Aims
At Minsterley Primary School we believe that learning is a change to long term memory. We intend to create knowledge through spaced repetition and backwards and forwards learning. Our curriculum is built around repeated opportunities to strengthen key concepts. Opportunities are provided to revisit these skills within different historical contexts.
Our History Schema
Our history schema is based around the concepts of Chris Quigley along with the resources of Kapow to support the teaching and learning in this subject.
A subject schema is a way of organising knowledge in a meaningful way; it is an appreciation of how facts are connected and the ways in which they are connected. A schema is distinct from information, which is just isolated facts that have no organisational basis or links. The diagram below shows the difference between information and a schema.
This Curriculum Companion for history helps teachers to help their students form a history schema by:
- using concepts as the basis for the schema
- strengthening the schema with knowledge
- further deepening connections through tasks.
The four threshold concepts in history are:
- Investigate and interpret the past – This concept involves recognising that our understanding of the past comes from an interpretation of the available evidence.
- Build an overview of world history – This concept involves an appreciation of the characteristic features of the past and that these features are similar and different across time periods, and an understanding that life is different for different sections of society.
- Understand chronology – This concept involves an understanding of how to chart the passing of time and how some aspects of history happened at similar times in different places.
- Communicate historically – This concept involves using historical vocabulary and techniques to convey information about the past.
