Why do we learn history?
History helps us to understand change. It helps to explain how the society we live in came to be. Through learning about the past you have a much better understanding of the present. Not only should you study History because it is all around us but because important abilities and qualities of mind are acquired through the study of History. History also offers students the opportunity to acquire and improve on many key skills including:
- Communication (verbal and written)
- Analytical skills
- The use of information technology
- Learning to learn and independent thinking
- Research skills
- Numeracy/ application of numbers
Head of Department
Ms M Taylor
Our approach
History is made meaningful for all pupils; throughout the course of study they learn about local, national and global history. Throughout the key stages we have embedded themes of morality throughout, enabling there to be a platform to discuss the most challenging and thought-provoking questions of humanity. History encourages the development of enquiry skills, historical analysis and critical thinking.
Courageous
• Controversial and sensitive topics are explored, in order to develop fully informed citizens.
• History encourages the development of debating and evaluation skills allowing students to develop their opinion on a wide range of historical issues.
• Confronting controversial histories and evaluating the differing interpretations of these events.
• Gain an understanding of British history and its impact on the wider world.
• Consider how the past influences the present through the concept of change and continuity and second order concepts such as significance, historical judgment and cause and consequence.
Compassionate
• Making history relatable, meaningful and engaging for all.
• Develop an appreciation for the challenges faced by different groups of people and how they differ to the modern era.
• At Bolingbroke Academy we aim to making history meaningful for all pupils. History helps us understand how the society we live in came to be.
• Develop an awareness of the diversity of human experiences and reflecting on their personal choices, attitudes and values.
Community
• Adopting an attitude of respect when discussing the varied experiences of different groups of people.
• Enriching the education of students through residential trips to over 4 international destinations to extend the learning in the classroom.
• Establish an understanding of the chronological framework of significant events in world history.
• Find out about what past societies were like, how these societies organised themselves and what beliefs and cultures influenced people's actions and sense of morality.
Empowering Excellence
• Ensuring staff always strive for excellence with regular CPD and moderation sessions.
• Ensuring student voices are always heard and pupils develop a clear sense of opinion building a tolerance and respect for others.
• Each lesson has related historical fiction recommendations along with links to associated places of interest that the pupils can use to deepen their knowledge and interest in the subject. Thus, developing their cultural capital.
• Become greater critical thinkers by using evidence to unlock the past and providing the skills needed to conduct wider historical enquiries.
• Developing an ability to interpret the past through analysing and evaluating differing historians’ perspectives and forming their own conclusions on the past.
Year 7
| Autumn |
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What is History? Ancients |
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• Interpretations • Chronology • Sources • Reliability • Change and Continuity • Significance • Neolithic period • Skara Brae: Case study • Bronze Age and Iron Age • Anglo Saxons and Vikings (Historical concepts and skills) (Ancient and dark-age developments) |
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Skills taught: Pupils will be introduced to the key concepts that historians use to study the past: • Interpretations • Chronology • Sources, Evidence & Reliability • Cause and Consequence • Change and Continuity • Significance |
| Spring 1 | Spring 2 |
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Norman Conquest The Black Death |
Challenges to the Crown and Church Tudors |
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• 1066 • Stamford Bridge • Saxons vs Normans • Battle of Hastings • The Bayeux Tapestry. • Arrival of the Black Death • Beliefs of the Black Death • Changes in society • Impact of the Black Death (England, warfare and invasion) (Medieval beliefs and ideas) |
• Thomas Becket • King John • Magna Carta • Parliament • Peasants Revolt • Henry VIII • Break with Rome • English Reformation • Edward Tudor (Power, people and the Church) (Reformation, Monarchs and religion) |
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Skills taught: • Learning the causes of 1066. • Defining the chronology • Making inferences on evidence. • Comparing causes and consequences • Associating what changed and stayed the same. • Exemplifying the significance of events |
Skills taught: • Inferring the reliability of sources and identifying different interpretations to historical periods. • Associating the significance of events • Examining the role of change and continuity during Edward’s reign. |
| Summer |
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Tudors Stuarts |
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• Lady Jane Grey • Mary • Elizabeth • Mary Queen of Scots • Union of the Crowns • Gunpowder Plot • Charles I • Civil War, Roundheads vs Cavaliers • Parliament victory & Cromwell (Union, revolution and warfare) |
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Skills taught: • Using previously hidden historical sources • Describing change under Mary I • Discussing the significance of Elizabeth and 1603 • Outlining chronology of the war and it’s consequences • Associating different interpretations of Cromwell |
Year 8
| Autumn |
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| Slavery, Britain & Empire |
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• The Transatlantic trade triangle • The conditions of the Middle Passage • Life on plantations • How slaves resisted and how was slavery abolished. • Industrial Revolution • Cities and improvements in public health. • British Empire • The East India Company & Indian mutiny 1857 • Expansion into Africa • Transporting criminals to Australia • Gandhi and the salt marches • The end of British rule in India. (Power, Atrocities and Globalisation) |
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Skills taught: • Exploring interpretations of slavery • Evaluating the causes and consequences of the trade triangle. • Understanding the significance of the Middle Passage • Assessing the reliability of sources • Considering the significance of the Industrial Revolution and British Empire • Explaining the chronology of the British Empire • Explaining the causes of expansion in Africa. • Investigating sources on transportation • Investigating Gandhi’s significance and the consequences of the Salt Marches. |
| Spring |
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| World War I |
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• Long term causes • Short term causes • British recruitment • Conscientious objectors • Trench warfare • Weapons of WW1 • Haig, leaders and their shortcomings • Shellshock • Women in 1914 • The suffrage movement and gaining the vote (Europe, Nationalism and suffrage) |
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Skills taught: • Explaining the long term and short term causes of the First World War • Assessing a range of sources to investigate life on the Western Front and why the government censored this information. • Investigating interpretations of Haig and the Battle of the Somme • Analysing the significance of the Suffragette movement before 1914. • Discussing the consequences of the suffragette movement on women in British society. |
| Summer |
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| Russian Revolution |
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• Life in Russia • The Tsar and early troubles • Revolution of 1905 • Communism – A political ideology • Lenin, the Bolsheviks and the October Revolution • The Civil War • Lenin’s Russia • The rise of Stalin • Stalin’s rule over Russia • Stalin’s effect on the Soviet Union. (Politics, Ideologies and Control) |
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Skills taught: • Differentiating between long and short term causes. • Utilizing specific evidence to reach a judgement on the Bolsheviks success. • Source work analysing interpretations and opinions on the death of Nicholas II and his family. • Evaluating the extent of change for Russian people and the role of Lenin’s leadership using contemporary sources and interpretations. • Analysing the consequences of Stalin on women, workers and young people in Russia and reach a judgement. • Assessing how Stalin is interpreted throughout history. |
Year 9
| Autumn |
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| World War Two |
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• Treaty of Versailles • German reactions & Growing support for Hitler • Living under Nazi rule & the causes of WW2 • Dunkirk • Battle of Britain • The Blitz • Evacuation of British children • Winston Churchill • Rationing and British propaganda • Operation Barbarossa • Pearl Harbour • D-Day • Victory in Europe • Atomic bomb (Warfare, Fascism and Freedom) |
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Skills taught: • Organising the consequences of WW1 • Interpreting sources of Nazi Germany • Questioning the causes of WW2 • Distinguishing the significance of Dunkirk • Critiquing the reliability of British propaganda • Comparing interpretations of Churchill • Examining the consequences of Pearl Harbour and D Day • Investigating the chronology of the end of WWII • Arguing different interpretations of dropping the Atomic Bomb |
| Spring |
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| Civil Rights in the USA |
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• Segregation in the 1930s • Emmet Till • Brown vs Board education reform • Rosa Parks • Student protests • Martin Luther King • Malcolm X • The Selma to Montgomery march • Black Panthers and Black Power • US Presidents and the Civil Rights movement. (Emancipation, Protest and Equality) |
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Skills taught: • Analysing the consequences of slavery • Weighing up the significance of Brown vs Board education case • Appraising the significance of Rosa Parks, MLK and Malcolm X • Judging different interpretations of Civil Rights leaders • Defending and critiquing Interpretations of Black Panthers • Formulating the significance of Presidents and their contributions to the Civil Rights movement. |
| Summer |
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| Korea & Vietnam |
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• The Red Menace • The spread of communism to Asia • The Korean War • Indochina and the new theatre of war • Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Cong • Gulf of Tonkin 1964 and • increasing US involvement in Vietnam • Tet Offensive • Anti-war protest movements • Nixon and Vietnamization • Nixon and the end of the Vietnam war • The fall of Saigon and the consequences of the Vietnam War (Proxy warfare, Moral confusion and international relations) |
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Skills taught: • Organising the causes of the communist spread in SE Asia • Analysing the consequences of the Korean War • Evaluating the causes of the transition to Vietnam • Weighing up the Significance of Ho Chi Minh • Investigating the consequences of 1964 and increasing US involvement • Arguing for and against the significance of Anti-war movements with links to the Civil Rights movement . • Assessing interpretations of Richard Nixon and the causes of the end of US involvement. • Judging the consequences of the Vietnam War. |
Year 10
| Autumn |
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| Medicine Through Time |
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Medicine through time 1250-present • Hippocrates, Galen, Four Humours • Medieval Medical Training, Black Death • Renaissance Medicine, Thomas Sydenham, William Harvey, Case Study. Great Plague, • Public Health in the 19th Century, Edwin Chadwick • Dr John Snow, Louis Pasteur and Germ theory, • Florence Nightingale, Edward Jenner and Vaccination, • The founding of the NHS, DNA, Fleming and Penicillin • The fight against lung cancer The British sector of Western Front: • Trenches, Ypres, Arras, • Wounds from rifles and explosives. shrapnel, • Wound infection, the effects of gas attacks • The RAMC and FANY. stretcher bearers, horse and motor ambulances, aid post and field ambulance dressing station, casualty clearing station, base hospital, • The Thomas splint, mobile x-ray units, blood banks. (Health, progress and development) |
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Skills taught: • Investigating changing explanations of the causes of disease and illness • Discovering how the extent of change and continuity can differ from different time periods • Judging the significance of emerging treatments in the Medieval, Renaissance, Industrial Revolution and the 20th and 21st Centuries. • Weighing up the qualities that produce helpful evidence. • Assessing the usefulness of sources and evaluating their reliability to a historian. |
| Spring |
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| The Cold War |
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Superpower relations and the Cold War: • Communism: An ideology • Communist Russia, Capitalist America. • Iron Curtain, Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan • Post War Germany • Stalin • Berlin Blockade • Cold War Alliances • Nuclear Weapons, Space Race • Hungarian Uprising • Berlin crises, Berlin Wall • Castro and Cuba, Cuban Missile Crises, • Czechoslovakia, Prague Spring, • Brezhnev, Détente, Soviets in Afghanistan, • Ronald Reagan, Cold War Rebooted • Glasnost and Perestroika, Collapse of Communism, • Fall of Berlin Wall. (International relations, protest and warfare) |
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Skills taught: • Examining the building tensions and assessing the importance and significance of the start of the Cold War. • Creating narratives pinpointing the chronology of the two superpowers in the period 1941-91 • The causes and consequences of Cold War crises 1958-70 The significance of the end of the Cold War, 1970–91 |
| Summer |
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| Early Elizabethan England |
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Early Elizabethan England. • Queen, Government and Religion • Elizabeth’s problems and decisions • Challenges to the Religious Settlement 1558-69. • Challenges to Elizabeth from France and Spain • the problem with Mary, Queen of Scots. • The Revolt of the Northern Earls, Ridolfi Plot, Throckmorton Plot, Babington Plot, • The execution of Mary Queen of Scots • Rivalry and war with Spain, • English involvement in the Netherlands and the invasion of the Spanish Armada. • Leisure, education and the problems of the poor Exploration, voyages of discovery, the New World • Sir Francis Drake and the circumnavigation of the globe • Walter Raleigh and Virginia. The end of Elizabeth’s reign. (Monarchs, Religion and international rivalry) |
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Skills taught: • Understanding the development and chronology of the Queen, her government and religion 1558–69. • Assessing the significance of the Challenges to Elizabeth at home and abroad 1569–88. • Creating judgments on the most significant factors that led to turning points during the period. |
Year 11
| Autumn |
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| Weimar and Nazi Germany |
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Weimar and Nazi Germany • The origins of the Republic, the Weimar Constitution, early challenges 1918-23, • Hyperinflation, Recovery 1924-29 • Changes in Society 1924-29, Cultural changes 1924-29 • Early development of the Nazi Party, Beliefs and Organisation, • Munich Putsch and lean years 1923-29 • The party rebuilds 1924-29, Growth in support 1929-32 • How Hitler became Chancellor 1932-33 • The creation of a dictatorship 1933-34 • The creation of a Police State • Controlling and influencing attitudes, Opposition and Resistance, Nazi policy toward Women • Nazi policies towards youth, Employment and living standards, The persecution of minorities. (Democracy, Fascism and Dictatorship) |
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Skills taught: • Evaluating emerging Interpretations of The Weimar Republic 1918-29, Hitler's rise to power 1918-33 and Nazi control 1933- 39. • Assessing the usefulness of sources and evaluating their reliability. • Determining the significance of consequences of the Nazi rise. • Judging how convincing interpretations of the period are and assessing how interpretations can change depending on the historian. |
| Spring |
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| Revision and Exam Skills |
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Revision • Paper 1 – Revision of Medicine Topic • Paper 2 – Revision of Cold War and Elizabeth Topic • Paper 3 – Revision of Germany Topic Exam Skills • Paper 1 – Exam Skills • Paper 2 – Exam Skills • Paper 3 – Exam Skills |
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Skills taught: • Extended writing • Paragraph formation • Summarising and linking • Exam question decoding • Evaluating the usefulness of sources • Analysing the accuracy of interpretations |
| Summer |
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| Assessment |
Year 12
| Autumn & Spring | |
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Soviet Russia Mao’s China |
| Summer | |
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Russia, Coursework & Tudors The coursework comprises of a 4000-word essay on a particular time period of the Arab Israeli Conflict and assess how three historians interpret the events in question. The Tudors |
Year 13
| Autumn | |
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Tudors & Coursework
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| Spring | |
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China, Russia & Tudors Revision
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| Summer | |
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| Assessment |