History

YEAR 7

POWER & THE PEOPLE: The development of kingship and parliament

The Year 7 curriculum begins with a transition module that introduces students to studying the discipline of History with a focus on key skills such as chronology, evidence and categorisation. We then studying Medieval and Early Modern England with a focus on how power has shifted from Anglo-Saxon and Norman England through the Medieval period to the Wars of the Roses and the Tudors.

YEAR 8

POWER & PERSECUTION: The treatment of people

The Year 8 curriculum allows students to study wider world History. We consider wider world events through the lens of persecution and the treatment of different peoples. We begin by studying the Transatlantic Slave Trade, followed by the abolition movement and then transition into the civil rights movements of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries including African-American civil rights, civil rights in Britain, women’s rights and the Suffragette movement and LGBT+ rights. In Term 3 we begin to look at life in the early 20th century and the First World War.

YEAR 9

POWER & WAR: Conflict & Tension

The Year 9 curriculum allows students to study modern history and recent world events. This begins with the Interwar period following their study of the First World War at the end of Year 8, which includes peace-making, political ideologies and systems (including the Russian Revolution, Fascism in Italy and Nazism in Germany) and the causes of the Second World War. This is then followed with a study of the Second World War and in-depth study of the Holocaust, which allows for comparison with the treatment of people module in Year 8. After Easter in Year 9 we begin to study the History GCSE to allow students a trial period to help guide their decision making when they choose their GCSE options and to support the transition from KS3 to KS4.

There are three assessment points for each year group at KS3. Each of these will include a core knowledge test that will include questions on each area of study up to the assessment point. This is to check factual knowledge and identify areas to build on. The second part of each assessment will be an exam style question that will require students to produce an extended written response. These will cover a variety of different historical skills such as source utility and significance. It is therefore possible that students could perform differently across the assessments depending upon their understanding of these skills. These allow us to formally check their ability to write as historians and their application of knowledge. Assessments will be carried out in line with the school assessment calendar.

We study AQA History for GCSE. There are four modules we study in the two years at GCSE.

Module 1A: Period Study

Germany, 1890-1945: Democracy and Dictatorship

This study focuses on the development of Germany during a turbulent half century of change. It was a period of democracy and dictatorship – the development and collapse of democracy and the rise and fall of Nazism.

Module 1B: Wider World Depth Study

Conflict and Tension: The Inter-War Years, 1918-1939

This study enables students to understand the complex and diverse interests of different individuals and states including the Great Powers. It focuses on the peace-making after the First World War and the causes of the Second World War and seeks to show how and why conflict occurred.

Module 2A: Thematic Study

Britain: Health and the People, c.1000 to the Present Day

This study will enable students to gain an understanding of how medicine and public health developed in Britain over a long period of time. It considers the causes, scale, nature and consequences of short and long term developments, their impact on British society and how they were related to the key features and characteristics of the period in which they took place.

Module 2B: British Depth Study

Elizabethan England, c.1568 to 1603

This study allows students to study in depth the reign of Elizabeth I. The focus is on key aspects of her reign including economic, religious, political, social and cultural changes in this period and arising contemporary and historical controversies.

 As part of this unit students will complete a site study. This changes each year and is selected by AQA. Knowledge of this site will be assessed as an essay question on the exam.

 The forthcoming sites are:

2027 – The Spanish Armada

2028 – Kenilworth Castle

KS4 Assessment

We currently study AQA GCSE History. This is assessed at the end of Year 11 by two exams. Each paper is two hours long and worth 50% each of the final grade.

Each paper is worth 40 marks with an additional 4 marks available for SPaG on Conflict and Health respectively.

Paper 1: Understanding the Modern World – International modules

1A – Germany, 1890 – 1945: Democracy and Dictatorship

1B – Conflict and Tension: The interwar years, 1918 - 1939

Paper 2: Shaping the Nation – British modules

2A – Britain: Health and the People, c.1000 -  present day

2B – Elizabethan England: 1568 - 1603

Throughout KS4, students will regularly practice AQA GCSE questions during lessons and as homework. Core knowledge tests will also be taken at regular intervals in order to ensure frequent opportunities for retrieval and the identification of areas for development. Formal assessments will be completed at the end of each unit of work. During year 10, students will therefore sit papers on Health and Conflict in addition to the mock exams at the end of the year. Year 11 will complete practice papers on Elizabeth and Germany as well as formal mock exams.