History
AIMS
- To stimulate curiosity, interest, and enjoyment of History amongst pupils.
- To cultivate a sense of the past through the knowledge of events, people, motives and outcomes.
- To help pupils to develop an appreciation of how we gain knowledge about the past and perceive History in the context of a wider body of knowledge, vocabulary, and skills.
- To encourage open, enquiring minds and the development of informed opinions, supported by reasoned arguments.
- To encourage the reading of serious historical literature.
- To encourage and develop the skills of analysis, judgement, and extended writing.
CURRICULUM
Key Stage 3
The syllabus taught by the Humanities Faculty covers the following areas:
- Year 7 – Power, Control and Governance: The QEGS Project – the Reformation and our school, The Norman Conquest, Religion and the Power of the Church, The Monarchy – the power of kings and queens, The Black Death, The Peasants Revolt, and the English Civil War.
- Year 8 – Identities: The International Slave Trade, The Industrial Revolution and growth of Democracy, World War I, Prejudice, Intolerance, and the Holocaust, Was Britain so Great at the end of WWII? India, the Collapse of Empire and Immigration and Multicultural Britain – Who do we think we are?
Key Stage 4
The Department follows the new Edexcel course as we feel it offers the best balance between the acquisition of knowledge and transferable skills.
Year 9: Paper 2 Period Study and British Depth Study
Period Study: Superpower relations and the Cold War, 1941 to 1995
Paper 3 Modern Depth Study
The USA 1954 to 1975: conflict at home Civil Rights.
Year 10: Paper 3 Modern Depth Study
The USA 1954 to 1975: conflict abroad, The Conflict in Vietnam.
Paper 2 British Depth Study
Early Elizabethan England 1558 to 1588
Year 11: Paper 1 British Thematic Study with Historical Environment
Thematic Study: Warfare and British society c1250 to present.
The themes covered will include; the changing nature of warfare, the experience of war for both combatants and civilians and finally case studies ranging from Agincourt through Waterloo to the Iraq war of 2003.
The Historical Environment: London and the Second World War, 1939 to 45.
Revision and examination preparation
TRIPS AND VISITS
The Department has run two successful trips to the Battlefields of Ypres and the Somme. In 2018 the Department ran its own First World War Commemoration trip following the stories of the old boys who fought and died in the conflict in Belgium and France.
In July 2017, we ran a three-day visit to Berlin with a focus on the Cold War and life in the GDR. In 2019 this was expanded to a 5 day trip that also visited several sites linked to the perpetration of the Holocaust.
In December 2017, our Sixth Form took a two-day trip to London which included visits to Parliament and several Museums.
EXTRA-CURRICULAR
The Department has established links with the Holocaust Education Trust. In November, each year, at least two Sixth Form students are invited to take part in a three-day course: Lessons from Auschwitz.
In December 2017, the Department was the venue for a temporary exhibition on the life of Anne Frank, this was organised through the Anne Frank Trust and in 2018 we organised a day trip to visit the Anne Frank House Museum in Amsterdam.
For more information please contact:
Mr. M Lockwood
Joint Head of Humanities (History)