Bluecoat Aspley Academy History Intent Statement

The Archway Learning Trust History curriculum is designed to provide a complex and nuanced chronological narrative of English, British, and international histories. As custodians of what we teach our students, we provide a diverse curriculum with ‘windows’ to take students beyond their immediate experience, and ‘mirrors’ so that our students see themselves reflected in the curriculum. The ambitious knowledge-based curriculum is accessed through overarching key enquiries, supported by lesson enquiries with second-order concepts at their core such as change and continuity, cause and consequence, significance, similarity and difference, sources and interpretations. While being ambitious, we want History to be inclusive both in what is taught, as well as how. As such we ensure our lessons are accessible and personalised. We aim to provide a diverse experience through historical scholarship woven throughout each year group, with extended writing opportunities provided for students to deliberately practice their writing, coming from explicit teaching of historical writing. Our ambition is to broaden our historians wider cultural literacy through mini-research opportunities in addition to lessons, while interrogating conflicting and diverse historical interpretations within lessons. Through direct instruction of writing techniques, we aim for students to not only understand the broader narrative in history, but to question, challenge and construct historical arguments rooted in the discipline.

Expand each Key Stage to access the Curriculum Map and see an overview of what is covered in this subject: