Humanities at Bishop Bronescombe

It is our intent for Geography to inspire our pupils with a curiosity and fascination about the world around them that will ignite their natural inquisitive nature as they move through their lives. By the time the children leave Key Stage 2, we have the aim for the children to gain a sense of awareness and understanding of the world around them; from the area they live, to an understanding of the relationship between physical and human processes within our environment and how they change over time. As well as this, we want them to develop an understanding of the cultural diversity of our world and the benefits of embracing diversity into their lives. The children should be able to appreciate the environment in which they live and use this appreciation to better research the questions that our world generates.

Through their work in Geography during their time at Bishop Bronescombe, the children begin by exploring their local area, focusing on increasing scales beginning with the area of their school grounds. They then move onto comparing their home area with other regions both in the United Kingdom and the rest of the world. They learn how to draw and interpret maps, understand map symbols and they develop the skills of investigation and analysis. Bishop Bronescombe strives for learning that carries children through the rest of their lives and through their learning and understanding of Human Geography, children gain an appreciation and respect for alternative cultures and ways of life. Geography also allows them to learn about the physical world: how the world is formed and physical features can support human life. Not only this, it enables them to recognise the importance of sustainable development, and encourage their consideration for their future lives and future world. Within their Geography learning at Bishop Bronescombe, there are key vocabulary terms that they will become confident with using and exploring both within and beyond their Geography lessons. 

History Intent

At Bishop Bronescombe, we have a curriculum that meets all needs and abilities. Lessons are sequenced to help ensure that they have progressively covered the skills and concepts required in the National Curriculum. We aim to develop historical skills and concepts which are transferable to whatever period of history is being studied and will equip children for future learning. The coverage of history in KS1 enables children to acquire an understanding of time, events and people in their memory and their parents’ and grandparents’ memories. The curriculum can be covered chronologically in reverse (newest to oldest) to allow a full opportunity for children to really grasp the difficult concept of the passing of time. We have ensured British history is covered chronologically, to allow children to better understand and relate the changes that have happened to their world over time.

With that said, the Curriculum has also been designed to include local history studies. For example, Tin Mining is included due to the Cornish history.

The intent in lower KS2 is that children can work in chronological order from ancient history such as ‘Ancient Egypt’ and then progress onto more modern history such as ‘Tin Mining in Cornwall’.

Upper KS2 allows children to repeat and embed this sequence of chronology with a wider selection of ancient history such as the ‘Shang Dynasty’ and ‘The Mayan Civilisation’, which ensures that children gain an understanding of History around the world, through to more modern history such as ‘World War II’ and ‘The Cornish Rebellion’.

The repetition in KS2, of chronological order from ancient to modern, allows for children to truly develop and embed a sense of time and how civilisations were interconnected. Children start to understand how some historical events occurred concurrently in different locations, e.g. Ancient Egypt and Mexico.

At Bishop Bronescombe, Geography will be implemented through teaching that provides children with the foundations of the theory of our world and its development, as well as opportunities for independent research and discovery. In KS1, the learning will be conducted through a predominantly skills-based curriculum, focusing on map exploration and the children’s independent interests, linking this to broad topic areas where possible. In KS2, the teaching will explore the subject through questioning that will encourage the children to think more deeply about the world in which they live. They will also be given opportunities through research and outdoor, collaborative learning to further increase their knowledge base and fascination of their world. Furthermore, the use of knowledge organisers will be used to encourage the children to take ownership of their learning as a vital underpinning of their explicit teaching and exploration of the Geography subject. The subject will be taught through a combination of explicit teaching, research and open-ended investigations as well as cross-curricular learning alongside other subjects, which will allow the children to recall and consolidate key areas of their learning.

To ensure that the children know and remember more of their Geography knowledge, each lesson will begin with informal questioning as a class that aims to recall key information from their previous lesson. This will also be encouraged through the use of teacher-led recall of previous knowledge, as well as the children being provided with opportunities to develop and independently extend their understanding through continuous provision opportunities in Key Stage 1, and research or outdoor learning opportunities in Key Stage 2, linking with other subjects where possible.

Implementation of History

In order for children to know and understand more in each area of history studied, there is a structure to the lesson sequence whereby prior learning is always considered and opportunities for revision of facts and historical understanding are built into lessons through lesson Flashbacks. These cover both short and long-term knowledge and where possible, these will be covering British History (chronologically as much as possible) as well as local/ global history. This process will be ongoing in order to allow for this revision to become part of good practice and to help build a depth to children’s historical understanding. Children need to be equipped with the processes (both skills and the substantive knowledge focusing around the differences between historical periods) in order to become historians. We will ensure that researching and communicating findings progress alongside concepts of change, continuity, causation, consequence, similarity, difference and significance. Through revisiting and consolidating these processes, children will build on prior knowledge to develop new skills and challenges. Teachers will consider the needs and interests of each cohort to ensure they are planning learning experiences that will enable the children to learn skills and knowledge that will enthuse and help them to understand more securely at the appropriate level all about their world today and the events that have shaped it. Teachers will also use their knowledge of where children are in their learning journey to reinforce the idea of chronology to the children. For example, ‘Last year, you learnt about Vikings, and this year you will be learning about…’

As well as this, children’s understanding of chronology, and their ability to recall different events within historical periods will be reinforced and supported through the implementation of a timeline in each classroom. This will allow children to be able to see how changes happen overtime, and allow them to reflect back both within and beyond their lessons.

The purpose of our Geography and History curriculum is to encourage the children to develop a love of and a natural, passionate sense of enquiry about their environment and the events both within and beyond their living memory. We also want the children to be able to recall significant events in history with an idea of chronology, as well as understanding how history impacts on their environment, as well as the environment beyond their ‘life’ and be able to consider how these events, both past and present have helped  to shape the physical environment. 

We want the children to experience a drive for increasing their own knowledge base through a combination of theory, practical and explorative learning opportunities, which will provide them with a sense of understanding about their world, and their place within the world.

More importantly, we want to ensure that Geography and History is loved by teachers and pupils across school, therefore encouraging them to continue building on this wealth of knowledge and understanding, now and in the future. Impact can also be measured through key questioning skills built into lessons, child-led assessment such as their post-lesson learning journey (road maps) and continual assessment of children's outcomes both per class and across phase.