History Curriculum Intent Statement

Our vision is to present students with the information they need to help them understand the history of these islands in a coherent, chronological narrative, from the Roman Empire to the present day. This will enable students to understand how the lives of the people living in the UK, and in other parts of the world touched by the UK,  have been affected and shaped by key historical events so that they can understand how Britain has influenced, and been influenced by, the wider world. It will also enable students to understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world including the achievements and follies of mankind such as the trans-Atlantic slave trade and major conflicts such as the First and Second World Wars.
 

The Key Stage 3 Curriculum

The History Curriculum has been designed to:

Give students a strong and coherent sense of self as they explore the History of Britain, how it emerged, and its place in the modern world.
Help students understand the complex legacy of Britain’s recent past.
Give students an understanding of the processes which shaped the governance and laws of modern Britain to promote the British values of Democracy and the Rule of Law.
Expose students to different ideas to promote the British value of mutual respect and tolerance.

Explore what happens when those ideas are not well embedded by way of contrasting depth studies set in 19th century Austria and the Early 20th Century Russian Empire. 
Support students to develop their Historic and critical literacy as they access primary source material, engage with the writing of professional Historians, and develop their own writing in dialogue with these influences. 

Knowledge and Understanding of Key Concepts 

During each unit, students will be explicitly taught core terminology and vocabulary so that they are able to gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘feudalism’ ‘democracy’ ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’ and historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance. They will learn to use these words and concepts to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, and frame historically valid questions and compare different time periods. 

Content

We are committed to providing engaging ways of covering the statutory aspects of the National Curriculum. To this end, during Years 7, 8 and 9, students will learn about key events and developments within the following studies:

The Birth of England
The Norman Invasion
The Tudors
From Civil War to United Kingdom

The Age of Revolutions
“The Policeman of the World”: Britain’s role in the slave trade, India, and Asia in the 19th century
The Industrial Revolution
19th century protest movements and electoral reform
The Liberal government & the First World War
Suffragettes, the first Labour government, and the Great Depression
The Western Front in WW1

The Russian Empire & Revolution
The Great Depression and WW2
Britain and the End of Empire: New World order in the late 20th Century

We also develop deeper concepts and skills in Historiography by revisiting some topics towards the end of year 9

In “A backwards History of Feminism” we explore causation by moving backwards from the present day and discovering the key events and legislation behind the modern construction of Gender Equality.

In “Holocaust and Hatred in the 3rd Reich” we investigate the politics of hatred, considering the ways in which language and action can construct hatred of “others” (and building resilient students who value acceptance and tolerance).

In “Using archive materials to access WW1” we encourage students to work like Historians as they engage with challenging period sources to forge a closer connection with and understanding of the past through the eyes of the people who lived it. 
 

Rationale: 

The Development of Skills

The curriculum has been structured to provide students with the skills needed  to create their own structured accounts of events, including written narratives and evaluation of evidence. Many of these skills are transferable and there is a big focus on structured, extended writing tasks. Students will also develop the ability to understand and be able to deploy the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence (both sources and interpretations) is tested to make historical claims, and to discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed.

Links to the Present Day

Because not all students will continue their History studies at Key Stage 4, significant 20th events such as the Russian Revolution, the Holocaust, the rise of dictatorships, and Britain’s place in the modern world are studied in Year 9. This is because this is when the students are at an appropriate age to understand the complexity and significance of these events. This is essential so that the current issues such as anti-Semitism and political extremism are given a proper historical context.

Development of active citizens

At WCHS we believe that students should be well rounded citizens who see themselves as leaders in their communities. Our History curriculum aims to follow core concepts of democracy as they develop to help students grasp why democracy is precious and their role in sustaining it for future generations. 

Assessment

Graded assessment at Key Stage 3 is holistic and tests students ability to construct cohesive written texts using their knowledge from lessons, wider academic vocabulary, and their inclusion of specified stimulus materials such as sources and written work by Historians.

Students are levelled against a performance rubric which seeks to develop fluid and detail oriented writers.

At Key Stage 4 students are assessed using a mixture of exam style questions as well as mock papers to build their confidence in and understanding of the GCSE assessment framework.