History Curriculum

Our Curriculum Intent

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History helps pupils understand the world around them by helping them to understand the events of the past. The department has a strong focus on students being able to know more, remember more, understand more and apply more knowledge in line with the entire school focus. This is done by constantly and effectively embedding crucial knowledge into all lessons, recap and home learning, meaning that all students feel confident with their learning and are able to make excellent progress within History. 

Each and every pupil is given access to the crucial knowledge relevant to the year in which they are in and their whole school History learning journey. Pupils feel confident in accessing these documents and are able to use them effectively to help inform their learning, recap and revision. 

As such, the decision has been made to undertake a two-year focused, crucial knowledge-driven Key Stage 3 which gives pupils a broad-ranging understanding of the past whilst developing the skills required to be able to succeed at GCSE History. 

Key skills focussed on include, but are not limited to; Chronology, Knowledge & Understanding, Source Analysis, Change & Continuity and Cause & Consequence. 

Key Stage 3

In Key Stage Three, pupils will have two lessons of History in Year 7 and two lessons of History in Year 8. This allows pupils to explore many areas of the past as well as develop the skills that will be required to study GCSE History should this be a GCSE option choice of theirs. 

Students in Year 7 will study:

  • Where We Came From (The Iron Age – The Norman Conquest)
  • Life and Death in the Middle Ages
  • The Tudors
  • The Stuarts

Students in Year 8 will study: 

  • Empire & Industry
  • The Great War at Home & Abroad 
  • Women’s Suffrage
  • Slavery to Civil Rights
  • World War Two
  • The Holocaust

Key Stage 4

When studying GCSE History at CCSC, students will learn about British history for at least 50% of the new GCSE course. In addition to historic periods ranging from Norman to Restoration England, the AQA course includes three options for studying themes that have shaped the nation over many centuries: the relationship and struggles between citizens and the state; Britain's changing national identity and the development of public health.

The course also includes a new section on the Historic Environment, where students learn about the role of a specific UK location in history. Our choice of Elizabethan England will allow our students to study sites such as The Globe Theatre, Hardwick Hall and the site where the English troops were rallied by Elizabeth at Tilbury during the threat from the Spanish Armada. 

Students will study:

  • One period study– Germany 1871 – 1945
  • One wider world depth study– Conflict and Tension 1945 – 72 (The Cold War)
  • One thematic study– Britain, Health and the People
  • One British depth study(including the Historic Environment) - Elizabethan England, 1568 - 1603

Students have access to an online digital textbook (Kerboodle) designed for the AQA course. Students will be given a Kerboodle login which gives them access to the resources from any device connected to the internet, allowing pupils to combine this knowledge with their crucial knowledge in order to assist them in their learning both inside and outside of the classroom. 

For further information please visit the official AQA GCSE History course website by clicking THIS LINK.

We aim to offer a foreign trip to compliment the learning of our pupils which is specifically but not explicitly of benefit to those who choose to take GCSE History. Previous trips of this nature have included Auschwitz and Berlin. 

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