History

Curriculum Intent

The Beacon History department is ambitious for excellence in all we do. We are never complacent and continuously debate the rationale for our curriculum. The inclusion and omission of topics from a history curriculum is indicative of our department’s priorities for what students need to know about the world. This requires careful consideration.

As such, our curriculum is diverse and ambitious. It is broad, spanning from the Romans in Year 7 to decolonisation and the Cold War in Year 9. It also seeks to balance the diverse nature of human achievement and devastation. Whilst having a broadly Anglo-centric focus the aim of the KS3 curriculum is to make students more critically aware of the political, social, and religious changes that have happened over the past thousand years. The recent reforms to the curriculum have added a string of political history from government in the Saxon era to the creation of the role of the first Prime minister during the Georgian period. There have also been additions to increase the diversity of the course in terms of race and gender. History is uniquely placed in answering students’ questions about the world. It is important that we teach students about strong, ground-breaking figures and the impact that just one person can have on a nation. The recurrent themes throughout the history curriculum revolve around the power of the monarchy and parliament through time; the role of religion in society; growth and decline of empire; how political ideology can cause conflict and how people have fought for their rights throughout history. Our history curriculum is designed to teach students how to have healthy debates about important issues and respect each other’s points of view.

Our teachers within the department are subject experts who persistently advance their knowledge. Our teachers should see themselves as working historians, consistently researching, and learning more about the topics we teach. It is important that students see this quality in their teachers and that this is discussed with students. Teachers read widely and share their love of books with students. Literacy is at the forefront of history teaching; a wide historical vocabulary is taught so students can articulate themselves in their written work. Teachers debate the relevance of the curriculum and make changes where necessary to ensure that the content remains relevant and reflective of the community and country in which we teach. The role of the teacher is to facilitate students being able to place new content into the course, making links across time and subjects to create a broad understanding of the world around them.

Our students, including the most disadvantaged, together with those with SEND, will develop a deep knowledge of the broad and diverse curriculum on offer. As a result of this, they will be eager to learn more, and able to debate different historical questions whilst upholding our MARK values of Manners, Acceptance, Respect and Kindness. At Beacon, students gain confidence and ambition to continue history and politics into further education, and the aim of the department is to ensure history students develop a love of learning that carries them through their lives.