History

The purpose of History is to engage young minds in the art of discernment and discrimination of evidence that encourages understanding of differing interpretations that exist about specific events.

History is designed to Build up and inform the character of students, through understanding how diverse societies have been treated in the past in order to understand today and predict our future. To create a living history, that identifies social justice issues and understands this in the context of local, British and international societies.

Students will engage in making valid historical claims by critically reflecting on a variety of different enquires through asking questions about the validity of sources communicating this understanding in a variety of ways that shows academic rigour.

Our Motif in History is – to question everything!

KS3 History

Purpose of KS3

KS3 is designed to build upon the key skills and knowledge taught at KS2. To ensure a foundational grounding and understanding of key historical second order concepts, such as chronology, change and continuity, cause and consequence, significance, source inference and evaluation.

St Mary’s History team will ensure a broad and balanced range of history that is local, British, European and world focussed. Units will cover depth studies, thematic and developmental foci; thus reflecting how GCSE teaching is composed.

Our final unit in Year 7 is a combined unit with RS and Geography, thus showing the interconnectedness of Humanities as a discipline.

Year 7:

Students will understand the link between the politics and the church, grappling with the fragmented relationship from Medieval to Tudor England. They will focus on the big picture in this relationship and analyse how this changed.

Year 7 is the foundation year; therefore the year is designed specifically to build upon what has already been taught at primary level, ensuring that understanding is instilled and recounted whilst providing more complex reading and expectations of writing.

Students will be expected to arrive at St Marys with a basic understanding of the Norman Conquest. If your child’s primary school has not undertaken any work on this aspect of History, they can access the summer project HERE.

The concept of monarchy and its relationship with subjects and church sets the scene for the remainder of the year with an emphasis later in the year on how this relationship impacted society.

	Curriculum Content	Potential Assessment Opportunities
Autumn Half Term 1 & 2 Spring Term 1	The Impact of the Norman invasion William I’s methods of control inclusive of the: · Feudal system · Castle building · Fear and Terror · The Norman Church Power Relationships in the Later Middle Ages · The anarchy · Henry II and Thomas Becket · King John Impacts · The Crusades · The Black Death	‘William controlled England through terror’ How far do you agree with this statement?
Spring Half Term 4 & Summer Term 1	Power Relationships in the Early Modern Period: · Henry VII and the barons · Henry VIII and the Church · Edward VI and Mary I · Elizabeth I Impacts · The reformation in Europe · The Spanish Armada	Explain the causes of the Henrican reformation
Summer Term 2	Independent Local Study Significance of London Importance of Hertfordshire throughout History from Saxons to today Key historical events from the borough such as peasants revolt, black death and the impact of war. Key events in Cheshunt’s history	What is the history of our locality? Why has London and our locality changed over time? What key events shaped our local area?

Year 8:

The concept of change continues into year 8, and students will examine the nature of significance, focussing on key turning points of revolutionary ideas and concepts that has arisen throughout history within Britain and the wider world. With the first revolutionary turning point focussing on the breakdown of the relationship between monarch and parliament during the Stuart reign there is a continuity of progression from year 7 highlighting how the nature of power has been challenged.

Since revolutionary moments are vital to understanding how History has moved forward, a range of different types of revolutions from political to industrial to social will be examined this year.

Curriculum Content

Possible Assessment Opportunities

Autumn Half Term 1

The Stuarts

· Causes of the civil war

· The protectorate

· Restoration

· Glorious revolution

How useful are sources to understand the impact of the civil war on English society?

“Nothing really changed in in England by 1688?” – Do you agree?

Autumn Half Term 2

The Industrial Revolution

· How did Britain become an industrial country?

· Problems of industrialisation?

· Children and industrialisation

· How did people react to industrialisation?

How far did the treatment of children change between the years 1800-1900?

Spring

Half Term 3

The Industrial Revolution (continued)

· Political protest of the working classes

· Peterloo massacre

· Heroes of public health

How useful are sources to understand the industrial revolution?

Spring

Half Term 4

Protest/social justice movements

· Suffragettes/ suffragists

· Women’s liberation

· Civil rights

· Protests of British black communities

· LGBT rights and Stonewall

Why did the franchise change during the late 19^th Century and early 20^th Century?

How did women gain the vote?

How did women gain equal work and social rights?

How did Black people gain civil rights?

How did the Stonewall riots lead to the improvement of LGBT rights?

Summer Term

Revolutions

· The French Revolution

· The American revolution

· The Russian revolution

· The Cuban revolution

What does social justice mean to you?

Why do people revolt?

What are the causes of revolutions

What is the impact of revolutions?

Year 9:

Change in year 9 will focus on the issue of diversity through the use of thematic studies that covers a range of ages and aspects of society. Linked to the thematic study is a historic environment that examines the relationship of an event to its relationship to developments of historical events.

Students will focus on examining how history is studied. Year 9 students are expected to leave the key stage grappling with the idea that history is not objective. Historiography is explicitly taught in order to understand how and why different histories are written and how historians provide different perspectives of the same historical event, concept or source.

Curriculum Content

Potential Assessment Opportunities

Autumn Half Term 1

African History

1. African empires

· Great African empires such as Benin, Kush and Aksum.

· Mali and Mansa Musa

· Great Zimbabwe

2. Conquest

· Roman conquest of Northern Africa countries

· Islamic conquest

· European conquest and the impact of slavery.

3. Independence

· African nationalism

· Algerian independence

· Apartheid

· Why are African histories forgotten?

· What is the difference between the different types of conquest of the African continent?

Autumn Half Term 2

Diversity and Immigration (1066-present)

· Jewish communities and the expulsion of them.

· Huguenots

· Egyptian act

· Early African migration

· Slave trade

· The Irish migration

· Italian and German immigration

· 19^th Century Jewish migration from Russia

· Empire Windrush

· Civil rights in the UK

· Immigration today

· Brexit

· Explain why there is migration to the UK?

· Did all migrant groups have the same experience when they arrive in the UK?

Spring

Half Term 3

20^th Century warfare

· The nature of warfare to 1945

· The impact of technology to 1945

· The battle of the Somme

· Was Haig the butcher of the Somme?

Spring

Half Term 4

· The nature of warfare post 1945

· The Iraq war

· The experiences of warfare in the 20^th Century

· Experiences of Black civilians and soldiers during wartime

· The Vietnam war

· Warfare has only changed over the 20^th Century because of technology?

Summer Half Term 5

Genocide

· Identifying features of genocide

· The Holocaust – the road to the holocaust.

· Impact on the holocaust on individual lives.

· Rwanda

· Was the holocaust inevitable?

· What is the impact of mass genocide?

Summer Half Term 6

Year 10 Timetable

Students will begin their first GCSE unit – Anglo-Saxon Norman England

· Types of groups In Anglo-Saxon society

· Power of the king

· Power of Earldoms

· Local government

· The legal system

· Influence of the church

· House of Godwin

· Rising against earl Tostig

Skills Learnt

Students learn communication skills, working collaboratively as part of a group as well as engaging in paired tasks. Other skills taught include the ability to construct an argument and debate a point, as well as how to analyse a source, describing its content and making detailed inferences from the source. History also provides students with the opportunity to develop their literacy skills such as essay writing, writing in a persuasive manner and developing empathy skills.

Homework/Extended Learning

Students will be set fortnightly homework whereby activities will include written tasks, research, creative thinking and presentations. Literacy based homework will be set to complement the written tasks to widen reading and comprehension skills

KS4 History

Our Curriculum

Students will be able to build on skills and understanding already taught at Key Stage 3 that allow them to critically evaluate interpretations of the past, assess sources and show detailed explanations. Students are expected to become independent learners as critical and reflective learners.

Students follow the Edexcel syllabus.

Our intent is for students to:

Develop their knowledge and analysis of key events, periods and societies in local, British, and wider world history. (AO1)
Organise and communicate their historical knowledge and understanding to reach judgements about events. (AO2)
To ask relevant questions about contemporary sources, investigating their provenance to form judgements about their usefulness (AO3)
To understand how and why different interpretations have been constructed about them (AO4)

The following are taught at St Mary’s:

Year 10

Anglo Saxon and Norman England C1066-88
Crime and Punishment in Britain C1000-present day and Whitechapel C1870-1900; crime, policing and the inner city;

Year 11

Weimar and Nazi Germany 1918-39
The Cold war, 1944 – 1990,

Skills and Progression Routes

On completion of the course, students will have developed a number of skills including

Forming opinions and understanding the opinions of others
Debating issues and current affairs
Analysing source
Discussing key issues relevant to the world of today
Undertaking independent research
Forming arguments

By studying History at GCSE level you can go further at A level and then to degree level. History opens a variety of doors due to the complex nature of the skills you develop which are welcomed in a large number of professions and careers, for example:

Additional Information

The new specification does not have any coursework and therefore there are 3 written exams to be taken at the end of Year 11. At the time of study students will have access to the relevant text books although this will only be accessible during lesson time. Should students wish to purchase text books and revision guides to use at home then these can be ordered at the start to the course.

KS5 History

History GCE | AQA

History A Level is a 2 year course that enables students to study British and non-British history across a wide chronological range thereby enhancing their understanding of key historical concepts. Alongside the content to be delivered, the History A Level also enables students to produce independent research that will provide an important and necessary springboard for University education.

Component 1 – The Stuarts, England 1603 – 1714:

Students will learn about the reign of James I, moving on to Charles I.
Themes will be explored in detail relating to the changes in religion, foreign policy, domestic disputes and the security of the realm.
Within Year 13 students will continue chronologically by examining the historical interpretations of the idea of a “restoration”, the reigns of Charles II and James II.
Finally students will examine the Glorious revolution and the dissolution of the Stuart dynasty.

Component 2 – Democracy and Nazism; Germany 1918 – 1945:

This is a depth study where students will look at the impact that WW1 had on Germany and the resultant government that ensued following the abdication of the Kaiser.
The newly established Weimar government will be evaluated in terms of its merits and failures and then discussions will be had on the idea that it was the inherent weaknesses to the democratic experiment that paved the way for Nazism.
Within Year 13 students will investigate in detail the Nazi reign, building on content already covered at GCSE level.

Component 3: Historical Investigation.

This part of the course enables students to develop their independent investigation techniques – a valuable tool for post 16 study.

Students will be provided with a number of topics to research and they will then produce an argumentative and evaluative piece of work that shows a critique of differing academic views on the chosen topic.

Assessment

Component 1: Written examination (40%)
Component 2: Written examination (40%)
Component 3: Coursework (20%)

Progression Routes

The study of History as an academic discipline provides a wealth of tools and skills that will be of great benefit both for further academic study in any subject as well as to future employers. Through the study of history students become adept at critical thinking, research, evaluative thought and writing, debate and complex thought. It is these tools, rather than the content that they will be studying that ensure History is regarded as a valuable and desirable A Level qualification to have.

Potential areas of employment that welcome history students include:

Additional Information

Students will be provided with one core text book for both units 1 and 2. However, students are encouraged to purchase / borrow supplementary texts that will broaden their knowledge and understanding.

Students will require 5 GCSEs at grade C or equivalent, to include History and English. However, students who have achieved GCSE grade B in History will be better prepared to meet the course demands

History

The purpose of History is to engage young minds in the art of discernment and discrimination of evidence that encourages understanding of differing interpretations that exist about specific events.

KS3 History

Year 7:

Year 8:

Year 9:

Skills Learnt

Homework/Extended Learning

KS4 History

Our Curriculum

Skills and Progression Routes

Additional Information

History GCE | AQA

Assessment

Progression Routes

Additional Information

Latest News

Useful Links

Christian Ethos

Get In Touch