At Chaddesley Corbett Endowed Primary School, we believe that the study of history is essential for developing well-rounded, knowledgeable, and culturally aware citizens. Through the PKC history curriculum, we aim to ignite our pupils' curiosity about the past, enabling them to make sense of the present and envision a better future. By exploring a diverse range of historical narratives and perspectives, our pupils will develop a deeper understanding of the world they are growing up in, as well as the skills and knowledge to navigate it successfully.
We have chosen to adopt the Primary Knowledge Curriculum (PKC) for History to provide our pupils with a rich, coherent, and ambitious history education. The PKC approach aligns closely with the requirements of the National Curriculum, while also addressing the unique needs and priorities of our school community.
The PKC history curriculum is structured around a narrative approach, allowing pupils to study a wide breadth of historical periods and make meaningful connections between new and previously learned content. This supports the development of a strong, chronological understanding and a growing mental timeline as pupils progress through the school. Crucially, the curriculum includes stories and perspectives of both well-known historical figures and more ordinary people, ensuring our pupils are exposed to a diverse range of experiences and voices. This is particularly important for our school, which has a predominantly white British demographic, as it helps to broaden their understanding of the past and the varied contributions of different peoples and cultures.
Furthermore, the PKC history curriculum is designed to thread substantive concepts, such as society, power, monarchy, democracy, religion, and empire, throughout the different units of study. This allows pupils to develop a deeper, more nuanced understanding of these generative ideas and how they have evolved over time. Alongside this, the curriculum also explicitly focuses on developing pupils' disciplinary knowledge and historical concepts, such as cause, consequence, continuity and change, similarity and difference and historical significance. This is achieved through the use of 'talk tasks,' lesson tasks and 'end of unit assessments' that frame enquiry questions, encouraging pupils to engage with and apply these important historical skills.
We aim to ignite children’s love for history through our carefully sequenced curriculum and prepare them with the essential knowledge and skills they need to study Key Stage 3 and beyond.