Intent

Our curriculum aims to be ambitious, engaging, inclusive and challenging, we prepare resilient pupils with enquiring minds, who are capable of learning from failure and success in equal measure. Pupils who engage with History at Sir John Nelthorpe School are equipped to become more involved with the complex world they live in, and to maintain throughout their lives a spirit of inquiry and curiosity that can not only make them more active in their communities, but also provide them with personal enrichment. We are committed to providing a coherent, knowledge-rich, broad and balanced curriculum. This ultimately allows all of our pupils to increase their cultural capital and to be able to achieve the following:

Aims for Key Stage 3

• Articulate knowledge of local, national and global History through a range of topics.
• Demonstrate a passion and life-long interest in and understanding of the world around us.
• To become thoughtful, forward thinking citizens who have a clear appreciation of the long road leading to democracy, the rule of law, tolerance and diversity.

Year 7: In Year 7 all students do three fifty minute lessons per week of History. We take an enquiry based approach with our key questions being:

• What can sources teach us about the impact of migration?
• How far did the Normas change Britain?
• Why did the balance of power change in the Middle Ages?
• Why did life in the Middle Ages cause the peasants to revolt?
• How significant were the changes to the Church in the Tudor period?
• What can sources teach us about how big the world was in the 1500s?
• Should the English have killed their King?

Year 8: In Year 8 all pupils do either two or three fifty minute lessons per week of History depending on their group. We continue with enquiry questions.

• What can sources teach us about why empire and industry had such a big impact?
• How significant was the French Revolution?
• Why are there different interpretations of Napoleon?
• How did the slave trade dehumanise those involved?
• Is the fight for Civil Rights over?
• To what extent has equality been achieved in the 21^st century?

Year 9: In Year 9 all pupils do either two or three fifty minute lessons per week of History depending on their group. Our enquiry questions for the year are:

• To what extent has warfare changed over time?
• Why did the world go to war in 1914?
• To what extent did the rise of the dictators cause WW2?
• What was the biggest turning point in WW2?
• Was life difficult on the Home Front?
• Who is responsible for the Holocaust?
• How did the Cold War change Europe/the world?

Aims for Key Stage 4

• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the key features and characteristics of all the periods studied. (Think like a historian)
• Explain and analyse historical events and periods studied using second order historical concepts.
• Analyse, evaluate and use sources (contemporary to the period) to make substantiated judgements, in the context of historical events studied (study like a historian)
• Analyse, evaluate and make substantiated judgements about interpretations in the context of historical events studied.

At Key Stage 4 pupils study History (Edexcel) for 3x50 minute lessons per week and will cover the following topics in the 2 years:

• Weimar & Nazi Germany
• Warfare & Society
• Anglo-Saxon & Norman Britain
• The Blitz
• Superpower Relations & The Cold War
• Revision