Curriculum Aim

The history curriculum at Kingfisher Academy remains national curriculum compliant, whilst being malleable for the nature of our cohort, who may join us at different times. Through a ‘nurture’ focused Year 7 curriculum and a thematically driven Key Stage 3 program, our CYP will build up a coherent knowledge of Britain’s past, with time dedicated to developing an understanding of history in the wider world and the forces which have driven change. The content taught and skills embedded through its delivery enables and encourages students to create perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments; all of which allows children and young people (CYP) to develop a talent for creating a well-developed and thoughtful judgement concerning various periods, people and moments from the past. History helps CYP to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time from various perspectives. CYP will engage with evidence and analyse sources, helping them to understand the complexity of the world and dissect conflicting historical narratives. Studying history provides context for current issues and aims to teach CYP how different interpretations of the past are constructed. As with all humanities subjects at Kingfisher, a key aim is to foster a love of learning and a passion to learn about the past. The purpose of our 20^th century KS4 course, is to develop an understanding in CYP’s minds of how the modern world took shape and how the echoes of the previous century still affect Britain and the wider world today. We aim for CYP to leave Kingfisher in Year 11 as informed citizens who have a developed awareness of the societal and political forces that will exert influence on their lives.

Context

CYP at Chapel House have 1 history lesson a week at Key Stage 3. Using this time, we cover the National Curriculum under 3 broad themes: ‘Church and State’, ‘Fear and Liberty’ and ‘Technology and Tyranny’. The progression through this curriculum is planned with CYP joining at various points of the year in mind. Individual lessons each form pieces of a wider enquiry, meaning CYP are able to understand the wider themes of a unit of work from any of the lessons. At Key Stage 4, we look at the 20^th century in detail, using 1 lesson per week to develop and hone historical skills in a narrower period of time.

Key concepts, skills and knowledge

The following concepts are embedded into individual units across key stages:

• Chronological understanding
• Similarity and difference
• Change and continuity
• Cause and consequence
• Interpretation
• Significance
• Source analysis

In addition to these concepts, the following themes are repeated throughout the curriculum, to enable CYP to understand the main drivers of historical processes:

• Religion
• Technology
• Discovery
• Power
• Conflict
• Freedom

CYP will develop and apply the following skills:

• Critical thinking
• Analysing sources, interpretations and conflicting narratives
• Extended writing and evidence-based development of an argument
• The broad ‘threads’ that can be identified over centuries and millennia (Technology, Church and State, The law, Economics, People power)
• Significant people, events, developments and discoveries
• The interlinked nature of cause and consequence between different times and places; a ‘meanwhile, elsewhere’ understanding of the wider world
• The reasons for different historical interpretations of people, places and events. An ability to understand the differences in historical perspectives, the rationale behind differences in historical perspectives and, crucially, an ability to construct your own thoughtful and evidence-based interpretations.

Throughout the curriculum, CYP are also encouraged to use the following command word skills to solidify their understanding:

• Identify
• Describe
• Explain
• Analyse
• Evaluate

Below is the main knowledge taught from age 11–16:

• Y7: An overview of the ancient societies which shaped the history of the early 1st millennium.
• Y7: The general developments in Britain and the wider world, in terms of technology, the built environment and the distribution of power
• Y8: The changing dynamic of power in the Middle Ages between monarchy, the Church and the wider population (from the Norman Conquest to the English Civil War)
• Y8 + Y9: The origins of a globally connected and empire-driven society from the 16th century (including European conquest and settlement in the Americas, the trans-Atlantic slave trade and revolution in France)
• Y9: The changing role of the ‘nation state’, following two world wars, and the resulting growth of the welfare state and civil rights.
• By the end of KS3, our CYP should be able to understand the following historical arcs of the previous millennium:
  1. To what extent has the power of the Church and State diminished?
  2. How far had liberty spread by the 19^th century and to what extent did fear hold back societal progress?
  3. Has technology and modern politics made the world more tolerant and a better place to live?

At Key stage 4: Following on from KS3’s approach to the broad sweeps of history across the previous millennium, our key stage 4 program of study goes in depth into the 20^th century. This is done through the following units:

1. The causes and events of the First World War
2. Germany from monarchy, to democracy, to dictatorship
3. The Cold War’s origins and impact on a post-war world
4. International relations during the 20^th century.

Curriculum Overview