Curriculum Lead : Mrs S. Lee
Vision
Kader Academy aims to develop little people who feel safe and happy. We want them to develop a strong sense of pride, not only in themselves, but of their local area and its heritage. We value the importance of strong relationships with our families and our sense of community is at the heart of all we do. We know that our diversity is our strength and we will strive to ensure that the children’s compassion and kindness makes the world a better place. We will inspire curiosity through engaging experiences that promote a profound love of learning. We want them to know that their learning knows no bounds and with self-belief and determination, they can achieve the impossible
Our History vision is to provide a high-quality history education that ensures children have the knowledge and understanding they need about Britain’s past and the wider world and how this has impacted their own lives. This includes promoting a love of learning and developing curiosity through offering a variety of rich and engaging activities, including bringing voices and stories from the past into the classroom, which allow children to make connections and comparisons between time periods.
Intent: Why our History curriculum looks like this
Our knowledge and skill-based curriculum aims to provide each child with an engaging, enriching and relevant sequence of lessons and experiences which challenge and support all pupils. This includes substantive knowledge (knowledge of the past) and disciplinary knowledge (knowledge of how historians investigate the past).
Our personalised curriculum focuses on the aspects of history that allow our children to fully appreciate their local area and experience a broad range of real-life experiences, giving them opportunities they would not necessarily be provided with outside of school and giving meaning and substance for the children in our school community.
We aim to promote a ‘can do’ attitude through open ended learning activities, giving children the chance to explore ideas and think historically drawing on past experiences in and out of the classroom. We aim to encourage the use of divergent thinking to allow all children to progress and achieve at their own level.
Implementation: How we will achieve this
While following the National Curriculum and the Early Years framework, all children will be provided with a carefully sequenced set of lessons which have been planned for progression and depth of knowledge and skills, including consideration as to how learners will be supported in line with our school’s commitment to inclusion. They will include memorable learning experiences both in and out of the classroom (access to artefacts and sources of evidence, both primary and secondary; visits to museums and places of interest; listening and interacting with stories from the past etc.).
These progressive lessons have been planned and sequenced to ensure children are able to build rich, connected schemas in their minds, allowing them to build upon and embed prior knowledge. These lessons are built around 5 ‘big ideas’ of history which our children are explicitly exposed to:
- Power and rule
- Civilisations
- Legacy
- Conflict and warfare
- Everyday life
The children’s learning and knowledge develops constantly through revisiting prior knowledge, whether that is from the previous topic or previous years’ learning. D.A.R.T (Dedicated Active Recall Time) is used in each lesson to ensure that prior knowledge is recapped and built upon from the current topic and previous topics covered.
Classroom learning is supported by knowledge organisers which structure the key knowledge that children should retain from each topic.
Alongside continuous formative assessment, children are able to showcase their learning through an end of topic assessment activity which allows teachers to build up an ongoing judgement regarding pupil progress and attainment.
Impact: The approach at Kader will ensure that:
At Kader Academy, we strive to ensure that pupils achieve their potential and are able to use and adapt the skills and knowledge they have acquired through their history learning to help them succeed in the future. They will have developed confidence and historical and chronological thinking skills which can be transferred into other aspects of their daily lives. Due to our personalised curriculum, we will see children immersed in different periods of time, showing intrigue and enjoyment.
They will have an increased awareness and appreciation of the history of their local area and the changes that have shaped their lives today.
The opportunities given to the children to succeed and grow as a learner will be reflected in the positive attitudes and growth mind-set that the children show throughout all aspects of their learning.
Mini History Leaders
Children from across Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 applied for the role of Mini History Leader and we have selected this fantastic group of enthusiastic Historians to advocate the subject across the school and to support Mrs Lee in her role as History Lead. This includes focusing on the anniversaries of key historic events and promoting local history and significant figures.
