At Key Stage 3 History is designed to give students a clear chronological understanding of why they live in the Britain and World they do today. We assess key turning points along the way, from the Battle of Hastings to the Second World War. 

All schemes of work consist of differentiated and challenging lessons that link coherently, giving students historical knowledge as well as developing their conceptual awareness. Lessons are both engaging and fun, whilst challenging students of all abilities academically. History is today, more than ever, relevant to our young people. We hope they will learn to appreciate how far we have come as a society, and how far we still have to travel.

In Year 7 we cover the following:

• Mediaeval England
  • Saxon England before 1066
  • The Battle of Hastings and the Norman conquest of England
  • How William controlled the English: Feudalism and castles
  • Challenging feudalism: Thomas Becket, the Magna Carta, the Black Death and the Peasants’ Revolt
• Early Modern England
  • The Battle of Bosworth and reign of Henry VII
  • The Tudors and the Reformation in England
• The Stuarts
  • The English Civil War and execution of Charles I
  • Oliver Cromwell, the Restoration and the Glorious Revolution
• Industrialisation and Britain’s involvement in the Atlantic Slave Trade
  • The Trade Triangle
  • How Britain benefited from the slave trade
  • Black and white abolitionists (Equiano and Wilberforce)
  • Changes to Britain 1750-1900: work, culture, society, transport and democracy
  • The population ‘explosion’
  • The significance of coal, individuals (Arkwright, Watt and Stephenson) and global trade
  • Conditions for the poor: coal mines and workhouses

In Year 8 we cover the following:

• The British Empire
  • Victorian school experience. Students learn about the size of the British Empire in 1900
  • Why Britain built an empire
  • Ill-treatment and exploitation of indigenous peoples
  • Positives of the British Empire
  • How ethically the British traded
  • How the empire changed colonies and Britain
  • A force for good?
• The First World War
  • Long-term and short-term causes (imperialism, arms race, alliances, Franz Ferdinand)
  • Recruitment in Britain and the ‘Pals’ Battalions’
  • Conditions in the trenches and life off duty for soldiers
  • The Battle of the Somme 1916
  • Remembering soldiers from St Albans
  • The significance of women during the war
  • Reasons why Germany surrendered in 1918
  • The Treaty of Versailles 1919
• Nazi Germany and the causes of World War Two
  • Why Hitler became Chancellor of Germany
  • How Hitler controlled a population: propaganda and terror
  • Life for young Germans and women under the Nazi regime
  • Preparations for war and British appeasement
• The Second World War
  • Blitzkrieg: the invasions of Poland and France
  • The Dunkirk evacuation and the Battle of Britain 1940
  • The Blitz, life on the home front and the evacuation of children
  • The significance of Pearl Harbour and the Battle of Stalingrad
  • D-Day, the liberation of Europe and VE Day
  • The importance of remembering BAME British soldiers
• The Holocaust
  • Persecution of Jewish people in Nazi Germany before the war
  • Kristallnacht
  • Living conditions in the ghettos
  • Causes of the ‘Final Solution’
  • Jewish resistance
  • The Nuremburg trials

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