The History department aims to inspire students’ curiosity about the past. Our intent is for our learners to develop a comprehensive knowledge and understanding of the wider world and Britain’s past. Lessons focus on developing and consolidating their five key skills across both KS3 and KS4. The key skills are:

• Change and continuity
• Cause and consequence
• Source skill
• Interpretations and representations
• Significance

KS3

At the start of KS3, we build upon and consolidate their historical learning from KS2. Students will extend and deepen their chronological understanding of British, local and world history. 

Students begin their historical learning through a study of public health in time, which introduces students to the five key skills. Other topics covered include Tudors and Reformation; Industrial Revolution; the Slave Trade; Civil Rights; WW1 and WW2; Vietnam.

 Students develop their independence as they progress through a range of historical eras and themes. Their analytical enquiry skills are strengthened using various historical representations and interpretations. These include. Cartoons, pictures, written sources, newspapers and films. Students understand the significance of key events and reflect on change and continuity. 

Through their study of history, students gain the skills to actively participate in our complex and plural society.

 

Edexcel GCSE

This GCSE History course includes both Thematic Studies and Depth Studies. There will be three exams:

• Paper 1:British Thematic Study with Historic Environment (30%)

Medicine in Britain, c1250 –present and The British Sector of the Western Front, 1914-1918: injuries, treatment and the trenches

• Paper 2:British Depth Study and Period Study (40%)

Anglo-Saxon and Norman England, c1060 -88

The American West, c1835 -1895

• Paper 3:Modern Depth Study (30%)

The USA, 1954 -75: Conflict at home and abroad