Curriculum - Subject Information

Reason for sequencing the curriculum for every year group in the way it is, and the subject specific/pedagogical approach taken:

The fundamental purpose of a history teacher is to empower students with the confidence to question the world around them, guided by an understanding of past events and concepts and how they have shaped our current societies. We firmly believe that history is not simply factual content; instead, this content should be a starting point from which all of our students, no matter their starting point and background, can develop the skills to find answers to their questions and encounter perspectives beyond their own. This rationale is therefore designed to achieve a balance between a sense of historical period/chronology, and the metacognitive skills required to engender lifelong curiosity and learning. The curriculum is therefore structured chronologically with thematic and metacognitive review points embedded, starting with the medieval era and ending in the 20th century.

The key concepts underpinning the teaching at all levels are introduced immediately students join us and thus Key Stage 3 begins with a unit, ‘What is History’, dedicated to explaining and embedding these second order history concepts and skills needed to succeed. The purpose of this is to allow for differing teaching at our feeder primary schools as well as providing an opportunity for our department to have a ‘baseline’ understanding of the new history students’ abilities. As a department we use a wide variety of pedagogical and subject specific approaches with all groups of students. It is important that we accommodate for all students’ needs, and to this end we use strategies such as discussion, debate, note-taking, essay writing, peer assessment, peer teaching, story-boarding, use of ICT and digital media, creative writing and reporting etc. 

Throughout Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 we teach students to understand different interpretations, significance, continuity and change, and cause and consequence. Our lessons therefore aim to embed skills in source analysis and comparing interpretations, as well as analysing contextual material to reach substantiated evaluations and judgements. These same skills are assessed throughout the curriculum at increasingly advanced levels and with new content, allowing students of all abilities and needs to build on their prior learning and achieve progress. Throughout the curriculum, we have also incorporated activities which require students to develop their skills in independent and collaborative research. The school’s commitment to literacy is also reinforced in history as we guide students towards effective and balanced communication.

During Years 7-9, students have three history lessons over two weeks. Throughout this process students will be taught key transferable skills including source analysis and evaluation, how to structure and substantiate written essays and how to compare and contrast historical interpretations.

We utilise a wide variety of teaching resources and strategies, including source work, role plays, debates, and written and oral presentations. A variety of textbooks and other resources - including pictures, video, and music-based activities are used to enable students to develop their historical skills and appreciation of the subject. As a department, we make use of metacognitive strategies, including recall and review elements, to ensure students can build on prior learning and develop a deep understanding of the skills within the subject, and to give them the confidence to draw out the thematic links and connections present throughout the curriculum.

How we build on prior learning:

Year 7

What is history?

Key Stage 3 begins with a unit, ‘What is History’, dedicated to explaining and embedding these second order history concepts and skills needed to succeed. This unit allows the department to baseline assess year 7 and embed the skills, concepts and subject-specific language that students will encounter throughout their history learning journey at Stradbroke High School.

Anglo Saxon England and the Norman Conquest.

This unit introduces the main second-order concepts whilst studying a major change within British history and asks students to consider whether the Norman Conquest really was as significant as it is often presented. This unit allows for some study of the British Isles before the conquest, as recommended by the National Curriculum, and also introduces one of the units we study at Key Stage 4: Anglo Saxon and Norman England. Another benefit of this unit is that it builds on the work that many primary schools do on Anglo Saxon England. We have a rich local Anglo Saxon and Norman heritage in Suffolk and so there is also opportunity to discuss the history of local sites and Anglo-Saxon kings.

Medieval Life

This unit provides students with a solid understanding of the struggle for power and control during the medieval period, including between Church and state. Students will have encountered the power of the Christian Church when they consider the benefit of the Pope’s support for William’s claim to the English throne in the previous unit – thus this unit builds upon this crucial understanding. As well as being absolutely crucial to any understanding of the medieval period, a study of the power of the medieval Church vs. kingship is also critical to students’ understanding of another of our Key Stage 4 units of study: the history of medicine. The medieval Christian church controls education and beliefs for so long that progress in medicine is stymied and thus the impact of the Reformation and the Renaissance are so much more significant. Additionally, we think it is important to learn the history of ‘ordinary people’ as well as the history of those in power. In the past, there was very little study of the lives of these people, which meant that the stories of people of colour and people of different identities or diversities were not told. Later in our learning journey we will be exploring some of these ‘hidden histories’ and so we need to understand the lives of ‘ordinary people’ in the Middle Ages, and the impact that medieval religion had on their lives so that we can put all of our history-learning into context as we travel our learning-journey together.

Victorian childhood.

Designed to support the work students are covering in their English lessons, this unit considers the lives of the poor during this period. The students will have considered the cause of the peasants’ revolt in the previous unit, which allows us to discuss and investigate the development of society and state over this broad period to give an opportunity for comparison.

Why did the world expand for the British in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?

Tudor and Stuart exploration

This unit is designed to continue the building of understanding of how and why diversity becomes so much a part of the British experience. Here we will investigate the impact of the Reformation on government and exploration – this really is the beginning of the British Empire! It is so important that students are not left with the impression, at the end of Key stage 3, that ‘black people’ arrived in Britain on the Windrush! Thus, we investigate the experiences of minority groups from the Tudor period – thus setting the scene for our dedicated ‘migration to Britain’ unit in year 8.

The Silk Roads

The first global trade route and a major contributor to the development of culture, religion and ideas, the Silk Roads provide an opportunity to expand our horizons into the Middle East, Central Asia and China. This unit supports our understanding of world religions such as Islam and Buddhism. We consider the foundations of a global economy, the development of libraries and shared knowledge (the use of which will be referenced in our GCSE ‘History of Medicine’ course). The use of maps supports students’ learning in Geography and helps to develop a global understanding of history.

Year 8

History of India

Building on the last unit, we continue to investigate empire building and the impact of colonialism. We also introduce here the vital question of whether artefacts taken to Britain during the colonial period should now be returned to their places of origin.

Empire and the transatlantic slave trade

One of the most essential units of history that can be delivered, this course is designed to give a full overview of this tragic trade. We begin with a study of how developed and technologically advanced Africa was before the European nations began this trade. It is important to remove any lingering belief that Africa was somehow ‘behind’ in its development when compared to the British. Again, we can speak of British values when we reference the dangers of groups of people being said to be of a certain set of values or behaviours – thus we spend a lesson considering the justifications that were used for the slave trade. These justifications, so often given by the clergy, build on students' understanding of the role of the Christian Church in England that we embedded in our year 7 units. This unit also provides a solid basis for discussions on racism and therefore is crucial for the understand of the Civil Rights movement. There is a cross-curricular link with the geography curriculum (Tahiti).

America – depression and Civil rights

This unit is again designed to support students in their English studies. They are invited to develop greater contextual understanding of the period covered in ‘Of Mice and Men’, which they now study. Continuing on with Civil Rights in America, this unit is important as it provides a ‘continuation of the story’ we began in year 8 with our study of the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Black people are brought to America as slaves to work on the plantations and in homes, are ‘freed’ by the Civil War and are then subject to discrimination and violence that continues today. The struggle for civil rights and the right to vote allows students to consider the importance of civilian ship and suffrage in a modern democracy. It also gives context to the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement in America and provides an opportunity for us to compare racism in this country (which means a cross-curricular link with our PSHE curriculum and with ‘British Values).  This unit also provides a basis for our GCSE course: America, Conflict at Home and Abroad, 1954-1975.

We are able to continue our investigation into diversity and racist beliefs as we study our next unit on migration to Britain.

Year 8 concludes with two studies: Civil Rights in the USA, which introduces students to a topic we study in year 11 GCSE and Civil Rights in Britain, which is an often-overlooked period of our own local history which builds on our study of diversity in Tudor England into the modern period.

Year 9

The Great War

Here we begin our study of conflict in the 20th Century. The placement of this unit also means that students are prepared for our Autumn tour to Ypres. Vital to an understanding of 20th Century British history, this thorough investigation into the causes and events of the First World War is always valued by our students. We make sure to include the experiences of men from Empire, such as West Indian and Indian soldiers, thus building on the ethical discussions that have been central to the previous units on diversity within the British Empire. Additionally, our GCSE history course includes a study of the trenches of the First World War and thus this is a useful basis for that inquiry.

How did the Holocaust happen?

This is a vital unit encompassing the understanding of the dangers of allowing politicians such as Hitler to gain power – there are many contrasts that can be made with politics today! – with the genocidal treatment that resulted from the Nazi rhetoric.  This is possibly the most important period of history that students will study, and provides a vital understanding of the world’s sympathy towards Zionism at this point in the 20th century. Our study of conflict continues with our unit on again providing a basis for America, Conflict at Home and Aboard, 1954-75, this until builds on students' understanding of the Second World War and introduces key concepts that have shaped Europe in the 20th Century.

The 20^th Century World

Designed to introduce ideas of ideology such as democracy, dictatorship, capitalism, communism etc. This until seeks to give a grounding in the political, cultural and scientific developments of the 20^th century that bring us to the world that we live in today.

The following two units are designed to give contextual understanding for key GCSE English texts: Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and Shakespeare’s Macbeth. These are also engaging and fascination periods of history that allow us to really get to grips with the social changes of both periods.