History
Intent
The Key Stage 3 curriculum builds on the Key Stage 2 curriculum in terms of skills and content and lays the foundation for those students looking to transition from KS3 History to KS4 and further. We feel this is vital and allows our learners to access a broad and balanced curriculum whilst studying History at Wigmore.
Our schemes of work have been developed using the National Curriculum guidance and by considering the students in our school community. Whilst discovering about past societies through interpretations and events and investigating how and why things change we also aim to support students with the development of their literacy skills, their understanding of our current world (through our links to British Values, RSHE, SMSC) and we endeavour to teach topics that we hope will create well-rounded individuals, ready for their post-16 transition.
Implementation
In Year 7 we consider enquiry questions such as ‘How did William I gain control?’ and ‘Why do we live so much longer today’ as well as focusing on topics such as the balance of power in Britain since the 12th century and "What Britain has to do with American Independence Day?". In Year 8 we investigate the concept of revolution and how they have shaped our History and consider "How the story of migration to and from Britain should be told?", whilst also investigating topics such as the Russian Revolution and China in the 20th century. In the final year of KS3 we reflect on why the First World War was like no other before or since and we study ‘How has warfare shaped modern Britain?’ additionally, in Year 9 we aim to develop our learners understanding of Historical concepts further and study some topics of an emotionally sensitive nature.
At Key Stage 4 we follow the Edexcel Specification and have opted for the following 4 topics: Crime and punishment in Britain, c1000–present and Whitechapel, c1870–c1900: crime, policing and the inner city; Superpower relations and the Cold War, 1941–91; Early Elizabethan England, 1558–88; Weimar and Nazi Germany, 1918–39.
Every single lesson in both Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 has an enquiry question as a title and we are committed to experiential learning and aim to give students the opportunity to act out, empathise, and visit different local sites of significance.