History

Intent

The History KS3 curriculum utilises the spiral form to revisit skills and develop a deeper understanding of Earth’s History, whilst taking students on a journey through time.  As yet, with no plan for History to be taught as a discrete GCSE subject, the intention is for History in building blocks 3-5 to be an engaging, exciting and varied subject that provides students with a range of experiences and opportunities to learn about the History of our world.

Implementation

BB3-5

• To know and understand the History of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world.
• To 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; achievements and follies of mankind.
• To gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’
• To 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.
• To 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.
• To 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- and long-term timescales.

Impact

As Humanities subjects will only be taught at KS3 in the first instance, students will not yet have access to formal national qualifications at the GCSE level.

As students progress through Building Blocks 3-5, there will be opportunities for achieving AQA Unit Awards to recognise learning and experiences.  These can then feed into Records of Achievement, proving knowledge and skills for colleges and future employers.

The impact will also be tracked through the:

• Informal formative assessments each half-term
• Formal summative assessments are to be completed termly, monitoring academic progress
• EHCP target trackers
• Tracking lesson engagement through the Elements’ praise and reward system.