Department: History

Curriculum Intention:

Our key aim is to encourage all our students to develop a life-long passion for history and the lessons it teaches for the future.  To achieve this aim, we take students on a learning journey from Year 7 to Year 13 developing both substantive knowledge (the narrative of history) and the disciplinary concepts which shape the way the content is understood, organised, interpreted and debated.

We want all students to have a big picture understanding of the past into which they can slot a good knowledge of the events of the past.  We want our students to appreciate that history helps us to see why things have happened, how things have changed and how change isn’t always progress.  Ultimately, students should appreciate that history isn’t just the story of events in the past but it is a construct and that people interpret the past based on their own beliefs, views and contexts.  They will realise that history is constructed from contemporary evidence, much of which is unreliable (though still useful).  Students will see things from the eyes of the people in the past and know that different people saw things differently. Also, they should be able to see that ideas and actions of people in the past are in some ways similar but in other ways different to our own. They will learn to write and talk about history with increasing sophistication.

Curriculum Implementation:

• At KS3 History is taught in bespoke enquiries designed and developed ‘in house’.  The enquiry structure at KS3 mimics that of GCSE & A level with each year including depth/period and thematic studies.  Wherever possible there is a local, national and international focus and overall the KS3 curriculum covers history from 1066 to now as outlined in the national Curriculum. Links to the present & to British values are emphasized when appropriate and recent work on the curriculum has ensured our learning reflects the diversity of modern Britain.
• At KS4, students will meet new substantive knowledge and will revisit and develop some areas we have studied at KS3.  Students who opt for History at GCSE will follow OCR GCSE History B (Schools History Project) https://ocr.org.uk/qualifications/gcse/history-b-schools-history-project-j411-from-2016/
• At KS5, students will meet new substantive knowledge and will revisit and develop some areas we studied previously.  We have a thematic approach studying periods where change has been led by the people.  Students who opt for A Level will follow OCR History A https://ocr.org.uk/qualifications/as-and-a-level/history-a-h105-h505-from-2015/

Monitoring and assessing curriculum impact:

• KS3: Students complete a combination of standardised Knowledge tests and assessments at the end of every enquiry (approximately 5 throughout an academic year).
• KS4: Students complete practice questions taken from past exam papers at the end of every enquiry ensuring every question type they will encounter in the final exam has been covered; these are marked against GCSE criteria.  They also complete mock exams in every session provided by the Academy.
• KS5: Students complete practice questions taken from past exam papers at the end of every enquiry ensuring every question type they will encounter in the final exam has been covered; these are marked against A Level criteria. They also complete mock exams in every session provided by the Academy.  The coursework element is completed in class and to support progress, students receive one to one tutorials approximately every 3 weeks.