Welcome to History!
Students study history chronologically, starting in year 7 by investigating the diverse groups of people who controlled Britain 400-1000. Students continue to study medieval Britain and its interactions with the rest of the world through trade, war and religion. Students encounter individuals at all levels of society and look at key social events in medieval England such as the black death and peasants revolt.
Entering into Y8 students build on their knowledge of medieval power and religion by studying Tudor and Stuart England and the changes that occurred during the 16th and 17th centuries. Students will then consider the source material available to historians studying the Kingdom of Benin 1400-1600 before looking at the drastic changes that happened to global power in the 18th and 19th centuries due to the role of Empire and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Students will conclude their year by studying the revolutions that shaped the globe through the ‘Age of Revolutions’.
Students will conclude their key stage by picking up the globalisation and power shifts studied in year 8 and analysing how these forces led the world to war in 1914. Following this, they will assess some key consequences of the First World War including the Russian Revolution and the women’s suffrage movement, before studying the global role of WW2 and the horrors of the Holocaust. Finally, students will end the year by looking at how the Cold War has shaped the politics of the 21st century.
At KS4 students will then build on their Cold War overview to study the relationship between the US and the USSR in the 20th century and a unit on American politics relating to the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. The History GCSE also has a British focus with students learning about Elizabeth I’s role as a leader and studying migration to and from Britain over the last thousand years of history.