At Our Lady’s Catholic Primary School, History and Geography is taught through the Creative Curriculum; this means that areas of study are taught within contextual situations and children can apply a variety skills when finding solutions to questions posed in lessons. We try to make the Creative Curriculum meaningful and contextual which brings situations and events to life and makes experiences, concepts and dates memorable. The children are also given opportunities to carry out investigations where they need to research and evaluate evidence. They use and develop critical thinking skills in these contexts and are able to produce reports or viewpoints about different events and contexts. Furthermore, pupil learning champions support the curriculum throughout the year by working with the subject leader on school improvement.
Each class works on their question led topic for a week at the start of term, five times a year. This allows them to become highly immersed and engaged in the topic and also gives them the opportunity to understand the topic and concepts at a deeper or mastery level. We use Thinking Actively in a Social Context (TASC) and; Build a Team when teaching the Creative Curriculum. TASC provides the children with a structure to approach issues and problems posed within lessons. The TASC wheel helps them to research design, refine, share and evaluate their work. Build a Team teaches the children to critically appraise a problem and then assemble a team which would have the necessary skills to build a solution.
The Creative Curriculum is therefore designed to develop knowledge and skills that are progressive in both History and Geography, as well as transferable giving children an understanding of our ever changing world and their role within it.
At Our Lady’s, we develop the following essential characteristics of geographers:
At Our Lady’s, we develop the following essential characteristics of historians: