History
Intent
No subject, country or society can be understood without its history. History provides the powerful narrative of human development, it offers structure and clarity about why the world is the way it is, why the institutions and ideas that shape our society have developed and who the people are that have both shaped it and been shaped by these forces. History is complex, challenging and engaging.? We take an active and critical role to developing historians. We aim to develop students’ understanding of chronology, giving them a chance to gain a sense of historical eras, assessing what changes have taken place through time and identifying the factors that have influenced these changes.
Enquiry Questions will be used throughout to challenge and ignite curiosity. The discipline of history itself must be embedded throughout the curriculum so that students can both identify history is a construct and construct it for themselves.?Students will be able to write well organised and knowledge rich arguments. They will analyse, interpret and evaluate historical sources as part of an investigation. Through KS3 they will be exposed to different interpretations of the past and in doing so develop their confidence in constructing their own interpretations of events studied allowing them to engage actively in historical debate.
We will create successful learners who are confident, critically enquiring and ambitious by ensuring lessons are challenging, engaging and historically ambitious. We want to create a community of people with a love for learning, a critical understanding of the world and a continuing interest in history.
Key Stage 3
Students have 2 lessons of History each week. Each year is split into six units of study, lasting for 6-7 weeks. All units are assed with extended written work in class and an end of unit key knowledge test.
Year 7
- Did the Normans really bring a truckload of trouble?
- What mattered to Medieval People?
- How should we remember? the Tudors??Religion? Conflict? Blood? Glory??
- ‘A desperate disease requires a dangerous remedy.’? Why was 16-17th?Century a dangerous time to be a Monarch??
- Why was the Civil War so shocking?
- Tea and Sugar/Slavery and Empire: What was the human cost of a cuppa?
Year 8
- How dangerous was life during the Industrial Revolution?
- Why were so many immigrants accused of being Jack the Ripper?
- How revolutionary was the French Revolution?
- What was it like to fight in the First World War?
- Were the Suffragettes Terrorists?
- What was the experience of war for civilians?
Year 9
- Why did the Nazis rise to power?
- How and Why did the Holocaust Happen?
- How similar were Britain and Americas struggles for Civil Rights?
- Why did the U.S. lose in Vietnam?
- What happened at Chernobyl in 1986? Why did the accident take place?
- Why was September 11thso shocking?
Key Stage 4
Our students follow OCR History Schools History Project for their GCSE
These are examined at the end of Year 11 over 3 papers – as listed below:
Paper 1: 1 hour, 50 minute examination
- Thematic Study: Crime and punishment, c1250 to present - Three main issues are addressed through the content: 1. The nature and extent of crime. 2. The enforcement of law and order. 3. The punishment of offenders. All three topics start in the Medieval period and go through to the present.
- British Depth Study: The Norman Conquest 1065 - 1087 - The content of this unit takes the student from before the invasion to the establishment of Norman control. Areas of focus include Anglo-Saxon England, invasion, resistance, castles and control.
Paper 2: 1 hour examination
- History around us - Students will undertake a site visit at Coldharbour Mill. They will study the mill's role in the local/national economy, it's rise and fall, working conditions and typicality.
Paper 3: 1 hour, 50 minute examination
- Period Study: The making of America 1789-1900 - Students study American expansion 1789 - 1838, the west 1839 - 1860, civil war and reconstruction 1861 - 1871, conflict 1861 - 1877, American culture.
- World Depth Study: Living under Nazi rule 1933 - 1945 - Students will look at dictatorship, control and opposition, changing lives 1933 - 1939, Germany at war, occupation.
Each unit carries 20% of the total marks and is assessed by an external exam.
Assessment objectives:
A01 Knowledge and understanding
A02 Explain and analyse
A03 Analyse, evaluate and use sources
A04 Analyse, evaluate and make substantial judgements about interpretations, how and why they might differ.
Specification details can be found on the OCR website:
GCSE - History B (Schools History Project) (9-1) - J411 (from 2016) - OCR
Extra Curricular
Each week Year 7 and 8 students are invited to join the History department to solve some History Mysteries.
In Year 7 we run a Joint History and Geography trip to Chepstow Castle.
Students who opt for History at GCSE will have the opportunity to go on the following trips:
A two-night trip to Nottingham: Students stay on the University campus and from there they visit the National Holocaust Centre, The Galleries of Justice with a visit to a Tamworth Castle on the way home.
A trip to Berlin: Including a visit to The Reichstag, The Holocaust Memorial site, The Berlin Wall memorial and Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp
Useful Links
GCSE - History B (Schools History Project) (9-1) - J411 (from 2016) - OCR
Spartacus Educational (spartacus-educational.com)
Support Available
Watch good historical documentaries together, and discuss what you have watched. Follow the news and current events. Find out what they are doing at the moment, read their books, help them with presentation and organisation of their work. Visit historical sites. Quiz them using their Knowledge Organisers