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“For with God, everything is possible” (Matthew 19:26)
Through our continued service to our community and rooted in our Christian Values, the opportunities we provide inspire our children and adults at our school to learn, to grow and to flourish. We are committed to developing our children into confident individuals who make a positive difference through developing a respect for themselves, each other and the world around them. For with God, everything is possible. (Matthew 19:26)
The spiritual development of our children is a priority across all areas of the curriculum. At Queen’s Park CE/URC Primary School, we define spirituality as connecting with ourselves, others, the world and God, through whom, everything is possible (Matthew 19:26).
We explore spirituality through our Spiritual Capacities (our Spiritual C’s) which are curiosity, creativity, compassion, captivation, consciousness, being courageous contributors and having opportunities to contemplate.
We understand the importance of both planned and spontaneous opportunities in all aspects of our CROWN Curriculum. This is evidenced in our class reflections book, through ‘spirituality in the spotlight’ and through speaking to our children.
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Challenge
Through the ‘challenge’ curriculum driver we want our children relish challenges that being a historian can bring: asking perceptive questions, thinking critically, weighing evidence, sifting arguments, and developing perspective and judgement.
Resilience
Through the ‘resilience’ curriculum driver, we promote optimism and determination in history. A selection of carefully chosen historical figures are embedded within our history curriculum to promote resilience, including local significant people. Children are encouraged to be resilient when making connections, drawing contrasts, analysing trends and framing historically-valid questions.
Opportunities
Through ‘opportunities’, we raise aspirations to broaden our children’s horizons – opening their eyes to the myriad careers they might pursue. Through careful planning, we have chosen key historical figures local to St Helens so children aspire to be like the great people who have impacted their town. We provide tangible role models to raise our pupils’ aspirations to inspire them to work even harder to be the best that they can be. We want our pupils to have a clear understanding of the link between achieving well and having goals for the future.
Wellbeing
At Queen’s Park, we understand that happiness is linked to personal growth, health and development. We ensure our children are happy, healthy individuals. In history, we ensure children empathise with people from the past and have a profound appreciation for what people in the past have done and how they have impacted modern day society. With ‘wellbeing’ as a curriculum driver, we give children the confidence to thrive in a diverse, global society and be respectful citizens with British and Christian Values at the core.
kNowledge
Through the ‘kNowledge’ curriculum driver, we encourage our children to be resourceful learners. It is uniquely challenging and coherent to our children. The knowledge imparted in history is crafted by our curriculum leader and history subject leader to ensure that all pupils achieve secure subjective and disciplinary knowledge in history. All our teachers teach with the aim to ensure pupils have sufficient knowledge to progress through primary school and beyond.
Being a historian means that disciplinary and substantive knowledge complement each other harmoniously. History disciplines such as understanding chronology, looking at cause and effect, continuity and change etc are high profile within our history curriculum.
Through disciplinary literacy, all children read like historians: reading timelines, sources, quality non-fiction texts. Reading is the ‘beating heart’ of our history curriculum.
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History Long Term Plan
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History is taught three times throughout the year (with the exception of Year 6).
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Progression documents
Our progression documents have been created by the Curriculum Leader and History Subject Leader to ensure clear progress in the three strands of history we focus on at Queen’s Park: chronological understanding, knowledge and interpretation and historic enquiry.
The progression documents show key knowledge (substantive knowledge), key vocabulary and key skills (disciplinary knowledge) and assessment outcomes from EYFS – Year 6.
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Vocabulary is V.I.T.A.L in History
Valued
We value vocabulary in history and in everything we do.
Identified
Historical vocabulary is identified by the history subject leader and is explicitly planned for.
Taught
Vocabulary is explicitly taught in every lesson. Our Crown Planners are used as a teaching tool for key historical vocabulary and the historical medium term plans include additional vocabulary to be taught.
Applied
Once vocabulary is taught, it is applied. Children apply their vocabulary in their speaking and listening, writing and assessment outcomes in history.
Learned
Vocabulary is revisited and relearned. Vocabulary sticks in the children’s long-term memory. Lesson by lesson, year by year, children revisit and relearn key historical vocabulary.
Through an ‘explosion of experiences’, our youngest historians are exposed to the foundations of their history learning. Carefully planned historical knowledge, skills and experiences are provided for our children. High quality books, stories and rhymes are the beating heart of our history curriculum in EYFS. Historical vocabulary is planned for. Staff are role models in demonstrating historical vocabulary and this is further enhanced in our excellent provision. The foundations of history learning in EYFS is linked to Year 1 and beyond.
Year 1 to Year 6
Year on year, children will build upon their historical knowledge, skills and vocabulary. The curriculum leader and history subject leader have created a meaningful, sequential learning journey through history. Careful curriculum thinking and planning ensures that our children have the subject knowledge and components embedded in their long-term memories.
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Pedagogy
Both our staff and children are enthusiastic about history. Through ongoing CPD, we strive to ensure our teachers have expert knowledge of the history they teach. Our pedagogy is firmly based upon our curriculum intent of embedding concepts into long-term memory so that they are able to be recalled, to ensure substantive and disciplinary knowledge and skills can be applied fluently.
Our ‘Queen’s Park Quality First Teaching’ model ensures that lessons are effectively sequenced so that new knowledge and skills build on what has been taught before and towards defined end points.
We firmly believe that all children should have full access, including those with additional needs, to our history curriculum therefore lessons are scaffolded where appropriate in order to meet the needs of all our children.
Both our staff and children are enthusiastic about History. Through ongoing CPD, we strive to ensure our teachers have expert knowledge of the History curriculum they teach. Our pedagogy is firmly based upon our curriculum intent of embedding concepts into long-termmemory so that they are able to be recalled, to ensure substantive and disciplinary knowledge and skills can be applied fluently.
Our ‘Queen’s Park Quality First Teaching’ model ensures that lessons are effectively sequenced so that new knowledge and skills build on what has been taught before and towards defined end points.
At Queen’s Park, we implement an adaptive teaching approach to ensure that all learnersengage in meaningful, challenging, and achievable learning experiences. Our strategy is informed by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) research on adaptive teaching, emphasising high expectations, scaffolded support, and responsive adjustments to meet the needs of all pupils. We ensure effective, early identification of any additional barriers to learning, inclusive of but not restricted to Special Educational Needs, Pupil Premium and EAL. Adaptive teaching is essential to our quality first teaching offer as part of our graduated response.
Our Approach: 80% Proactive, 20% Reactive
We recognise that effective adaptive teaching is most successful when it is intentionally planned in advance (proactive) while also allowing for real-time adjustments (reactive) based on pupil responses and progress. Our model ensures:
80% Proactive Adaptive Teaching: Teachers anticipate and plan for diverse learning needs by designing lessons that provide challenge while being accessible to all. This includes the following:
- Carefully structured tasks that encourage all learners to think hard but remain achievable with time, effort, and support.
- Scaffolded instruction, including modelling, worked examples, and guided practice.
- Strategic use of questioning to check understanding and deepen learning.
- Use of visuals and concrete resources to support learning.
- Scaffolded tasks that enable all children to access the curriculum without lowering expectations.
- Planned opportunities for retrieval throughout the curriculum and where appropriate planned opportunities for pre-teach of new learning.
- Use of accessibility features on iPads to support learning tasks or use of ICT to provide further scaffolding.
- Where necessary, a modified curriculum to ensure full curriculum entitlement for children who are working below the age-related expectations as identified on the SEND register.
20% Reactive Adaptive Teaching: Teachers remain responsive during lessons, adapting in the moment to ensure all learners stay engaged and make progress. This includes:
- Making in-the-moment adjustments, such as providing additional explanations, breaking down tasks further, or offering immediate feedback.
- Using formative assessment strategies to identify and address misconceptions as they arise.
- Adjusting levels of support, such as peer collaboration.
At our school, we believe that with God, everything is possible. We create a caring and exciting learning environment where children are encouraged to be curious, confident, and to believe in themselves.
We use digital technology to help children learn, explore, and prepare for the world around them. By using technology in positive and meaningful ways, we help our children become confident learners who are ready for life in an increasingly digital world. We teach our children how to use technology safely, responsibly, and kindly. This helps them grow into respectful digital citizens who understand how to make good choices online and treat others with care.
Our aim is to give every child the skills they need for the future. Technology supports our teaching, helping us to personalise learning and provide extra support where needed. It is always used to enhance learning and never replaces high-quality teaching or the important relationships between teachers and children.
We also use technology to make learning accessible for all children, supporting different learning needs and helping every child to find their voice. By building confidence, communication skills, and independence, we prepare our children to become lifelong learners who are ready to face future challenges.
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The sequence of lessons across history follows the same structure:
Each lesson, within the sequence, follows the structure so prior knowledge is constantly revisited and transferred to long term memory.
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We understand that we may not see the true impact of our history curriculum on our children as our history curriculum is just the beginning of a lifetime of learning.
Our well-constructed and well-taught history curriculum leads to great outcomes. Our results are a reflection of what our children have learnt. At Queen’s Park, our philosophy is that broad and balanced leads to great outcomes and meeting end points at the end of each key stage. National assessments are useful indicators of the outcomes our children achieve.
We ensure all groups of children are given the knowledge and cultural capital they need to succeed in life. We strive to ensure that our children are equipped with the skills (through a growth mindset approach) to fluently be able to retrieve key facts from their semantic memory.
The quality of our children’s work, at every stage, is of a high standard. All learning is built towards an end point and at each stage of their education, we prepare our children for the next stage.
We ensure all our children read to a stage appropriate level and fluency. Reading is the beating heart of our history curriculum. Through disciplinary literacy in history lessons, the impact of reading on the children’s historical learning is paramount.
The impact of Queen’s Park history curriculum is measured through the following:
- Assessment at the end of each unit of work
- Vocabulary and knowledge are assessed at the end of each lesson and at the end of each sequence
- Pupil voice
- Progress evident in children’s books and record of experiences
- Seeking views of parents where appropriate
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