The History curriculum is designed to create life long, conscientious learners who have explored the past through various perspectives. This enables all pupils to become reflective as they have the opportunity to consider historical events from a side that they may not have focused on before. They will do this through source and interpretation analysis and will be able to make their own judgements. Pupils will be able to develop other skills, for example, critical thinking, communication and team work allowing them to become responsible and respectful learners both inside and outside of the classroom.

By the end of Key Stage 3 pupils will have covered topics under the themes of Changes in Power, Freedom and Protest, and Conflict and Co-operation. They will have practiced skills needed to master the history curriculum and will have started to build a contextual picture of the world.

By the end of Key Stage 4 pupils will have completed their study of the Edexcel specification and will be able to recall key information about a wide variety of topics, explain why and how developments were made and give clear evidence in their judgements. 

Overall, at the end of the course, the pupils will have gained the skills to question and critically analyse the world around them.

Each unit covered in the History curriculum will provide opportunities for independent work, pair work and group work. All of these are used to build different skills such as debating and making judgements. A focus in history is developing the pupils’ vocabulary by making explicit reference to key words and subject specific terminology which is needed from the start of KS3. Lessons are broken down into clearly defined events and topics, which allows pupils to see the chronological journey of the content. This also gives opportunities for retrieval to draw on prior knowledge so that pupils can make connections between each lesson and the topic as a whole. We plan activities to ensure pupils are developing both their linguistic and writing skills, for example practicing extended writing tasks where they are required to explain and analyse the impact of their points.

The purpose of the History curriculum is to encourage pupils to think critically about the world around them and apply their learning to their own context which is done by establishing cross-curricular links with subjects such as English, Drama, Religious Education and Science to help form connections. The aim in History is to be able to provide opportunities for on and off-site experiences related to the content they are studying.