Curriculum

History

Intent

The History Department’s intent is to unlock belief in the enjoyment and value of History. We aim to give a learning experience which is varied, challenging, engaging and gives a love for the subject, as well as providing students with the attributes, skills and knowledge of the past to create better future.

Enacting our Vision

We aim to do this through not only source work, but also by encouraging our students’ creativity and activeness by allowing students to illustrate their knowledge through tasks such as role plays, campaigns and speeches. We constantly encourage our students to identify evidence and analyse it in order to evaluate the significance of each event and making judgments – all of which are skills to help our students in the wider world.

YEAR 7

The curriculum is designed to focus on British history, covering each of the historical themes – political, military, social, economic and religious. We focus on the impact each group of settlers made on Britain, and how that effects Britain throughout time, both past and present. In addition to this, students begin to develop key historical skills, such as chronology, inferring, causation, analysing, evaluating, and making and supporting judgements using evidence.

YEAR 8

The Year 8 curriculum is designed to build on key skills students learn in Year 7 and continue in a chronological order. The sequence of topics aims to focus on key events throughout the world and in Britain, such as the Renaissance, the Tudors, Elizabeth I and the Spanish Armada, the British Empire, and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The skills and knowledge accumulated from these topics, such as causation, consequences, explaining the importance, inferring, using evidence, and making and supporting judgements, act as a stepping stone towards the KS4 curriculum in order to make students masters at these skills, as well as providing excellent cross-curricular opportunities with Art, English, Music, RE and Science.

YEAR 9

We aim to give our Year 9 students a breadth of knowledge that they did not receive in Year 8. Students will begin with the Civil Rights Movement in America, the Suffragettes, 20^th century conflict, focusing on WWI, WWII and the Cold War, before concluding the school year with the Holocaust. The Year 9 course is designed to build on the knowledge and skills from Years 7 and 8 as well as create cross-curricular opportunities between English and RE as well as prepare students who wish to continue History at Key Stage 4.

YEAR 10

The Year 10 curriculum is designed with plenty of opportunity for interleaving, building on students’ knowledge and skills from Years 7, 8 and 9. Students begin the course learning about the end of WWI in Germany, how this leads to Hitler's rise to power, and his creation of a dictatorship. As we study WWII in Year 9, we then use this as an opportunity to interleave here before studying the Cold War in detail. This includes its origins, key crises, and how it ends, and makes many links between the past and what is currently happening in the world today. Our course continues to link back to British History as we go on to study Anglo-Saxon society and Norman England. Students use this knowledge to make connections about how this period of history impact English society today.

YEAR 11

In the final year of our KS4 course, Year 11 focuses on the change and continuity of the causes, treatment and prevention of disease and illness from medieval times to present day. Building on students’ Year 8 knowledge of WWI, students will learn about the injuries British soldiers suffered whilst fighting in the First World War, and how they were treated. Students continue to consolidate the key historical skills they’ve been developing since Year 7, and applying them to different historical topics. This content correlates greatly with English, RE and particularly Science, which greatly benefits our students as they realise that no subject is done in isolation.

A-LEVEL HISTORY

Our Sixth Form historians deepen their understanding and knowledge of world events and British history. Our three main topics include In search of the American Dream, apartheid in South Africa – how it was implemented, challenged, and its dissolution – and Britain: gaining and losing an empire. Students will also asked to complete coursework on a particular area of research. Each of these topics build on students’ KS3 and KS4 knowledge of international and British events, as well as allowing students to make a correlation between what they’re studying and what else they know has happened in the world. In addition, students will develop an understanding of how each of these topics effect domestic and international relations today. Throughout this course, students will go on to develop their interpretation and source skills, using evidence, analysing, and evaluation skills, as well as their critical thinking skills. These skills have a strong correlation with other subjects, in particular, but not exclusive to, Law, Psychology, Sociology, and English, as well as aid students in their preparation for university.