Curriculum Aim

The aim of the History curriculum is to develop CYP’s passion for learning about the past and learning about the processes which have driven change. CYP gain an understanding of past events, people and discoveries to develop critical thinking skills and the ability to create judgments. CYP will engage with evidence and analyse sources to help them understand the complexity of the world and their identity within it. Studying history provides historical context for current issues and aims to teach CYP how different interpretations of the past are constructed. As with all humanities subjects at Kingfisher, a key aim is to foster a love of learning and a passion to develop this interest.

Context

Alignment with the home school curriculum is prioritised. Where this is not applicable, we focus on historical skills and subject-specific concepts and select purposeful content from a bank of units which form a ‘safety net’ curriculum.

Key concepts, skills and knowledge

The following subject-specific concepts can be focused on:

• Similarity and difference
• Change and continuity
• Cause and consequence
• Interpretation
• Significance
• Source analysis

Students will develop and apply the following skills:

• Critical thinking
• Analysing sources, interpretations and conflicting narratives
• Extended writing and evidence-based development of an argument
• The broad ‘threads’ that can be identified over centuries and millennia (Technology / Church and State / The law / Economics / People power)
• Significant people, events, developments and discoveries
• The interlinked nature of cause and consequence between different times and places; a ‘meanwhile, elsewhere’ understanding of the wider world
• The reasons for different historical interpretations of people, places and events. An ability to understand the differences in historical perspectives, the rationale behind differences in historical perspectives and, crucially, an ability to construct your own thoughtful and evidence-based interpretations.

Where alignment with the home school curriculum is not possible, knowledge will be selected from a bank of relevant units.

Curriculum Overview

Relevant topics can be selected from the following, depending on the most suitable area of need or gaps in learning: