Intent

Our curriculum should:

• Encourage learners to be reflective and resilient.
• Produce students who are appreciative of other cultures, societies, religions and groups of people.
• Teach skills needed for GCSE History, careers and life. 
• Engage students – promote interest in the subject.
• Equip students to make progress throughout KS3 and KS4 and enable them to transition to KS5.
• Assess students regularly.
• Teach learners about Britain and the wider world.
• Allow for the development of cross-curricular skills.
• Provide for extra-curricular activities – e.g. trips, to the Imperial War Museum in KS3 and Berlin in KS4.

Implementation of Curriculum at Ks3 and Ks4 

In Key Stage 3, our diverse History Curriculum is created to give students a balance of social, political, and military history. The students are introduced to the importance of History in understanding our world, our locality and ourselves.

In Year 7, students will study the main features of Britain in the Anglo-Saxon, Norman, and Medieval periods. Students will explore the changes and continuity between the Anglo-Saxon and Norman period. Students will then explore the power of the King, Church and how society worked during the Later Medieval Period in Britain, before extending the study of medieval rulers onto the international stage. Students go on to learn about the changing constructs of power during the Early Modern period and then end the year by investigating the impact of the Industrial Revolution.

In Year 8, students will investigate the role that Britain played in the Trade in Enslaved People. We will also explore abolition and the Civil Rights Movement in the USA. Students will then examine the impact of the British Empire on its colonies. Students will explore actions in India, China, Ireland and Australia. We will learn about how women gained the vote in 1918 and explore the impact of the Suffragettes, Suffragists and women during World War I. Students will also learn about Portsmouth’s role in the Suffrage movement. Our penultimate topic in Year 8 is World War I, students will investigate the conditions, type of warfare, tactics, key battles and the home front. The final topic of Year 8 is WWII, which we examine from the perspective of both social and military History.

In Year 9, students will start with a thematic study on the impact of migration to Britain over a thousand year period, up to the modern day. This allows for a recap of topics learnt so far, and aids students’ understanding of how the country, and indeed city, that they are living in has been built. This topic also helps build the political understanding that students will need to help them through the rest of the topics this year which are all dated within the C20-21. Students will then assess how the Holocaust was able to happen and judge how the treatment of Jewish people changed in the 1930s and early 1940s. This will be followed by students learning about the Berlin Wall. After this, students carry out a depth study into Sixties Britain, looking at life from various angles such as shopping, the Profumo Affair and fear of nuclear war. The year is ended with a study into the Vietnam War, with a particular focus on the ideological origins – thus laying the foundations for out GCSE topic on the Cold War.

Key Stage 4 (Year 10-11)

Edexcel GCSE History

At Key Stage 4, as part of Paper 1, the course takes us across 1,500 years of history with the History of Crime and Punishment. In Paper 2, we look in depth at British history when we examine Early Elizabethan England 1558-1588 and international history where we explore the Superpower Relations 1941-1991. We also examine Germany from 1918-1939 in Paper 3. The course is very challenging and academic however pupils are supported by a strong department and fortnightly revision sessions in Year 11 and drop-in sessions in Year 10.

Elizabeth 1558-1588 (Paper 2: 20%)

• Key topic 1: Queen, government and religion, 1558–69
• Key topic 2: Challenges to Elizabeth at home and abroad, 1569–88
• Key topic 3: Elizabethan society in the Age of Exploration, 1558–88

Crime and Punishment 1000-present day (Paper 1: 30%)

• c1000–c1500: Crime and punishment in medieval England
• c1500–c1700: Crime and punishment in early modern England
• c1700–c1900: Crime and punishment in eighteenth- and nineteenth century Britain
• c1900–present: Crime and punishment in modern Britain

• Whitechapel, c1870-c1900: crime, policing and the inner city

Weimar and Nazi Germany 1919-1939 (Paper 3: 30%)

• Key topic 1: The Weimar Republic 1918–29
• Key topic 2: Hitler’s rise to power, 1919–33
• Key topic 3: Nazi control and dictatorship, 1933–39
• Key topic 4: Life in Nazi Germany, 1933–39

Cold War 1941-1991 (Paper 2: 20%)

• Key topic 1: The origins of the Cold War, 1941–58
• Key topic 2: Cold War crises, 1958–70
• Key topic 3: The end of the Cold War, 1970–91

Careers