History Department

Welcome to the History department at Smithdon High School

Mr Corder
Head of History

Ms Rham
Teacher of History

Mrs E Fysh
Head of Religious Studies &
Teacher of History

History is a fascinating subject that enables you to reflect on the past from the present. It allows you to think deeply and organise information so that it makes sense and builds a range of lifelong skills useful to all employers.

In History we encourage students to ask questions, think critically, weigh up evidence and come to judgements. Most of all, history allows us to understand different societies and the way that they have developed over time.

We intend to develop a knowledge base, love, intrigue and passion for history that lasts a lifetime. We believe we have a duty to ensure students can make sense of the present both at home and abroad, by reflecting on the past.

Curriculum

We have chosen a curriculum that we feel will offer our students the best understanding of why Britain holds its current position in the world from a global-centric view, as well as how world events have impacted on Britain.

Our curriculum has common themes throughout, which allows our students to relate and compare ideas, values and events. This will then ultimately help them to make informed judgements. The curriculum themes for Year 7 through to Year 11 can be found here.

Our curriculum map for History gives more detail on what our students study at each stage of their History education.

At GCSE we follow the Edexcel GCSE History specification which includes 3 exam papers which students will sit in the summer of Year 11.

History KS3 Curriculum Topics

	Autumn Term 1	Autumn Term 2	Spring Term 1	Spring Term 2	Summer Term 1	Summer Term 2
Year 7	Pre-1066	1066 and the Norman Invasion	The Middle Ages	The Middle Ages Who were the Tudors?	- Henry VIII power - Reformation	Mid-Tudor Crisis Elizabethan England - Religion - Mary, Queen of Scots - War with Spain
Year 8	Tudor to Stuart England	Stuart England and the Civil War - causes and events of the Civil Wars - The interregnum, Cromwell's Britain	Industrial Britain	Industrial Britain	Slavery and the roots to the British Empire Impact of the empire around the world	French and American revolutions and the American Civil War
Year 9	British Society in 1900	The First World War	The Second World War	The Cold War	20th Century Study: Women 1900 to today Teenagers 1900 to today	Creation of the welfare state Immigration, Race riots and protest

History KS4 Curriculum Topics

Autumn
Term 1

Autumn
Term 2

Spring
Term 1

Spring
Term 2

Summer
Term 1

Summer
Term 2

Year
10

Crime and Punishment

Medieval England
Early Modern England c1500-1750
The Gunpowder Plot
The Witch-hunts of 1645-47.

rime and Punishment.

18th and 19th Century Britain.
Pentonville Prison, the development of the Met Police Force and the changing views on the purpose of punishment.
Crime and Punishment in Modern Britain and the abolition of the death penalty.

Whitechapel.

Living conditions in Whitechapel.
Tensions and immigration into Whitechapel.
Organisation of policing and investigative policing in Whitechapel.
The crimes of Jack the Ripper.

Anglo-Saxons and Normans.

Role of the king, government, economy and social system in Anglo-Saxon England.
The death of Edward the Confessor and rival claimants to the throne.
The Battles of 1066.

Anglo-Saxons and Normans.

Role of the king, government, economy and social system in Anglo-Saxon England.
The death of Edward the Confessor and rival claimants to the throne.
The Battles of 1066.

Germany 1919-39.

The origins of the Weimar Republic, the early challenges to the Weimar Republic 1919-23.
The recovery of the republic and the changes to German Society.
Hitler's rise to power 1919-33.

Year
11

Germany 1919-39.

Nazi control and dictatorship 1933-39.
Life in Nazi Germany 1933-1939.

Superpower relations and the Cold War.

The Conferences at the end war.
Containment, the first crisis over Berlin, the arms race and Hungarian uprising.

Superpower relations and the Cold War.

The Second Berlin Crisis, Cuban Missile Crisis and Czechoslovakian uprising.

Superpower relations and the Cold War.

Detente, the new Cold War, peace talks and the end of the Cold War.

Revision

N/A