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History

Aims of the department

  1. That students will develop a passion for reading History throughout their lives.
  2. That students will take an active interest in politics and current affairs and will use their historical knowledge and skills to participate in and evaluate these areas.
  3. That students will use their historical knowledge to enjoy more fully and evaluate more critically art, literature, music, film and television.
  4. That students will use their historical knowledge and skills in a life long contemplation of the nature of right and wrong and the morality of actions and attitudes.
  5. That students will use an appreciation of the breadth and depth of History and a balanced approach to it to have a measured and thoughtful approach to their own lives, the impact of people on them as well as the results of their actions and words on others.
  6. That students learn skills of analysis, evaluation, writing and problem solving.

How do you bring this subject to life at BGS?

  • The History department provides a wide variety of teaching and learning activities. These include extensive use of          

    • film,
    • music,
    • pictures and
    • ICT and also involve
    • games and role play
  • The topics taught range from the Feudal System to how the film Zulu depicts the Battle of Rourke’s Drift to how Superman reflects the concerns of the 20th century to how Hollywood was influenced by the Vietnam War.
  • Talks by the head of the Living History Project based at Murton Park, York are organised at no cost to the students. These involve the demonstration of Historical artefacts with students dressing up in costume and demonstrating concepts like the Medieval Feudal System and English Civil War battle tactics in a very concrete fashion.
  • Year 7 have sessions on Medieval England and the English Civil War
  • Year 8 on WW1
  • Year 9 on the Home Front in WW2.
  • We also hire History boxes of replica and some real artefacts for the Medieval, English Civil War and First World War periods. Lessons using these resources involve categorisation, question raising, inference and problem solving. For example the box of WW1 artefacts is used to begin to answer the question ‘What was the fighting like on the Western Front?’

What facilities do you have?

  • Three classrooms with interactive whiteboards and projectors.
  • Interactive software which can be used by the whole class or by individuals carrying out research.
  • Video camera.
  • A large number of lesson resources made by the department to facilitate groupwork.
  • Textbooks to support all three key stages.
  • The department regularly makes use of IT suites and sets of mobile laptops.

Do staff have specialist areas of interest?

  • Mr. Webb
      
    • Medieval History
    • Tudor England

  • Mr. Cutler        

    • Twentieth Century History especially the Cold War and Civil Rights.

  • Mr. Morgan        

    • The Western Front 1914-18
    • Nazism and the Holocaust
    • The American Frontier and the ‘Western’ film.

What is the coolest thing about the department?

The Battle of Stalingrad 1942/3

What do pupils enjoy most about learning in this department?

Below are some recent quotes from students of all ages.

‘The teaching is energetic, discussion orientated and displays the information needed for the course in a variety of styles and techniques.’

‘Very enjoyable, at times very hard but lessons have a different edge which makes you remember them, and any comedy is always good’
 
‘I’ve really enjoyed this side of the course, even though the actual course has been quite challenging. But the lessons are always very varied!’

‘I have enjoyed the different sorting activities with cards and pictures’.
 
‘I particularly enjoyed the card sorts and roleplays’. ‘I like the matching exercises’. ‘I like the group work’
‘I like the variety in lessons; listening, taking notes, discussion, activity lessons. Keeps people interested and focused in my view’

‘Relating the History back to the future is very helpful and thought provoking. I enjoy the lessons as they are not always the same and we have opportunities to learn in different ways/styles. Work is challenging but worthwhile.’

‘I think that sir doesn’t just do work in and learn the book but we do exciting things like doing group work. This is good because you learn more than History, you learn social skills as well’

‘I have greatly appreciated the ability and the forum to express personal opinions and judgements. I believe it is one of the greatest strengths of the lessons that although completely covering the course content the teacher often includes material that promotes independent thought from outside the course. This is indicative of the teaching style as the lessons are geared more towards developing students as human beings encouraging independent thought rather than spoon-feeding students to pass an exam. I personally believe therefore that these lessons are a model for how to strike a balance between intellectual freedom but also successfully achieving the necessary exam results’

‘I feel in my History lessons at BGS I have developed my skills as both a Historian and being able to think for myself. The lessons have been challenging but have given me skills outside the course content and will aid my studies not just in History in later life as I am more able to learn independently and gather my own thoughts and interpretations on matters rather than being told and taught my teachers thoughts on the course content.’

‘Over the last seven years the History lessons have been very useful to me. They helped me develop essay writing skills, independent thought and independent research.’

‘I have really enjoyed my History lessons at BGS, with such a variety of teaching activities which have really challenged my preconceptions. I particularly liked watching films of superheroes and relating it to Hitler in a depressed Germany’

‘I feel that the focus on learning important lessons rather than results from exams is a more effective and valuable way of learning.’

‘The History course is really interesting and very relevant and important.’

‘I enjoyed exploring links between the topic we were studying and modern times.’ 

‘I feel I’ve learnt not just the content of the course, but the wider issues which it involves and its implications for modern life and humanity. Difficult lessons have been taught sensitively and I truly believe these lessons have developed me as a person.’

What teaching styles do you use in the department?

There is a strong emphasis within the department on an active learning approach relying on activities where metacognition can readily take place.

The criteria for such activities is that students need to make decisions from a range of possibilities and justify them using such ideas and skills as the application of previous and cross curricular knowledge, pertinent question raising and testing of evidence, logic and ‘common sense’ and the process of elimination.

There is also the belief that learning takes place more effectively when students discuss with one another and in groups these decisions and possibilities.

Mr P Morgan
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Curriculum

Year 7:

  • Who were the English in 1000 AD
  • How much changed for an Anglo-Saxon Peasant family in the 11th Century?
  • What happened to royal power 1066-1415?
  • People and Protest in the 14th century.
  • England and the Middle East in the Middle Ages.
  • Who were the English in 1453?
  • Religious change in the 16th century.
  • What happened to royal power in the 17th century?
  • People and Protest in the 17th century.
  • Who were the British in 1715?

Year 8:

  • Britain, India and the American colonies in the 18th century.
  • Africa and the slave trade.
  • Black peoples resistance and rebellion.
  • How much changed for a British peasant or labourer in the 18th and 19th centuries?
  • People and Protest in the 18th and 19th centuries.
  • Who were the British in 1848?
  • Britain and India 1857-1919.
  • Britain and Africa: The Zulu War.
  • The Western Front and the British Empire at war.
  • Who were the British in 1918?
  • Government and Democracy in Britain and its Empire.
  • Who were the British in the 1970s and 1980s?

Year 9:

  • The USA in the ‘roaring twenties’.
  • The Holocaust.
  • How did WW2 affect soldiers and civilians in different parts of the World?
  • Superpowers, the Space Race and Superheroes.

Year 10:

  • OCR Modern World History B
    • Britain 1890-1918 (Examined in January of Year 10).
    • Depth Study: Russia 1905-41
    • A New World: The USSR in Eastern Europe 1948-89

Year 11:

  • The USA and Vietnam 1955-75 (Examined in controlled coursework in Oct/Nov of Year 11).
  • A New World: Terrorism since 1969/ The Iraq War of 2003.
  • A New World and the Depth Study courses are examined in the June of Year 11.

Year 12:

  • AS AQA courses
  • Hitler, Anti-Semitism and the German People 1919-45
  • Britain 1483-1530
  • There is an exam for each course in June.

Year 13:

  • A2
    • England 1154-1216
    • The American Frontier c1600-2009: Expansion, Freedom, Democracy and Identity in the USA.
    • An exam is sat in June for the former whilst students complete an Historical Enquiry coursework essay on the latter between Christmas and Easter.