The History curriculum allows students to delve into a breadth of events, concepts and issues, whilst also embedding the skills required to be a good historian.  Students enjoy History and are provided with opportunities, both within lessons and through extra-curricular activities, to develop their curiosity and understanding of the society that they live in and the past that has shaped this. The department regularly review the teaching and learning of the curriculum to ensure that students continue to make good progress in History.

Students follow a varied curriculum at KS3 (see attached curriculum map) to prepare them for GCSE History at KS4. At GCSE they study the AQA specification, in which they study Germany 1890-1945, Conflict and Tension 1918-39, Elizabeth 1568-1603 and Britain, Health and the People from 1000AD to the present.

The History department has three key aims for our curriculum:

• To help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world.
   
• To inspire pupils’ curiosities to know more about the past and learn to ask questions, think critically, weigh evidence, assess arguments, and develop perspective and judgement.
   
• To help students to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.

Throughout the curriculum, pupils continue to develop an understanding of the world around them to enable them to be educated citizens. We explore key themes such as equality and civil rights, suffrage, power and democracy, and the issues facing people of both the past and present. Teachers regularly make links to current events and use these references within their lessons to investigate how far society has progressed from the events and issues of the past.

It is the aim of all staff to increase awareness of the events that has shaped their own identities and the communities that they are citizens of.  As a department we offer a range of opportunities to bring History to life.   We endeavour to provide an array of trips and visits, including visits to Berlin, the Battlefields of Franceand Germany, and the Medical Museum in Leeds.   We also regularly invite guest speakers, including Holocaust survivors, to enrich student understanding of the events and issues of the past.

The History curriculum enables students to develop an array of employability skills including analysis, verbal and written communication, problem-solving and independent research. Staff within the department embed opportunities within their lessons to discuss the jobs and/or employability skills linked to History.

Mrs James - Subject Leader

Mr Murray - Teacher of History

Mr Macdonald - Teacher of History

Miss Collins - Teacher of History