History

Our History curriculum celebrates the diversity and beauty of the progress as well as the triumphs and tragedies that have been witnessed over time. We promote and encourage oracy in lessons so that the opinions of all are valued and that lessons are based on a  strong culture of celebrating the Christian vision of our school that we act justly, showing love and respect.

Spirituality by its definition will be found in many ways and forms. Below are just some typical examples of where it may be found in our History curriculum:

o Being in touch with past people, things and ideas.

o Being part of history.

o Handling artefacts.

o Influential events and people.

o The commitment of significant people in history.

o War and peace – interpretation in history.

o The nature and importance of invention and exploration.

o Empathy with people from other times in history.

We seek to inspire pupils with stories of incredible achievements and progress but also highlighting where the God-given uniqueness of humanity has not been valued, understood or appreciated. We believe by studying the past that pupils will be able to build a better future for all to live gratefully together with joy.

It is the intent of the History department that every pupil will grow their substantive knowledge (knowledge of the past) and their disciplinary knowledge (how historians investigate the past and construct historical claims, arguments, and accounts) and develop a love of History through respecting and appreciating the views of others whilst endeavouring to produce their personal best work.

The History curriculum follows the express aims of the National Curriculum in that all pupils will be taught to:

• know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative
• know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world
• gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract historical terms
• understand and use historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference, and significance
• understand the methods of historical enquiry
• gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts

All pupils will be given a range of opportunities to progress towards building their own historical arguments and accounts. As pupils progress through the school, they will learn how to organise their ideas in written form to the point where, in Year 8, they will be challenged to write in-depth essays involving complex topics such as propaganda, sexism and religious intolerance.

In Year 6, pupils will focus on two units of work on World War 2 and Benin that link clearly with their literacy work. In Years 7 and 8, the main focus is on the history of England from 1066 to 1688. We aim to give all our pupils a love for History and the oral and written skills to prepare them for success at GCSE.

In an ever more challenging world of misinformation, History must help pupils develop their critical thinking and analytical skills. It is our ambition in History that every pupil, by investigating sources, will learn to identify bias and propaganda, the reasons for it and its purpose. Pupils will be encouraged to challenge the information they are given before expressing their opinion. These critical thinking skills can then be transferred to the modern world to help make sense of fake news, conflicting accounts of events, conspiracy theories, propaganda, and such like.

Overview of History modules