Rationale

History

Our personalised curriculum allows pupils to experience history through a multi-sensory approach which enables them to develop an awareness of the past. For pupils at the Bridge History is built in on an understanding of personal self and others in the present, near past and near future and beyond. It is about the now, next, before for themselves and those around them. It is taught throughout every day. It is based on what the pupils already know, understand and can do and works on sequential and progressive next steps.

History encourages exploration through emersing pupils in the topic, allowing them to follow their own natural curiosity while exploring artefacts and ask questions when they arise. Practitioners can differentiate objectives by level of support and scaffold next steps. Repetition is encouraged within our bespoke curriculum as a way of helping pupils remember, retain and implement their learning.

Our curriculum gives pupils the opportunity to develop their history skills throughout the school day, through various cross-curricular links, experiencing simple chronology with the use of sequencing, now and next and visual timetables. Pupils are encouraged to recall previous learning and experiences through conversations, questioning and plenary activities.

Geography

At The Bridge School, the Geography curriculum focuses on pupils’ exploring and developing understanding of their own locality. We encourage pupils to explore and make sense of the physical and manmade world around them, to understand its people, places and environments and the interactions between them.

Out Geography curriculum is supported by strong cross curricular links and is taught throughout the day as pupils move between environments around school and within the community. Pupils have access to a wide range of motivating and engaging multi-sensory activities to facilitate their learning and develop their knowledge and confidence in interacting with the world around them. Pupils are also exposed to environments outside of their immediate locality, allowing them to compare geographical features.

Within all geography lessons, pupils consistently have oppurtunities to extend their learning. Practitioners provide differentiated support to promote the development of geographical skills and scaffold pupils’ next steps. Pupils are motivated to use their skills, preparing them for interactions in the community in later life, e.g.  identifying familiar people and places, knowledge of transport and interacting with objects purposefully.  

At The Bridge School, we use bespoke, sequenced, small-step descriptors that outline the key knowledge and skills within History/Geography. These descriptors provide an easy to use, aspirational framework that ensures all pupils make progress in what they know, what they can do and what they can remember.

Across all subjects and at all key stages, the overall intent is that the pupil engages, achieves, and makes the most personal progress they can over time to enable them to have the most fulfilling, enjoyable, and independent life possible.

Programme of Study