St Vincent's Catholic Primary School

“Caritas Christi Urget Nos –

The love of Christ urges us to care for each other and strive for excellence in everything we do.”

History and Geography

History and Geography

History and Geography Intent

Geography

Our intention is that all young Vincentians will experience success as a geographer through our Project Based Learning (PBL) approach responding to a driving question. These projects are directly linked to our Vincentian Values.

Geography gives the children an opportunity to explore and investigate questions in order to understand the world they live in. PBL and cross curricular links with Geography inspire curiosity in their learning and fascination about the world and its people.

St Vincent’s aim is to equip our children with Geographical skills and knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. As our children progress, they will develop a contextual knowledge of place, of seas and oceans including defining physical and human characteristics. Their growing knowledge about the world and geographical skills should help them to deepen their understanding of the interaction between Physical and Human features/processes, and of the formation and use of landscapes and environments. Fieldwork is integral to involving pupils in practical geographical research and enquiry.

History

Our intention is that all young Vincentians will experience success as a historian through a cross curricular way through our Project Based Learning (PBL) approach responding to a driving question. These projects are directly linked to our Vincentian Values. History helps children as they progress through school to understand the world in which they live, in the context of both the past and the present, as well as develop our children into educated global citizens for the modern 21st Century world.

History helps our pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time. It also links with spiritual, moral, social and cultural development e.g. child labour in Victorian Britain, significance of Remembrance Day as part of World War II.

The Historical skills developed include enquiry (asking questions), critical thinking, weighing evidence, sifting through arguments, and allowing children to develop their wider perspective and judgement. They will also learn and understand about placing events and people from the past in chronological order, summarising events from periods of history and elaborating on what happened – enriching their knowledge of the past.

The study of history builds on their prior learning, involves engaging pupils in investigating questions about people and events in the past, in order to enable them to better understand their lives today, and to prepare them for their future – building a sense of interconnectedness, interdependency, belonging, empathy, solidarity, diversity and responsibility.

Geography National Curriculum Objectives

Click link above to download a copy of the Department of Education's Geography national curriculum objectives.

History National Curriculum Objectives

Click link above to download a copy of the Department of Education's History national curriculum objectives.

Skills Progression

Geography Curriculum Map 2023-24
History Curriculum Map 2023-24

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Curriculum Intent

At St Vincent’s it is our INTENT is to enable ALL children to thrive through the opportunities we provide them with, in order to:

  • Live their lives by the Gospel and Vincentian values instilled in them at school.
  • Understand that everyone has the right and responsibility to live in our world constructively and ensure that we leave it in a better state than when we entered it by living and working through the principles of Catholic Social Teaching in line with the UNCRC (United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child)
  • Experience creativity across the curriculum through specialist art and dance lessons and opportunities to take part in art, music, dance and creative writing competitions.
  • Know the joy of outdoor learning, the rich biodiversity within our school grounds and locality and develop a responsibility for the environment we share as stewards.
  • Understand their place in the world, globally and locally, knowing the history of our school, Mill Hill and the Daughters of Charity and knowing where our diverse community members have their roots across the world.
  • Be ready and well-prepared for their next steps in life, having high aspirations for themselves and for others because they have experienced success and a belief in learning from mistakes.
  • Have a life-long curiosity, stimulated by the driving questions of Project Based Learning approach to the curriculum fostering inquiry and independent learning skills, which give confidence to ask big questions about the world.
  • Be literate and numerate having experienced a rich variety of texts to stimulate and excite the mind while developing skills in investigating and problem solving to enable them to excel in their future passions.
  • Be confident and happy young people that have a broad understanding and tolerance of the world and others around them with excellent communication skills honed by their experience of Restorative Justice and respect of the dignity and wishes of the individual.

Curriculum Context

St Vincent’s is a 1.5 form entry school with 285 children ranging from 4 -11. Children come predominantly from the parishes of Sacred Heart in Mill Hill and St Anthony’s in Edgware.

Children come from a diverse range of socio-economic backgrounds, speak 17 different languages and hail from 26 different ethnic groups. The curriculum we present, and promote, to the children is an endeavour to reflect these differences by providing opportunities to explore the different countries, languages and customs our children are part of through the projects they investigate. We have looked closely at the context of our school, the backgrounds of the children and how life is for a child growing up in North London today. We have used the underlying principles of our Catholic Faith and the example of our namesake St Vincent to create a set of values which lie at the heart of our curriculum.

We are aware of the changing nature of society and the pressures faced by young children as they enter the next stage of their education. The rise in Mental Health related issues has been widely documented across the media. Therefore, issues such as internet safety and the enormous impact across society of social media are at the forefront of our minds when planning our curriculum. With the current worldwide concerns relating to Covid 19, racial justice, equality and diversity, as well as gender and economic background, we feel it is our duty to prepare the children through a concerted focus on building independence, resilience and communication skills linked to our Vincentian Values.