“I liked making up songs to help us remember key events in Henry VIII’s foreign policy. It was fun and remembering the song means I remember the events!”
“Essay feedback has been thorough and shows me how to improve for next time. The mark scheme is attached and this helps too.”
Along with all subjects, we uphold our School’s Intent, but we are particularly proud of the way we:
- strive to be unapologetically academic
- develop highly literate and knowledgeable students and
- develop depth as well as breadth
These are shown through the range of activities we have on offer in each lesson, where independent and group study are the norm, the focus on use of precise, technical language in each lesson, and our quality of interactions with our students, so that they are able to take responsibility for their own learning behaviour.
Key Stage 3
Our aims are those enshrined in the National Curriculum:
- to know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative
- to know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world
- to understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts
- to gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales.
The curriculum is carefully structured, so that there are progressive levels of challenge and high expectations in each year.
From Year 7, students will undertake a chronological study of British and world history, exploring topics such as the conquest and invasion of the British Isles, medieval realms, Tudor and Stuart England, Empire and Slavery, and protest, conflict, and genocide in the 20th and 21st centuries.
By the end of Year 9 our learners will have developed a coherent knowledge and understanding of important periods and events in British and world history, as well as disciplinary concepts such as significance, cause and consequence and similarity and difference. Students will also have developed their literary skills, demonstrating confidence with source analysis, interpretation and causal reasoning.
Examinations:
Students follow the Edexcel GCSE (9-1) syllabus.
- Paper 1 (Medicine in Britain, c1000 to present) = 1 hour 15 minutes (30%)
- Paper 2 (Cold War, 1941-91 and Early Elizabethan England) = 1 hour 45 minutes (40%)
- Paper 3 (Weimar and Nazi Germany) = 1 hour 20 minutes (25%)
Enrichment Opportunities:
- KS4: Holocaust Awareness Day
Head of Subject - Mr P Jennings
