Higham Lane North Academy
History
The History Curriculum at Higham Lane North Academy
At HLNA, our ambitious curriculum in history is designed to ensure that students know more, remember more and can do more in history over time. We understand learning as a change in long-term memory, and therefore our history curriculum is carefully sequenced and deliberately structured to secure knowledge so that it is retained and applied with confidence.
A central principle of our approach is the management of cognitive load. By presenting new material in history explicitly, modelling thinking clearly, and breaking learning into manageable components, we ensure that students can focus on what matters most. This enables learning to be both accessible and memorable.
Our classroom practice in history is underpinned by consistent and explicit routines that support long-term retention. Knowledge booklets promote equity and entitlement: every student has access to the most powerful knowledge within history. These booklets enable students to pre-learn, revisit and over-learn key content, strengthening retrieval and embedding learning securely in long-term memory.
Every history lesson begins with structured retrieval practice to activate prior knowledge and strengthen memory pathways. History resources are organised consistently to reduce extraneous cognitive load, allowing students to focus on learning rather than process. Oracy routines are embedded to ensure that students can articulate ideas clearly, use subject-specific vocabulary in history precisely, and engage in purposeful academic discussion.
We use dual coding and carefully designed, dyslexia-friendly visual materials in history to enhance clarity and accessibility. Whole-class reading routines ensure that all students engage with ambitious texts, while explicit vocabulary instruction builds disciplinary fluency. Our ‘green pens for growth’ routine ensures that students actively respond to feedback in every lesson, promoting reflection and improvement.
Formative assessment in history is continuous and responsive. Daily questioning, low-stakes quizzing and structured checks for understanding enable teachers to identify misconceptions and adapt teaching accordingly. Whole-class feedback strategies support self and peer assessment, fostering independence while maintaining high expectations.
Alongside regular summative assessments in history, synoptic assessments are built into every year group to evaluate cumulative knowledge. This ensures that learning is not episodic but enduring. Through systematic retrieval over time, we minimise cognitive overload and maximise the likelihood that students remember and can apply what they have learned.
As a result, our history curriculum is coherent, knowledge-rich and carefully sequenced — ensuring that all students make strong progress and are fully prepared for the next stage of their education.
At HLNA, everyone is included and everyone belongs. This commitment is reflected in our inclusive classroom practice in history, where all students are supported, challenged and valued as learners. We create an environment in history where diversity is respected, barriers to learning are reduced, and every student has the opportunity to succeed.
Our values are lived out daily through our students, who strive to be conscientious, compassionate and confident in all aspects of their learning in history. These qualities underpin our culture of high expectations and mutual respect within our history classrooms. We are proud of our environment in history because we always do what is right — demonstrating integrity, responsibility and care for one another in both our learning and with each other.
Over time in history, students will learn about Britain at home through looking at how different civilisations brought new inventions to Britain, such as the Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. Students will then move on to looking at Britain abroad in year eight, focusing on how Britain built their empire and what that meant for the wider world with key focuses being placed on Africa, Australia and India. We will use this to then build a focus on how the landscape of the world changed with countries building their empires and the tension this creates, leading us into World War One, the inter-war years, World War Two and finally the Cold War.
In history, students will be able to improve their oracy skills through debating topics, allowing this to then provide them a platform to turn this into written communication whilst also obtaining the subject specific terminology. They will explore how to analyse sources, make weighted judgements and challenge different interpretations.
Our ambitious curriculum provides so much ambitious enrichment. For instance, the Remembrance Day services, Holocaust memorial lessons, Black history month focus, competitions (internal and external) and with lots of trips planned, starting with our visit to Birmingham museum in co-ordination with geography.
There are so many careers that are linked to our subject that we discuss throughout Key Stage Three, and these include law, journalism, politicians, teaching, lecturing. Many of these links are made explicit in lessons but also by visitors presenting their own career journeys.
Mr Callum Froome
Curriculum Leader for History
Please find below the curriculum maps for the following subject. The map provides an overview of the key topics, skills, and learning objectives covered throughout the academic year, helping students and parents understand the progression of learning within each subject area.
