Welcome to History

At Evelyn Grace Academy, the intent of the History department is Making ‘OUR SOCIETY’ a better place by empowering students to engage in ‘OUR HISTORY’. We aim to give the students a sense of belonging to ‘Our Society’ through engaging in ‘Our History’. Students are part of something greater than themselves but equally they are an important part of that greatness. At Ark Evelyn Grace Academy (EGA) we believe ‘Our Society’ is rooted in and shaped by ‘Our History’, but it is not constrained by it. Studying ‘Our History’ at EGA will help to develop our students’ core ‘Circle of Strengths’. Studying History at EGA will spark students’ curiosity about the world. They will become critical thinkers who can recognise trustworthy sources of information, evaluate why things happened and, through reflection, apply them to improve ‘Our Society’ today. Studying History at EGA will help students to become moral leaders in ‘Our Society’. They will become responsible people who act with integrity in any situation. Through studying issues of class, racism, sexism, and religious persecution they will discover and develop their sense of empathy and sympathy and become kinder and more compassionate leaders. We also cover everything that is required form the National Curriculum.

Studying History at EGA will also help to develop students’ confidence and eloquence. Through structured class discussion and presentations, we will develop the students’ public speaking confidence. Through the imparting of key historical knowledge and the skills needed to become life-long learners, students will display eloquence in verbal and written communication. Whether students study History to the end of KS3 or continue at KS4 we will nurture their talent for life-long happiness and success. They will be empowered and have the courage they need to thrive in life.

Knowledge-rich

In order to build skills and achieve mastery in History, students must be knowledgeable and so our curriculum is designed with that at its core. In lessons, students are exposed to a significant amount of new knowledge which is chunked to make it manageable to allow working memory to process it and transfer it to their long-term memory. The cognitive load is also being placed ever increasingly on the students and, because of this ‘chewing’, the students are more likely to retain the rich amount of knowledge. We plan thoroughly to ensure knowledge is retained and thus built upon each lesson, each topic, and each year through a mixture of low stakes testing with DO NOW quizzes at the start of every lesson and consolidate true/false quizzes at the end. Students also receive regular multiple-choice quizzes on key content as online homework. The quizzes are interleaved for example with at least one DO NOW question per lesson coming from a topic from a previous topic.

Vocabulary-rich

A good level of literacy is key to success for our students in History but many of our students join the school reading below the reading level for their age. We therefore make our curriculum explicitly vocabulary rich in order to help our students develop their literacy skills in part by developing their vocabulary. We do this at all stages of our lesson. For example, in our DO NOW quizzes they will almost always include a question on a past key word definition. In the activate phase, we will always have a key word defined, almost always a word from our Single Measurable Objective (SMO), which will also provide the word in context and have a task in which students can apply that key word. During reading tasks, students are asked to underline words they don’t know, and these are defined during whole class feedback. Finally, every Independent Learning Task (ILT) includes a word bank for students to use in their extended writing. Outside of the classroom, students have termly spelling tests on key words set as online homework.

Mastery

Mastery is the instinctive application of knowledge and skill, without the need for active and deliberate thought. In History, this can be seen in class with student writing in their ILT which will reaching the objective set out in the SMO at the start of the lesson. It can also be seen in students eloquently discussing issue during verbal class discussions. Finally, Mastery can be seen through assessments. Students who achieve this goal of mastering key content will be able to make clear points, support those points with specific evidence and then explain how the evidence provided supports their point. Mastery students will also be able demonstrate nuanced evaluation of key statements or issues.

Progression Planning

Yr8/9 at EGA is currently taught thematically and each year students build upon their knowledge of key themes. Although not taught chronologically students will be clearly shown where in the wider Historical chronology each topic fits in and through independent study (homework) they will be afforded the chance to consider events chronologically.

In Yr7 we are partly following a new Ark Network wide aligned curriculum pilot which is being taught chronologically. The Ark Secondary History Curriculum aims to ensure that pupils are better able to understand the past, and the accounts of the past they will inevitably encounter, than they could otherwise have done (Lee, 2017). The curriculum also emancipates pupils, equipping them with the knowledge necessary in order to participate in educated discourse and therefore understand and participate in social and political worlds (Counsell, 2021: 154). The curriculum achieves this by ensuring that pupils not only have broad and strong substantive knowledge – a coherent picture of the past – but also understanding of the discipline of history.

Throughout KS3 we use several Edexcel GCSE style questions in order for students to develop these skills, so they are well prepared for starting History at GCSE. At KS4 we follow the Edexcel History exam specification. We have chosen topics that cover a variety of aspects of History from the social/scientific (Medicine Through Time), politics/prejudice (Weimar and Nazi Germany), gender/monarchy (Elizabethan England) and international politics/war (Cold War), this ensure that students are exposed to a wide range of topics that will be applicable to their lives in different ways. We have also ensured that the topics at GCSE develop rather than repeat the topics covered at KS3 to allow students to progress in their level of historical understanding.

Enrichment

Although it has not been possible during the pandemic it is the ambition of the History Department to provide students in all Key Stages with the opportunity to take part in History enrichment trips in our wide community to enhance their curriculum by showing them the real-world applicability of the topics they are studying. For example, at GCSE we would like students to visit the Old Operating Theatre, by Guy’s hospital, to see Victorian surgery in the flesh to bring to life their Medicine Through Time course. At KS3 students we would like to visit the nearby Imperial War Museum to complement their studies of WWI (Yr7), WW2 (Yr8) and the Holocaust (Yr9).

All Year 7 subjects Next Year 7 Subject - Geography

All Year 8 subjects Next Year 8 Subject - Geography

All Year 9 subjects Next Year 9 Subject - Geography

All Year 10 subjects Next Year 10 Subject - Geography

All Year 11 subjects Next Year 11 Subject - Geography