The History department aims to inspire and enthuse pupils interest in the subject so that all pupils are given the opportunity to learn about the world in which they live.

The National Curriculum states that:

“A high-quality history education will help pupils gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain's past and that of the wider world.... teaching should equip pupils to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments and develop perspective and judgement.....'

The History Department are passionate about their subject and enable pupils to fulfil the purpose above.

The aims of studying History include:

• Know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world; the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies;
• Understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses
• Understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed
• Gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts, understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short-term and long-term timescales.

The topic list we have chosen broadly follow the National Curriculum, and excite and inspire pupils, many of whom go on to study the subject at GCSE, A Level and beyond.

Year 7 History Topic List

Term 1 The Reformation in Europe

• The problems and complaints of the Catholic Church
• Martin Luther and the German Reformation
• Effects of the Reformation in Europe
• Possible Christmas project on Castles

Term 2 The Early Tudors and religious change

• The Wars of the Roses and Henry VII
• Henry VIII – To include his problems and religious change
• Religious change under Edward VII and Mary I

Term 3 Elizabethan England

• Problems Elizabeth faced
• Religious change
• Mary Queen of Scots
• The Spanish Armada
• Social and economic change

Year 8 History Topic List

Term 1 The First Stuart Monarchs

• James I and the Gunpowder Plot
• Charles I
• Long and Short term causes of the English Civil War
• The key events of the English Civil war

Term 2 The End of the Civil War and England without a monarch

• The trial and execution of Charles I
• Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans in charge
• Cromwell; Hero or Villain?

Term 3 The Restoration of the Monarchy

• The restoration under Charles I
• The Plague of 1665
• The Great Fire of London
• The Glorious Revolution

Year 9 History Topic List

Term 1 Economic, social and Political Change in England1750 – 1900

• The Agricultural Revolution
• The Industrial Revolution
• The transport Revolution
• Industrial living and Working conditions
• Protest

Term 2  - Thematic studies

• Crime and punishment to Include case study on Jack the Ripper
• Medicine Through Time

Term 3 – World War One

• The Long and Short Term Causes
• Weapons of War
• Trench warfare – to include some major offensives, and conditions
• The End of the War