History

The past is always with us, for it feeds the present.”

Ruskin Bond

The History Department’s curriculum is designed to promote a love for, and a deep understanding of the past. Our aim is that our students become passionate and skilful historians: we want to create lifelong learners. We believe that our curriculum provides a rich body of knowledge which encourages our students to think carefully about how the past and the present are connected, both here and in the wider world. Using this knowledge, we ensure that students make progress in constructing a coherent mental model of the societies that have come before us. To achieve this, our courses across the key stages see students systematically grapple with the issues and dilemmas past societies have faced, their solutions and the consequences of those decisions. It is also our intention that students at Churchdown should also see themselves and their families’ histories reflected in our curriculum. By fostering a spirit of enquiry and an understanding of key historical concepts, students develop the essential skills that are the foundations of historical understanding. This powerful knowledge and range of skills means that students are encouraged to challenge the provenance of information, evaluate different interpretations and process challenging content, becoming increasingly able to form judgements and considered argument about aspects of the past. Our curriculum is deliberately constructed so that students are encouraged to appreciate the full diversity of experience of human society across time and place.

Subject: History

Jump to Year Group:

Year 7
Year 8
Year 9
Year 10
Year 11

Year 7

Autumn 1	Autumn 2
Was Britain stuck in the ‘Dark Ages’ before 1066? What is History?	How far do you agree that the Battle of Hastings was ‘lost’ by Harold rather than won by William?
Spring 1	Spring 2
Did the Normans bring a ‘truckload of trouble’ in 1066?	Are people right to be so negative about the Middle Ages?
Summer 1	Summer 2
What can a map tell us about medieval Africa? How far did Henry, Edward and Mary change religion in Tudor England?	Was Britain in 1558 radically different from Britain in 1100?

Year 8

Autumn 1	Autumn 2
How was Britain in 1558 different from today? How successfully did Elizabeth I rule England?	To what extent was life in Tudor England, diverse? Why did some people believe the world had ‘turned upside down’ in the 1640s?
Spring 1	Spring 2
What did the Industrial Revolution mean to ordinary men, women and children?	How closely was Britain involved with the wider world?
Summer 1	Summer 2
Was Britain still a ‘country of two nations’ by the end of the 1800s?	How far had Britain changed between 1558 and 1901?

Year 9

Autumn 1	Autumn 2
How far did Britain enjoy a ‘golden age’ in the early 1900s? How should we remember the First World War?	What was the legacy of WW1?
Spring 1	Spring 2
How did the Nazis come close to achieving the total destruction of Europe’s Jews?	Why do historians disagree about the causes of the Second World War? What was the impact of WW2?
Summer 1	Summer 2
Has Britain changed for the better since 1945?	How has Britain changed between 1901 and the present day?

Year 10

Autumn 1	Autumn 2
Weimar and Nazi Germany 1918-39: The Weimar Republic, 1918-29	Hitler’s rise to power, 1919-33 Nazi control and dictatorship, 1933-39
Spring 1	Spring 2
Life in Nazi Germany, 1933-39	Superpower relations and the Cold War, 1941-91: The origins of the Cold War, 1941-58
Summer 1	Summer 2
Cold War crises, 1958-70 The end of the Cold War, 1970-91	Medicine in Britain, c.1250-present: Medicine in medieval England, c1250-c.1500 The Medical Renaissance in England, c.1500-c.1700

Year 11

Autumn 1	Autumn 2
Medicine in 18th- and 19th-century Britain, c.1700-c.1900	Medicine in modern Britain, c.1900-present
Spring 1	Spring 2
Anglo-Saxon and Norman England, c.1060-1088: Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest, 1060-66	William I in power: securing the kingdom, 1066-87 Norman England, 1066-88
Summer 1	Summer 2
Revision and Exams	Revision and Exams