History

Intent

At Mount Pleasant Primary, we believe that History is essential in helping children understand the world they live in and their place within it. Our curriculum, taught through the CUSP History programme, builds on children’s natural curiosity, encouraging them to ask questions, think critically and make meaningful connections across different periods of time. Through rich historical enquiries—from monarchs and ancient civilisations to the Windrush generation and World War II—children gain a secure understanding of the past and how it influences life today.

Implementation

Our History curriculum is knowledge-rich and carefully sequenced, enabling pupils to develop both substantive knowledge (what happened in the past) and disciplinary knowledge (how historians work). High-quality vocabulary, retrieval practice and explicit teaching of historical concepts (such as continuity and change, cause and consequence and significance) help pupils deepen and retain their understanding.

Every lesson follows a clear learning structure that supports all children to access and engage with the content. Pupils regularly revisit prior learning, strengthening connections and building long-term knowledge. Teachers use assessment for learning to address misconceptions quickly and ensure every child progresses successfully through the curriculum.

Impact

By the time the children leave our school we expect children to have developed:

• A secure knowledge and understanding of people, events and contexts from the historical periods covered.
• A passion for history and an enthusiastic engagement in learning, which develops their sense of curiosity about the past and their understanding of how and why people interpret the past in different ways.
• The ability to consistently support, evaluate and challenge their own and others’ views using detailed, appropriate and accurate historical evidence derived from a range of sources.
• The ability to think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate the past, forming and refining questions and lines of enquiry.
• A respect for historical evidence and the ability to make robust and critical use of it to support their explanations and judgements.

Pupil Voice

• “I think History is an important subject because you learn about the past and use this to make things better in the future.”
• “My favourite topics have been learning about WW2 and Victorians.”
• “I really enjoyed the memorable experience when an Anglo Saxon came to visit us.”
• “I enjoy History because you learn about what other people did and fought for.”
• “I liked learning about important people such as Grace Darling and Ibn Battuta."