At Horsforth Newlaithes Primary School we want our pupils to gain a coherent understanding of Britain's past and that of the wider world. Our language rich curriculum should inspire children’s curiosity to know more about the past. Pupils should ask perceptive questions and think critically using sources of evidence to support their opnion. They should understand how events and periods of history are related chronologically; how people’s lives have changed; how diverse socieities were and the challenges that were faced.

We have planned a curriculum where the children revisit key areas of study, whether this is in KS1, LKS2 or UKS2. Through their studies, the children will develop skills grouped within threshold concepts: investigate and interpret the past; build an overview of world history; understand chronology and communicate historically. These will be underpinned by key ‘knowledge categories’: KS1 focus on beliefs and society, which is then expanded upon in KS2, where the children will focus on beliefs, conflict, society, and settlements. In addition, these will be supplemented by a study of chronology and the use of historical artefacts to bolster their understanding of history. These categories will be taught in every year group, using the different time periods studied as context drivers; focusing on a specific category in each lesson. The skills and knowledge gained by our pupils will be built upon each year, developing their understanding of each time period in Y2, Y4 and Y6. For example, pupils in LKS1 will study Ancient Sumer, with Y3 being introduced to the culture and time period, and Y4 building upon this material and learning about the time period in more detail. Our pupils will make links between periods of history, understanding what was similar as well as different eg. The beliefs of Ancient Greeks and how this was the same or different to people from Early Islam.
Through trips linked to the periods of history we are learning, as well as visitors to school, our pupils will have the opportunity to further develop their understanding of history.

We aim for all children at Newlaithes to be competent historians and to reach the expected standard in history at the end of each year. Our curriculum ensures that children develop an interest in and a love of the subject which enables them to be effective learners throughout their journey at Newlaithes and fully prepared for the next stage of their history education.

We have developed our history curriculum based on the National Curriculum, identified the key skills and knowledge which we want children to learn and consequently make judgements against this criteria during and at the end of the year enabling us to measure the impact teaching and learning has. The majority of assessment which takes place is formative assessment allowing teachers to adapt their planning to match the needs of the children.

The subject leader monitors the impact of the history curriculum through protected monitoring time during which they complete a range of activities: lesson observations; scrutiny of planning and work; speaking to staff and children and analysing assessment data (introduced summer 2022). This process is quality assured by the Senior Leadership Team and agreed actions are added to subject leader action plans.