Intent

In History we want to instill a love and passion about the world we live in through history and the experiences of the past.  Our learners will develop an appreciation of different cultures and diversity by studying a range of people and events through time, enabling them to flourish within the wider community and to understand their place within a changing and often challenging world.  By studying Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 History our learners will be able to clearly articulate, formulate considered opinions, reflect upon moral issues, develop research skills, problem solve, celebrate past achievements, and be proud and feel more connected to their heritage by making parallels and connections to the past.

Objectives

We strive to create a History curriculum which:

• Inspires all students to want to learn about the past and develop skills to help them become confident, resilient and successful individuals within society.
• Embeds a depth of knowledge of past events and people to allow learners to make analogies and avoid misconceptions.
• Fosters aspiration and achievement by the study of past individuals who have conquered adversity to become inspirational role models.
• Uses history’s moral lessons to help learners become more reflective and responsible citizens.

Implementation: Design

The Year 7 and 8 curriculum is designed around thematic enquiry questions such as Revolution, Conflict and Peace, which will lead to a depth of knowledge and skills to master. Each unit has identified concepts and key terms which will be revisited and interleaved throughout the course.

The Year 9 curriculum provides students with the knowledge base needed to deepen and widen their understanding of historical events and concepts with big picture overviews for context and case studies for depth. This year provides learners with the foundation skills they will need to master further in Years 10 and 11.

Years 10 and 11 focuses on the depth of knowledge (including exam skills) needed to master the four units of the GCSE course.  However, the units have been designed to give students context to the wider world and prepare them for further study and their role in society.

Each component in the history curriculum is designed to link coherently and cumulatively to help learners develop long term knowledge and skills. The history curriculum reflects the school values, including the fundamental of respect towards others.  The nature of history itself, with its critical analysis of moral dilemmas, encourages students to be leaders and to appreciate other people’s views to form more objective opinions.

Further Information

To find out more about the content of the curriculum for each year group, please see our five year History curriculum map.

If you require more detailed information, please email the Head of Department. Miss Emsley’s email address is cemsley@roydsschool.org.