Curriculum

History is a subject that forms the bedrock of our understanding of the culture in which we live as well as the wider world around us.  The content covered gives students the opportunity to explore issues at a local, national and international level from the ancient era through to the twentieth century.  This range of history offers the opportunity to explore different peoples’ perspectives on issues and events and think critically about the world in which they live.  Our curriculum is carefully sequenced to give students a broad understanding of the chronological development of British history, as well as being able to make links to other societies, cultures and world events.  

KS3 - year 7, 8, & 9

Throughout KS3 pupils will obtain key skills such as the ability 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. This will be geared toward ensuring pupils have a clear understanding of the historical skills in preparation for their KS4 and eventual KS5 studies. Pupils will learn these historical skills alongside different topics which will allow them to know and understand significant aspects of the history of Britain and the wider world. 

Modules studied are:

• Norman England
• Medieval History
• The Tudors
• Empire & slavery
• Local History of Birmingham
• Migration into Britain
• Historical investigation
• The First World War
• The rise of dictators and the Second World War
• The Holocaust
• The Civil Rights Movement

KS4 - year 10 & 11

The KS4 curriculum is in line with Edexcel GCSE specification for History. We study History in order to give students knowledge and understanding of numerous cultures, geographical locations, and ethnicities from the past. We look at causes and consequences of key events and explore changes and continuities over vast periods. We explore a wide range of primary and secondary sources to give students an insight into what life was like in the past. We study social, economic, local and military sources in order for students to gain a well-rounded portrayal of both medieval and modern History. Our overall aim to ensure that all our students have the ability to become great historians. The topics we study all link into skills and knowledge which pupils have obtained throughout their KS3 study.

The following modules are studied:

• Weimar and Nazi Germany (1918-1939)
• The Cold War (1945-1991)
• Elizabethan England (1558-1588)
• Medicine through time (1250-Present Day)