History - Shireland Collegiate Academy

History helps students to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.

Head of Department: Mr Smith

I studied for an undergraduate degree in Ancient History at Cardiff University and a Masters degree in the History of Christianity at the University of Birmingham before completing a PGCE at the University of Warwick. I started teaching at Shireland Collegiate Academy in 2013 and have been Head of the Humanities Faculty since 2018.

History in Year 7 is taught as a part of the L4L thematic curriculum:

Journey to the centre of the Earth – Pompeii
Days of Old – Norman Conquest, feudal system, Castles and Sieges, Thomas Beckett, Crusades, Black Death, King John, Magna Carta, Peasants’ Revolt

Journeys – Medieval pilgrimage, religion as a catalyst for historical change, the Holy Land
Off with your Head – The Tudors: Tudor Kings, Tudor Queens, the Religious Rollercoaster, Life in Tudor England. Stuarts: The Gunpowder Plot, Civil War, Cromwell and the Restoration
Silent Movies – life in the early 20th century

History in Year 8 is taught as a part of the L4L thematic curriculum:

Pudding Lane – The Great Plague
Grand Designs – Settlement
Coming and Going – migration to Britain, Syria
India – Mughal India, British Raj, independence

Freedom – the Empire, slavery and America, abolition of slavery in the UK, black civil rights, suffragettes
Over the Top – Causes of the Great War, propaganda and recruitment, life in the trenches, Christmas truce, Walter Tull, Muslim Tommies, The Home Front, peace and the Treaty of Versailles
Please sir – Industrial Revolution, Victorian inventions and their influence, Victorian school and Jack the Ripper
Follow the leader – historical leaders

History in Year 9 is taught as a part of the L4L thematic curriculum:

Whose Earth is It Anyway? – What is Africa like/Scramble for Africa
Tragedy – rise of the Nazis, antisemitism through time and the Holocaust
World Study: America: Land of the Free – the First Americans, Settlements of the West, 9/11 and its legacy

World Study: Britain: A Living History – politics in Britain since 1945, the Cold War, Britain’s economy

Students who choose to continue studying History in Year 10 will follow the Edexcel History GCSE course. Students will primarily study the Early Elizabethan England 1558-1588 and the American West c.1835-c.1895.

As well as beginning intensive preparation for the summer examinations, students will study Weimar and Nazi Germany 1918-1939 and Warfare and British Society c.1250-present. This latter unit includes a historic environment study on London in the Second World War.

Following the changes to examinations made by Ofqual to the summer 2022 examinations, Year 11 students sitting their examinations summer 2022 will not be studying the Warfare unit.

KS4 COURSE

WHAT IS THE COURSE ABOUT?

Edexcel GCSE History

GCSE History is an academically challenging and rigorous subject that demands commitment on the part of the students who study it.

Unit 1 – Thematic Study and historic environment: Warfare and British society, c1250–present and London and the Second World War, 1939–45.
Unit 2 – British Depth Study: Early Elizabethan England, 1558–88.
Unit 3 – Period Study: The American West, c1835–c1895
Unit 4 – Modern Depth Study: Weimar and Nazi Germany, 1918–39

This course is assessed by four examination papers which are held in the summer term at the end of Year 11. There is no coursework. Students will be prepared for this by classwork, homework which is set every week with regular feedback and regular examination question practice. Within the classroom, students will have the opportunity to express their views and debate the significance of the topics studied.

WHAT CAN HISTORY LEAD TO?

All A-levels and different degree courses.

The study of people is at the heart of History- their feelings, attitudes, prejudices and motivation. This understanding is very useful in the ‘people professions’, from receptionists, hairdressers and beauticians to teachers, the health service, social work, lawyers, and civil servants.

History teaches key life skills and helps to prepare students for interviews and university life.

HOW WILL I BE ASSESSED?

Four examination papers across three sessions at the end of Year 11. There is no coursework or controlled assessment.

WHAT SKILLS ARE REQUIRED?

Independent learning, high quality written communication skills, sophisticated vocabulary, analytical and evaluative skills, ability to evaluate primary sources and historical interpretations.