History
History

Overview

The History Department aims to engage the pupils in the events of the past and encourage an awareness of some of the key events over the past two millennia. Pupils are taught to appreciate a wide range of viewpoints and interpretations of those events, and promote tolerance and citizenship.

Curriculum

The Curriculum for the History Department is as follows:
Key Stage 3
Year 7
Medieval Realms: The Battle of Hastings, the Domesday Survey, feudal system, the Development of Castles
Society, Church, Formation of the Realm
The Black Death

Year 8
The Tudors: The Battle of Bosworth, Henry VIII and Elizabeth 1
The Stuarts and the Interregnum
The Plague, The Great Fire and the 1688 Revolution

Year 9
The Slave Trade and the Industrial Revolution
The First World War
Russia, the Holocaust and the Atom Bomb

Key Stage 4
We follow Edexcel’s new (9-1) GCSE in History (1H10). The course is assessed by three examination papers. There is no Controlled Assessment.
Paper 1
Topic 1: Medicine in Britain (1250 – Present Day)
Topic 2: The British sector of the Western Front, 1914–18: injuries, treatment and the trenches
This paper is worth 30% of the total marks and is 1 hour 15 minutes in length.
These topics will be studied during the Spring and Summer terms of Year 10

Paper 2:
Topic 1: Superpower Relations and the Cold War (1941-1991)
Topic 2: Henry VIII and his Ministers (1509-1540)
This paper is worth 40% of the total marks and is 1¾ hours in length.
Superpower Relations and the Cold War will be studied in the Autumn term of Year 10. Henry VIII will be taught in the Spring Term of Year 11

Paper 3:
Topic: The USA: Conflict and Home and Abroad (1954-1975)
This paper is worth 30% of the total marks and is 1 hour 20 minutes in length
It will be taught in the Autumn term of Year 11

Educational visits and extra curricular activity

In recent years we have made frequent visits to the First World War Battlefields and Auschwitz. In addition, we have taken trips to Quarry Bank Mill and the battlefield at Rowton Heath. There is also an annual excursion to Parliament and the Tower of London.

Rooms and resources

The majority of teaching takes place in two designated classrooms. A wide range of resources are used in delivering the curriculum. These include a trolley of Laptops, two interactive whiteboards, as well as a vast collection of video clips, PowerPoint presentations and online resources which students can access via the College’s Virtual Learning Environment.