History
History is the study of the past and helps students 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.
Our key purpose in History is to develop students’ understanding of the world around them and of the society that they live in, in order to develop well-rounded and informed global citizens.
Curriculum Aims
Our aim is that students think historically 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. Therefore, the study of History will help to promote students' understanding, respect and tolerance of a range of beliefs, opinions and cultures, both past and present.
Students will gain extensive, relevant knowledge and understanding of the history of Britain, including local contexts, and history of the wider world and an historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding, for example, the connections between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history.
We aim to ensure that our students understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance and engage in historical enquiry to develop as critical and reflective thinkers, with inquisitive minds, asking relevant questions about the past.
We want students to be able to understand and make their own historical claims using a range of sources and to discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed and to learn to think independently and organise and communicate articulately their historical knowledge and understanding in different ways and reach substantiated conclusions.
Curriculum Design
The History curriculum is taught chronologically in order to develop both student sense of major developments and events and understanding of change and continuity over time. The curriculum is designed to be diverse and encourage students to challenge historical narratives by engaging with different historical interpretations, understanding how historians analyse and use source material.
The curriculum spirals substantive core concepts of government, law and order, opposition, religion, economy, social history and empire and migration. These are introduced in Year 7 and revisited throughout the curriculum in increasing levels of complexity, in order to develop students' historical skills, knowledge and understanding over time.
Our curriculum has been designed taking into consideration the Historical Association recommendations, which identify the importance and effectiveness of teachers storytelling to fascinate students about the past and to bring the past to life.
It has also taken into account the Ofsted research review series which identified:
- The need to plan our sequence of teaching for ‘substantive concepts’ and at Key Stage 3 to ensure that these are identified and repeated in a number of different contexts.
- A recommendation that we are planning for diversity and avoid the delivery of a Euro-centric narrative.
- That the chronological approach we take improves students' mental timeline.
Please click the link to view our History Curriculum Year Overview
Future Pathways and Next Steps
Through the study of History we aim to unlock each students' potential and inspire them to achieve excellence by being the best they can be. This can lead to a wide range of future opportunities, some of which include:
University Degrees: Ancient History, Archaeology, Architecture and Anthropology, Classics, History, Law, Politics
Apprenticeships: Curator, Licensed Conveyancer
Careers: Archivist, Genealogist, Librarian, Museum Attendant, Reporter, Political Analyst, Solicitor, Tourist Guide
Students can find out more about the subject and careers above by logging into their Unifrog account at https://www.unifrog.org/sign-in and using the Subject Library and Careers Library tools.