“We are not makers of history. We are made by history.”
Martin Luther King, Jr.

Why we teach your child history:

Each of us and the areas in which we live are defined by events of the past. Studying history helps us to understand how those events made things the way that they are today. It enables us to better perceive not only our lives, but the lives of others as well. We have each been sculpted by the decisions of governments who were in power decades or centuries before we were born. The education we receive, the housing choices available to us, the street names that surround us; we are who we are because of our past.

What our curriculum looks like:

The study of the past - learning about people, places, events and changes.

PRINCIPLES

CUSP History draws upon prior learning, wherever the content is taught. For example, in the EYFS, pupils may learn about the past and present through daily activities, exploring through change, and understanding more about the lives of others through books and visitors as well as their own experiences. These experiences are drawn upon and used to position new learning in KS1.

The structure is built around the principles of advancing cumulative knowledge, chronology, change through cause and consequence, as well as making connections within and throughout periods of time studied. CUSP History is planned so that the retention of knowledge is much more than just ‘in the moment knowledge’.

The cumulative nature of the curriculum is made memorable by the implementation of Bjork’s desirable difficulties, including retrieval and spaced retrieval practice, word building and deliberate practice tasks. This powerful interrelationship between structure and research-led practice is designed to increase substantive knowledge and accelerate learning within and between study modules. That means the foundational knowledge of the curriculum is positioned to ease the load on the working memory: new content is connected to prior learning.

The effect of this cumulative model supports opportunities for children to associate and connect with significant periods of time, people, places and events. CUSP History strategically incorporates a range of modules that revisit, elaborate and sophisticate key concepts, events, people and places.

A guiding principle of CUSP History is that pupils become ‘more expert’ with each study and grow an ever-broadening and coherent mental timeline. This guards against superficial, disconnected and fragmented understanding of the past. Specific and associated historical vocabulary is planned sequentially and cumulatively from Year 1 to Year 6. High-frequency, multiple meaning words (Tier 2) are taught alongside and help make sense of subject specific words (Tier 3). Each learning module in history has a vocabulary module with teacher guidance, tasks and resources.

Substantive knowledge - this is the subject knowledge and explicit vocabulary used about the past. Common misconceptions are explicitly revealed as non-examples and positioned against known and accurate content. Misconceptions are challenged carefully and in the context of the substantive and disciplinary knowledge.

CUSP have defined substantive concepts that are the suggested vehicle to connect the substantive knowledge. These are defined at the start of every study in the Big Idea.

Disciplinary knowledge – this is the use of that knowledge and how children construct understanding through historical claims, arguments and accounts. CUSP call it ‘Working Historically.’ The features of thinking historically may involve significance, evidence, continuity and change, cause and consequence, historical perspective and contextual interpretation. 

• How do historians learn about the past?
• What are the consequences of historical events and how does it impact modern life?
• How can pupils secure a ‘mental timeline’ of the past?
• How do pupils build their understanding of the concepts, such as change and continuity, cause and chronology?
• Are we enabling children to remember what is most important?
• How does our EYFS learning set the foundation for history?
• Are children exposed to a wide range of texts and other sources to develop their knowledge of the past?

How you can help your child at home:

EYFS and Key Stage 1

• Talk with your child about things being in the past, present and future
• Help your child to recognise changes between the present and the past (around your local area, at the seaside, at school etc)
• Encourage your child to put things into chronological order – “first you had breakfast, then you went to school, next you did your learning, after that you came home, and finally it’s now time for bed.”
• Visit the London Transport Museum and discuss how vehicles have changed over time https://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/
• Look around the Great Fire of London gallery at the Museum of London https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/museum-london/great-fire
• Walk around areas with castles and palaces in London - Hampton Court Palace, The Tower of London, Kensington Palace, Buckingham Palace
• Observe some of the ways our homes have changed over the past 400 years at Museum of the Home https://www.museumofthehome.org.uk/

Key Stage 2

• Visit the British Museum and marvel at the Parthenon Sculptures in the Ancient Greece gallery https://www.britishmuseum.org/
• See a section of original Roman Wall in London https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/london-wall/
• Walk around an original Roman Amphitheatre in London https://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/attractions-museums-entertainment/londons-roman-amphitheatre
• Explore some of the Ancient Egypt collection at the Horniman Museum https://www.horniman.ac.uk/resource/ancient-egypt/
• Find out more about Prehistoric Britain at the Natural History Museum https://www.nhm.ac.uk/
• Discover objects from the ancient Mayan city of Yaxchilán at The British Museum https://www.britishmuseum.org/