowledge from pupils’ working memory to their long-term memory. To ensure that pupils are able to distinguish between geography and history each week, the school have implemented a colour coded system and incorporated clear lesson symbols, thus providing pupils with a clear visual prompt.
Pupils are provided with a Knowledge Organiser that:
You can find the 2024-25 Autumn Term Knowledge Organisers for History below:
Curriculum Policies
Please find our history policy below:
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