Aim

• The History curriculum is relevant to our diverse range of students and provides opportunities to enhance their access to cultural capital so that all students can join in the conversation
• Students should be able to ‘see themselves’ in the curriculum, while also building their knowledge and understanding of a diverse past that takes them into the unfamiliar
• We aim to develop curious historians who are increasingly able to work independently to critically think about the past in order to develop a better understanding of the present
• To enable this, students study a knowledge-rich curriculum which includes a range of breadth and depth enquiries from local, national and global perspectives
• Enquiries are challenging and rooted in academic historical scholarship, with the role of the historian at the centre of the student’s learning
• To make this happen, all staff are engaged with contemporary debates in the professional community and keep up to date with a range of scholarly reading
• A process of reflection underpins everything that we do. Our curriculum is constantly under evaluation and is never complete

Topics covered

• What mattered in the reign of Edward VII?
• How did the world go to war in 1914?
• What do the experiences of KES soldiers reveal about WWI?
• How does Orlando Figes reconstruct life in Stalin’s Russia?
• Why were so many people ruled by fascist dictators in C20th Europe?
• How did Gottlieb explore what permacrisis might have felt like in 1938?
• How did different people experience the Second World War?
• Why is testimony a useful source for understanding the Holocaust?
• Why was 1947 such a significant year in the history of the Indian subcontinent?
• What does Rainbow City tell us about race relations in sixties Britain?

Teaching groups

Students are taught in form groups once or twice per week, depending on which half of the year they are in. Forms who study History once per week in Year 8 will study it twice per week in Year 9. Forms who study History twice per week in Year 8 will study it once per week in Year 9. All forms will have studied all the Year 8 and Year 9 enquiries by the end of Year 9.

Assessment

Students are assessed in a range of ways in lessons and at the end of each enquiry, including extended writing and other types of response to our six underpinning curricular questions:

1. How was the world connected?
2. What mattered to people?
3. How were people ruled?
4. How do historians construct interpretations?
5. How do historians analyse sources?
6. How do historians communicate their ideas?

There are five summative assessments from Year 7 to Year 9. These measure progress by testing knowledge from all enquiries studied to that point, including those from Year 7 and Year 8.

How to support at home

• Encourage children to immerse themselves in the time periods studied by reading, listening to or watching related materials
• Participate in discussions with your child about historical or political issues in the news and media
• Encourage children to ask questions about the world around them
• Encouraging children to read books that are related to the enquiries we study in lessons

For further information

Our curriculum is based on the Key Stage 3 National Curriculum. It is also heavily influenced by the principles of best practice endorsed by The Historical Association and The Schools History Project.

For further information on the Key Stage 3 National Curriculum, click here.