Mr A Perry BA Hons Head of Department
Dr RJ Wilkinson PhD
Miss A Douglas BA Hons

Our Aims

• To arouse student interest in the past. History raises fundamental questions and generates speculation about past events. It also arouses natural curiosity.
• To help students understand the present in the context of the past. History illuminates student understanding of the present by providing a context for contemporary events.
• To prepare students for adult life. History gives students a framework of reference, opportunities for the informed use of leisure and a critical intelligence with which to make sense of current affairs.
• To examine History as a mode of knowing, thinking and finding out about the past using its specialist techniques and methodologies. This will lead to a disciplined development of student’s ability to enquire into the past and to analyse and evaluate available evidence.
• To enable students to articulate and communicate their findings in appropriate ways.
• To ensure that students learn effectively and achieve their potential in public examinations.
• To enhance the teaching of cross-curricular elements such as ICT and language skills.

Resources

• Two large teaching rooms and a digital projector
• An extensive departmental library of books and video resources
• A range of software packages including History Live

Extra Curricular Activities

• The department runs a varied and exciting range of trips and excursions, travelling as
  far as Prague, Krakow and Berlin.
• Closer to home, other visits include a Y7 trip to Chepstow Castle and a Y9 trip to
  the Imperial War Museum

Years 7 - 9

The Key-Stage 3 curriculum covers 1066 to the present day, providing students with a chronological outline of the last 100 years of history as well as allowing them to develop their skills and knowledge by studying a range of topics in greater depth. These include Castles, The Reformation, The French Revolution, War in the 20^th Century and the Holocaust.

Years 10 - 11

• GCSE History is an exciting and challenging GCSE enjoyed by a high proportion of students.
• The course has 4 main parts:
• Britain 1906-1918
• Russia 1905-1945
• International Relations 1945-1991
• America 1919-1975 (coursework)
• 25% of the examination is coursework, and the remainder an assessment of analysis and interpretation of sources and key events in the syllabus.
• For the full exam board GCSE History specification click here

Post 16

• History A-Level is about exciting content around a structured frame. Units of study are diverse, although there are strong lines of continuity over 2 years. You will study several overarching themes and also look at more focused depth studies. There is also the opportunity to determine some of the course yourself through the Individual Study unit.
  
• Assessment is based around 3 units at the end of each year with source questions, structured answers and essays all being included.
  
• One of the most exciting aspects of the course is that much of what we study can be experienced, whether it is under the gates of Auschwitz or within the National Portrait Gallery. We therefore extend our studies with a series of visits to institutions, lectures and other relevant events.
  
• Half of your studies will be spent studying Nazi Germany. You will be expected to interpret source material on ‘The Seeds of Evil’ and the Nazi State. These units allow you to build on GCSE work whilst also adding a new dimension of learning to relevant and emotive topics.
  
• In what will be new to many students, the development of Britain as a nation will be examined, primarily in political and social terms, leading to an understanding of how modern-day Britain emerged. Whether it is studying the insanity of kings, virtual civil war, the foundation of the welfare state or the rise of the Labour Party, these units reflect the chance to understand your place in today’s Britain.
  
• The Individual Study is the piece of coursework where you determine what you wish to study, and can go some considerable way to gaining you a really high grade. Topics chosen to date include King Arthur, The French Revolution, World War One, McCarthyism, and Apartheid in South Africa.
  
• For the full exam board specification on Advanced GCE History click here.