History
Introduction
History is the study of significant and ordinary people and what they did in the past to change things and shape the world we live in today.
It includes the study of significant events, why and how they happened and how and why they shaped the world we live in today. Moreover, History involves the study of ideas and the impact they had on ordinary people and the world. History is valuable because it helps us understand the world, country, town and community we live in and makes us better citizens of the world. But apart from being interesting and valuable History is also useful: employers who see that you have a qualification in History will know certain things about you. For example, that you know what motivates people and how they might think, that you are able to gather and read different types of information, that you can look carefully at this information and check it for bias or propaganda, that you can read maps, graphs and other diagrams; that you are able to communicate clearly and have learned to express yourself clearly and on paper. After all, what is the most interesting thing in the world? Is it not people – real people? If you like people, then you should like History.
Contact details
Please contact the Head of Department for more information. A full teaching staff list can be found under 'About Us' 'Staff and Governance'.
Head of Department: Ms I Subramoney Email: I.Subramoney@ccfplus.com
What your child will be learning (curriculum mapping)
To view the Curriculum Overview document, please click here.
To view the modules studied each term, please click here.
Aims and Enrichment
Aims
The History Department aims to stimulate and maintain pupil curiosity and interest in history by cultivating a sense of the past. We will do this by making history accessible for all, irrespective of ability, background or ethnic origin, and by creating opportunities for pupils to experience success and develop informed opinions.
We aim to:
- Employ teaching methods and resources that allow all students to access History and experience enjoyment and success in their work.
- Cultivate in students a sense of the past, knowledge of events and their effects.
- Enable students to appreciate how we gain knowledge about the past and how that knowledge is represented and interpreted.
- Enable students to use historical evidence critically.
- Enable students to understand that events have a multiplicity of causes and that nothing in the past is straight forward.
- Encourage students to develop informed opinions and independent thinking skills.
- Make students aware of the school, local, national and international communities to which they belong.
Enrichment
Throughout the year, we invite external speakers in to deliver presentations to our students to mark events such as Holocaust Memorial Day. We also offer a range of extra-curricular clubs including:
- History Club
- History Games Club
- Current Affairs Club
We offer a range of trips including:
- Year 12 Auschwitz visit with the Holocaust Educational Trust
- Year 12 visit to the Churchill War Rooms
- Year 12 trip to watch Hamilton - linked to American Revolution A level unit
- Year 10 trip to Berlin - linked to GCSE Germany and Cold War units
- Year 10 Walking Tour of Notting Hill - linked to GCSE historic environment study
- Year 9 WW1 Battlefields trip to Ypres
- Somme Year 9 trip to the Imperial War Museum Year 8 trip to Kenwood House
Key stage 3
The curriculum as KS3 ensures that students cover the necessary content as well as developing aspects of literacy, numeracy and moral, social and emotional awareness. The KS3 curriculum is sequenced chronologically, with enquiry questions to stimulate pupils’ curiosity.
Year 7
- To what extent was the Anglo-Saxon age 600 years of chaos?
- How can archaeology help us to challenge what we know about the Vikings?
- How far did the Normans bring a ‘truckload of trouble’?
- How similar were people’s experiences in Medieval England?
- Why did ideas flourish in the Medieval Mediterranean?
- What do Mansa Musa and Askia the Great reveal about Medieval West Africa?
- How significant was the religious change under the Tudor monarchs?
- Was the reign of Elizabeth I a ‘Golden Age’?
- How similar were the lives of migrants in Early Modern England?
Year 8
- How was the world turned ‘upside down’ in the 17th century?
- Why was there a witchcraze in East Anglia?
- Ruling Britannia! How did the fears of those in power change, 1688-1783?
- How similar were the experiences of people in the Industrial Revolution?
- What can we learn from sources about the Abolitionist movement?
- What was the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade?
- What can we learn from historical sources about the British Empire?
- How far have the reasons for migration to Britain been the same from the Middle Ages to the present?
- Is Dr Fern Riddell right to describe the Suffragettes as terrorists?
Year 9
- Is Corrigan correct to claim the “Lions led by Donkeys” thesis is “poppycock”?
- What can we learn from the sources about how the Bolshevik’s seized power?
- Should Britain, France and America be blamed for the rise of Adolf Hitler?
- To what extent was the Holocaust a Nazi inspired tragedy, or a long-term case of Anti-Semitism?
- Why did the Allies prevail victorious in 1945?
- How did British society change in the 50s and 60s?
- Is it accurate to say that the Cold War ‘heated up’?
- How far was Mao’s China “destructive, demoralising and disastrous”?
- How similar was the anti-Apartheid Movement in South Africa and the Civil Rights Movement in the USA?
Useful websites for all KS3 students:
Key stage 4
Exam Board: Edexcel
Studying History at GCSE provides students with an opportunity to pursue an interest not only in the past but also in the world around them.
Modern life, more than ever, requires a grasp of the past and studying GCSE History will help pupils to gain this much-needed understanding. GCSE History provides the historical understanding to help answer these and many other pertinent questions. Developing a student’s understanding of history is only one of the goals of our GCSE course. We aim to furnish our students with a set of skills that will not only prove invaluable for success within GCSE examinations but also life beyond school. Those skills which we seek to develop on the course include literacy, written communication, and reasoning, and explanation, analysis of source evidence, debate and verbal communication.
Core textbooks:
Mohamud, A and Whitburn, R. GCSE 9-1 History for Pearson Edexcel Migrants in Britain, c800-present and Notting Hill c1948-1970. Published by Hodder. Child, J. (2016) Edexcel GCSE (9-1) History Weimar and Nazi Germany, 1918-1939 Student Book. Arnott, E. (2016) Hodder GCSE History for Edexcel: Anglo-Saxon and Norman England, c1060–88. Catherwood, C and Kelly, N. Edexcel 9-1 History Superpower Relations and the Cold War, 1941-91.
Useful Websites:
www.bbc.co.uk/history
https://www.ourmigrationstory.org.uk/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zt9v7hv/revision/1
https://www.britannica.com/event/Cold-War
Key stage 5
Exam Board: OCR
Exam Board: OCR Studying History at A-level provides students with an opportunity to pursue an interest not only in the past but also in the world around them. A-level History equips students with skills which support their other A-level subjects and are seen as desirable by universities. Students develop an excellent understanding of concepts in History and apply analytical skills to sources and interpretations. A-level History covers a range of topics across 200 years of history, focusing on depth, period and thematic studies. In addition to this, students have a choice of topics to research for their independent topic-based coursework.
A level units:
- Britain 1930-1997
- American Revolution 1740-1801
- Civil Rights in the USA 1865-1992
- Coursework unit
Core Textbooks:
Wells, M. and Fellows, N. OCR A-level Britain 1930-1997. A, Farmer. Access to History: The American Revolution and the Birth of the USA. 1740-1801. Wells, M. and Fellows, N. Access to History: Civil Rights in the USA 1865–1992 for OCR Second Edition
Useful Websites:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/timeline/worldwars_timeline_noflash.shtml
https://www.tutor2u.net/history
https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/civil-rights-movement