Key Stage 4 History

History History

History is one of the few truly academic subjects that remain on offer in schools; indeed, it is regarded as one of the last bastions of academic standards and as such is both rigorous and demanding. As part of the prestigious English Baccalaureate, only awarded to those succeeding in English, Maths, Science, a language and Humanities subject, History should be taken by any pupil serious about going on into further and higher education.

Curriculum Content

The course followed is AQA Modern World History specification B and covers the following areas:

Year 10 (Unit 1):

  1. Post WW1: Peacemaking 1918-19 and the League of Nations
  2. Hitler’s foreign policy and the outbreak of WW2
  3. The Cold War 1945-55

Year 11 (Unit 2):

  1. The USA 1919-29: effect of WW1, isolation, ‘Roaring 20’s’, flappers, gangsters, crime, speakeasies, prohibition, Wall Street Crash.
  2. The USA 1929-41: Great Depression, President Hoover, President Roosevelt, New Deal, Supreme Court, outbreak of WW2.
  3. Nazi Germany 1929-39: daily life, women, Hitler Youth, Holocaust, education, economic policy, keeping control, fear.

Controlled Assessment (Unit 3):

  1. Two assignments using a variety of sources examining aspects of WW1 & WW2

Teaching Methods

Teachers primarily use PowerPoint to deliver lesson content. All lessons have clearly identified objectives and learning outcomes, planned well in advance on well organised schemes of work. Lessons have at least three parts and activities are differentiated according to ability. Teachers also regularly use interactive resources, encourage creativity, role play, and make use of audio visual footage from DVD & YouTube where relevant and appropriate. Pupils are regularly assessed, graded to GCSE level descriptors and their progress continuously monitored, with targeted intervention aimed at underachievers. Exam time sees the provision of lunchtime and after school classes for all. We also believe in experiential learning and run an annual trip to the WW1 battlefields of Belgium and WW2 battlefields of France, as well as associated memorials and museums. This corresponds closely with controlled assessment objectives and is also aimed at enhancing the ability of pupils to feel empathy and connect with those from the past.

History

Resources

We are equipped with the latest interactive software for use on the interactive white boards in all classrooms. We also have brand new AQA text books for each unit. These supplement an extensive collection of primary and secondary source material, teacher produced resources, artefact collections, documentaries and audio visual footage. Extensive resources are visible on the school’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) for access from home.

Skills and Knowledge

Pupils are encouraged to develop understanding in several key areas and to use the content studied to demonstrate this understanding:

  1. Knowledge: dates, statistics, names, roles and other evidence so that pupils can back up their opinions and answers with hard facts.
  2. Source analysis: description and explanation of the content and meaning of historical sources such as written evidence, photos, statistics, propaganda posters, cartoons and secondary opinions.
  3. Source evaluation: critically commenting on the purpose (reason for) and provenance (origin, angle/slant/agenda of) sources and how this affects their reliability and usefulness to historians.
  4. Organisation & Communication: ability to write in a concise and coherent manner, utilising evidence to back up opinions, with good spelling, punctuation and grammar.

Assessment

Pupils are continuously assessed in a variety of ways throughout each topic. Self-assessment and peer assessment sees them access, use and understand AQA mark schemes to grade their own and the work of their peers. In this way pupils learn to fully comprehend exactly what the examiners are looking for. Teacher assessment also sees their work regularly graded according to GCSE grade descriptors and targets for improvement given. All results are monitored, tracked and compared to target grades, with intervention put in place that consists of extra work, small group and individual tuition at lunchtime and after school for underachievers.

External assessment consists of two end-of-unit examinations, each carrying 37.5% of the marks for a GCSE grade. One of these examinations will be at the end of Year 10 and the other at the end of Year 11. Controlled Assessment comprises two separate source based assignments that together are worth 25% of the total marks. It sees pupils prepare a ‘Research Diary’ within which they select, research, analyse and evaluate a variety of sources. They are then able to take this into to the Controlled Assessment with them.

History