History

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Introduction

The History department at the Warren School aims to spark the curiosity of its students to further their interest in the past and a love for the subject. We will develop students’ understanding and application of second order concepts to allow them to think like historians. We want to equip students with the skills they need to think critically, analyse interpretations, weigh up evidence and ask questions about the past in order to formulate their own judgements.

These skills will allow them to successfully complete their study of History at A-Level and beyond. Students at the Warren School will become independent thinkers who engage with historical debate and scholarship. Our broad, knowledge-based curriculum will develop students’ chronological framework of British history and the history of the wider world, helping them to understand how the past has come to shape the modern world. We have a diverse community at the Warren School and aim to reflect this in the history we teach by creating an inclusive and diverse curriculum that takes students beyond their immediate context and promotes understanding, tolerance and reflection.

Our curriculum is underpinned by five key questions:

How has power and authority changed over time?
How did people live and what mattered to them?
How has war and conflict helped to shape the world that we live in?
How has the world become more connected and what impact has this had?
How can we think like historians?

KS3

Our Vision:

The KS3 History curriculum at the Warren School aims to develop students' curiosity of our subject by exposing them to a variety of British, European and world history. Our student community is diverse and as such we have striven to create an inclusive and varied curriculum which resonates with our students and to further their passion for History, to ensure as many students as possible continue their studies into GCSEs and A Level. As such, we have distilled our aims for our KS3 History curriculum into 3 key words: Curiosity, Understand and Empower.

CURIOSITY = We want to ensure that our students see themselves as historians, and as such we strive to inspire a sense of curiosity in our students which in turn will help foster a lifelong enthusiasm and love for history.

UNDERSTAND = For students to see themselves as historians, our curriculum needs to achieve a few things. Firstly, it must be knowledge rich, which will allow our students to develop the skills and understand the core concepts all successful historians need to interrogate the past. Our students will also need to understand and use historical language and apply these skills and knowledge across the curriculum. This in turn will allow our students to make connections within the subject between different topics but across other subjects as well.

EMPOWER = History is an enriching and fascinating subject, and we want our students to love our subject as much as we do as teachers. We believe that it is never been so important as today to be studying History. We want our curriculum to allow students to appreciate the diversity of the human experience, forge a sense of identity, to ask questions and be perceptive of the world around them. Ultimately, our aim is to empower students to be upstanding citizens and be good members of the society in an ever changing and unpredictable world.

Year 7 curriculum

Unit 1: What is History?
Unit 2: The Norman Conquest
Unit 3: The Crusades
Unit 4: Medieval Queens
Unit 5: King John
Unit 6: The Black Death
Unit 7: Local History Project

In Year 7 students will learn to:

Write in paragraphs, using correct spelling, grammar and punctuation.
Develop their historical writing skills.
Develop their own opinion to answer historical questions.
Summarise and extract key information when reading as a class.
Interpret and analyse information given in primary sources.
Explain the impact and importance of events in history.
Explain different perspectives.

Year 8 curriculum

Unit 1: The Tudors
Unit 2: The English Civil War
Unit 3: The history of enslavement
Unit 4: Jack the Ripper
Unit 5: The British Empire
Unit 6: World History Project

In Year 8 students will learn to:

Write extended pieces of writing structured in paragraphs with some independence.
Read with some independence and select information to support opinions.
Develop more complex opinions and arguments that link points together.
Integrate source quotes with more fluency into writing.
Use own knowledge to analyse and evaluate primary sources.
Explain inter-relationships and the cause and consequences of events.
Explain a wider range of contemporary perspectives.
Use own knowledge to explain historical interceptions of the past.

Year 9 curriculum

Unit 1: Ideas of the 20^th century
Unit 2: Causes of First World War
Unit 3: The Rise of Hitler and Second World War
Unit 4: The Holocaust
Unit 5: Immigration Through Time

In Year 9 we expect pupils to be also able to:

Write and structure extended pieces of writing with independence.
Independently read and form opinions on information.
Develop their own argument to answer historical enquiries.
Evaluate source evidence – purpose, reliability, usefulness.
Evaluate the importance of events within history.
Explain and evaluate different interpretations of the past.

KS4

The History department will bring the past to life by making it accessible through a creative, interesting and challenging series of lessons. Our students will develop a variety of skills including analysing and evaluating sources, as well as using description, explanation and evaluation when communicating about the past. These skills are transferable to other curriculum subjects and will further your child’s understanding of the world around them.

GCSE History

Exam Board: Edexcel GCSE

Exam Structure:

Paper 1 – Medicine in Britain c1250-present and The British sector of the Wester Front, 1914-18: injuries, treatment and the trenches (30%)
Paper 2 – Superpower relations and the Cold War, 1941-91 and Early Elizabethan England (40%)
Paper 3 – The USA, 1954-74: conflict at home and abroad (30%)

Year 10 curriculum

Medicine in Britain c1250-present

Superpower relations and the Cold War, 1941-91

The British sector of the Wester Front, 1914-18: injuries, treatment and the trenches

Year 11 curriculum

The USA, 1954-74: conflict at home and abroad

Early Elizabethan England

At GCSE we expect that pupils to develop beyond Key Stage 3. They should be able to:

Construct essays with independence
Write fluently and concisely in timed conditions
Write and organise notes for themselves
Develop revision strategies to remember information
Explain the importance and impact of events, their inter-relationships with other events
Explain a range of interpretations and evaluate using own knowledge
Articulate the tools historians use to evaluate source evidence. (purpose, author’s access to information, context, audience)