Wey Valley Academy

History

History Teaching Staff

Miss L Bucke – Assistant Vice Principal/Acting CAL
Miss R White
Miss J Armstrong
Mr J Mutton

Why History is important

History is an academic subject rich in powerful knowledge. It provides coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. 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. Powerful knowledge in History:

Provides students with a broad range of historical knowledge and understanding, including a sense of development over time, and an appreciation of the culture and attitudes of societies other than our own.
Allows students to gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts.
Gives students power over their own knowledge allowing them to evaluate critically the significance and utility of a large body of material, including evidence from contemporary sources and interpretations of historians.
Enables students to engage directly with questions and present independent opinions about them in arguments that are well-written, clearly expressed, coherently organised and effectively supported by relevant evidence.
Allows students to gain the confidence to undertake self-directed learning, making the most effective use of time and resources, and increasingly defining one’s own questions and goals.
History education within the Wey Valley School aims to equip our students with both powerful knowledge and the skills required to become well-rounded individuals. Our curriculum is structured to nurture a love of History through the development of key historical skills and a depth of knowledge. Students develop the five key concepts using evidence, interpretations, significance, change and continuity and cause and consequence. These concepts are used as tools for students to make sense of, and understand, the volume of knowledge required for the development of expertise. Students study a wide range of historical periods from Roman Britain to modern day terrorism. This enables students to study the past from a variety of standpoints and to make connections and comparisons over time.

KS3 Curriculum

We are following the Schools History Project at KS3, this syllabus provides students with a detailed knowledge and understanding of a wide range of historical people, periods and places in our world. The SHP is well resources and we feel provides fun and challenging activities to engage our students and meets the requirements for the National Curriculum. We chose the SHP course at KS3 as we felt it was the course that provided the most well-rounded history education. It provides intriguing content, in depth historical investigation, meaningful and enjoyable tasks, varied learning styles and differentiated resources. The curriculum in Key Stage 3 has been designed to introduce our students to a well-rounded History of our world. By underpinning knowledge and key historical concepts early in these two years.

The topics that are studied in year 7 are:

Introduction to History skills
The Battle of Hastings and how the Normans changed Britain
The Medieval period and the Black Death
Who were the Tudors? And what did they do for Britain?
Who were the Stuarts? And how did they change Britain?

The topics studied in year 8 are:

  • Black peoples of America
  • Women’s Suffrage
  • World War One
  • A wider understanding of the world we live in
  • A greater knowledge of our past and how this has shaped our world around us
  • Removing preconceived ideas
  • Confidently apply key historical skills to the wider world

The topics studied in Year 9 are:

  • The Titanic
  • Jack the Ripper
  • 1920’s America and its impact
  • The assassination of JFK
  • The Holocaust

KS4 Curriculum

We chose the Pearson/ Edexcel exam board because we felt it provided the students with the broadest range of topics that provided a mixture of early history, modern history and world history. There is also cross over between the three different exam papers with similar question styles that enable our students to develop the skills and then apply this to each of the topics. There is a strong focus on ensuring our students are well rounded individuals with a knowledge and understanding of the past. The Department has opted to follow the Edexcel Specification, which we firmly believe meets the needs of our students, providing them with a broad and balanced curriculum of both early and modern History, along with the fundamental skills that History can provide.

Paper 1: Crime and Punishment in Britain, c1000-present, and Whitechapel, c1870-c1900, Policing and the inner city, The Medieval period 1000-1500

  • 1500-1700
  • 1700-1900
  • 1900-present
  • Whitechapel 1870-1900

(Each time period looks at change and continuity in Crime, Punishment and Law Enforcement.)

Paper 2: Superpower relations and The Cold War, 1941-1991, Medieval depth study (Anglo Saxon and Norman England 1060-1080)

  • The origins of the Cold War, 1941-1958
  • Cold War crisis, 1958-1970
  • The end of the Cold War 1970-1991

Medieval depth study (Anglo Saxon and Norman England 1060-1080)

  • Anglo Saxon society and the Norman Conquest, 1060-1066
  • William I in power, securing the Kingdom, 1066-1087
  • Norman England, 1066-1088

Paper 3: Weimar and Nazi Germany, 1918-1939

  • The Weimar Republic, 1918- 1929
  • Hitler’s rise to power, 1919-1931
  • Nazi control and dictatorship, 1933-1939
  • Life in Nazi Germany, 1933-1939

Extra-Curricular Activities

To further develop capital culture, History offers students a range of experiences outside of the classroom environment. These opportunities are designed to develop students’ learning experience and their cultural understanding of the world around them. Past experiences have included a GCSE trip to London, where students have the opportunity to relive the streets of Victorian London and key elements of the Crime and Punishment topic in the London Dungeons and the London Eye providing students with awareness of some of the key Historical sites the capital city has.

KS3 students have had the opportunity to visit Poole’s Lighthouse theatre to experience Horrible Histories come to life and a visit to Southampton Theatre gave students the opportunity to see War Horse come to life and develop their understanding of some of the hardships faced by people of Britain during WW1.

In addition to out-of-school activities, the History Department runs a History ‘Fun Club’ for those students with a real passion for the subject. These students have undergone challenges and games relating to specific periods of History.

GCSE Specification

Click to view GCSE specification – History