Through the History curriculum, we encourage pupils’ curiosity and imagination, presenting them with the dilemmas, choices and beliefs of people in the past. It helps pupils to develop their own identities through an understanding of history at personal, local, national and international levels. It helps them to ask and answer questions of the present by engaging with the past.
Pupils find out about the history of their community, Britain, Europe and the world. They develop a chronological overview that enables them to make connections within and across different periods and societies.
Within lessons we encourage discussion and ‘acting out’ and place much emphasis on the visual to support our dyslexic pupils. We have an extensive range of supporting DVDs and also make use of YouTube and BBC Bitesize and classroom clips.
In Year 7 we study the Medieval Realms which includes:
We study these amongst many other aspects of this period.
In Year 8 we look at the Tudors and Stuarts including:
We also study various aspects of everyday life such as the persecution of women (witchcraft) and crime and punishment.
Year 9 begins with the First World War and then moves into the GCSE syllabus beginning with Germany in 1919 and following through until 1991. We offer a 3-day trip to Amsterdam in the summer term to coincide with the teaching of the Holocaust. Students begin the GCSE course and then have the option to continue in Years 10 and 11 or to choose other subjects if they don’t wish to continue with History.
At GCSE we study:
These provide a diverse overview of the different nations’ political and cultural beliefs. We also have the opportunity to visit other countries, for example, Belgium to visit the battlefields and Berlin as part of our Germany GCSE syllabus.
We do realize that History is a big ask for our dyslexic pupils due to the academic nature of the subject and the amount of reading and writing that is required. However, we do not see this as a barrier and support them by constant reinforcement of the skills needed to obtain a good GCSE and plenty of exam revision and practice.
Independent Learning Activities
