Contact

Head of Department: Miss A. Bowers

a.bowers@kingsway.stockport.sch.uk

History Department Learning Journey

Powerful Knowledge

Powerful Knowledge in History is the understanding of how the past has shaped the world around us through the use of source evidence and how different events have been interpreted over time.

Curriculum Intent

The study of History at Kingsway aims to help students understand the complexity of people’s lives in both the present and the past, which includes study of the process of change, and the diversity of societies. History is rich in transferable skills and students develop knowledge alongside five key concepts that are revisited each academic year: chronology, causation, significance, source analysis and interpretation. These concepts are used as tools for students to understand the past and how it has been recorded.

The majority of our Key Stage 3 curriculum is sequenced chronologically, this enables students to study the past from a variety of standpoints and to make connections and comparisons over time. Chronological study also helps prepare pupils for the rigour of thematic studies and the study of change and continuity over long periods of time that GCSE historians will encounter. At Key Stage 3, Kingsway students study a wide range of historical periods from Roman Britain to modern day political developments. The purpose of this is not only to provide pupils with the powerful knowledge needed to help them access the depth of Key Stage 4 topics and themes but also to promote well informed individuals with an understanding of the world around them and how it has been shaped.

Key Stage 3

Year 7

In Year 7 students cover key concepts and processes through four units of study.

Half Term 1

Unit 1: What is History? (3 weeks)

This unit will introduce the techniques employed by historians in order to develop an understanding of the past. Students will develop their skills in chronology, causation and source analysis.

Unit 2: What have the Romans ever done for us? (5 weeks)

This unit covers the power and legacy of the Roman empire. Students will further develop the above skills.

Half Term 2

Unit 3: Britain 1066 - 1485 (One and a half terms)

A study of major features of Britain's medieval past and the legacy of the period to the modern world. Students will study the development of the monarchy, and significant events and features of the lives of people living throughout the British Isles. Topics covered will include the Norman Conquest, the Feudal System, the influence of the Church, daily life of peasants, the Black Death.

Half Term 3

Unit 3: Britain 1066 - 1485

continued

Half Term 4

Unit 3: Britain 1066 - 1485

continued

Half Term 5

Unit 4: Tudor Britain (One term)

In this unit students will learn about the major political and religious changes affecting people throughout Britain in the Tudor period.

Half Term 6

Unit 4: Tudor Britain

continued


Year 8

In Year 8 students continue to develop their key skills and begin to work on the concept of evaluation.

Half Term 1

Unit 1: Britain 1500 - 1750 

A study of crowns, parliaments and people. In this unit students will learn about the major political, religious and social changes affecting people throughout the British Isles. This will include religious changes, The English Civil War and the political unification of Britain.

Half Term 2

Unit 1: Britain 1500 - 1700

continued 

Unit 2: Britain 1750 - 1900

A study of how expansion of trade and colonisation, industrialisation and political changes affected the United Kingdom. Students will study the revolutions in agriculture and industry, the growth of Empire and the demand for suffrage for all men.

Half Term 3

Unit 2: Britain 1750 - 1900

continued

Half Term 4

Unit 3: The fight for Suffrage

Students will study some of the movements fighting for greater Suffrage in the 18th century. They will also look at why and how women demanded the vote in the early Twentieth Century and why this was achieved by some women in 1918.

Half Term 5

Unit 4: Britain and the wider world, 18th-19th century

A study of British actions abroad in the 18th and 19th century a with a focus on slavery and colonisation and the impact this had on the people and places affected.

Half Term 6

Unit 5: A World War

A study of Britain’s actions at home and abroad in the Great War.


Year 9

In Year 9 students continue to develop the key skills of chronology, causation, source analysis and interpretation. Students are introduced to the concept of interpretation.

Half Term 1

Unit 1: Jack the Ripper

Students recap their knowledge of 19th century Britain and apply to a study of why Jack the Ripper was never caught.

Half Term 2

Unit 2: The road to war

Students will study international relations post WW1. Study will focus on the actions of Britain, France and the League of Nations in response to growing nationalism in Europe.

Half Term 3

Unit 3: WW2

This unit looks at the effects of WW2 rather than the events. Students will study how people were affected in Britain, the terrible events of the Holocaust and why this was allowed to happen and differing superpower ideologies at the end of WW2.

Half Term 4

Unit 3: A Cold War

Students complete their study of the Twentieth century world by looking at the increasing tension between the USA and the USSR after WW2, their relationship in the following fifty years and the conflicts this results in.

Half Term 5

Unit 3: A Cold War

continued

Half Term 6

Unit 4: Life in Britain post WW2

In this unit students will study government action to tackle emerging issues in the late twentieth and early twenty first century, such as the economy, health and welfare and leading individuals such as Thatcher and Blair.


Key Stage 4

GCSE

GCSE History students follow the OCR A Specification.

The course aims to ‘Explain the Modern World’ especially with regard to:

·         The struggle between different types of government

·         The rise and fall of communism as a political, ideological and economic model

·         Human Rights

·         The idea of powers and super powers

·         Ideas of nation and nationalism

·         How ideology can impact politics

·         Why there are different interpretations of current events

 

Assessment

History has 3 exam papers.

Paper 1: 1 hour 45 minutes (50%)

  • International relations: The changing international order 1918-2001
  • Depth study: The USA 1945-1974, The people and the State

Paper 2: 1 hour (25%)

  • British Depth Study-Power: Monarchy and Democracy in Britain c1000 to 2014

Paper 3: 1 hour 15 minutes (25%)

  • The English Reformation c1520-1550
  • Castles: Form and function 1000-1750

Year 10

Half Term 1

Students will work through the British depth study: Power and Monarchy. This course looks at how power in Britain was distributed from 1000- 2014, what challenges were faced in wielding this power and what factors, events or developments were important in moving power from one group to another.

Half Term 2

Students to continue their study of Paper 2, the British depth study, focusing on the 1500s- 1800s.

Half Term 3

Students will continue their modern period of study for the Power and Monarchy module, 1800- 2014.

By February students prepare for the International Relations section of Paper 1 by studying the inter war period in Europe and international events that led to WW2. 

Half Term 4

Students to prepare for their Paper 2 mock exam. 

Following this pupils use their knowledge of international relations 1918- 39 to assess historians’ interpretations of the appeasement of Hitler in the years leading up to WW2.

Half Term 5

Students continue their Paper 1 study by looking at key events in the Cold War, leading on to a study of historian’s views on whether the USA or the USSR was to blame for this.

Half Term 6

Students will spend the last half term on their study of Kenilworth castle, focusing on the form and function of this castle from the years 1120-1750. Students will have the opportunity to supplement this study with a field trip to the castle itself.


Year 11  

Half Term 1

Students to study the USA from 1945-74 as their non-British Depth study for Paper 1.

Half Term 2

Students continue the non-British Depth Study.

Half Term 3

Students to complete their study of the English Reformation. This module study focuses on the religious, social and economic perspectives of the Reformation  as well as the psychological impact of religious change on the ordinary people of England.

Half Term 4

Revision

Half Term 5

Revision