History


History Department

If you choose History as one of your options you will be studying the new Modern World History course. This addresses a number of events and changes in the Twentieth Century.

Amongst others these topics include a study of conflicts such as the Vietnam War, the Cold War, Britain and the Second World War and important issues like the Holocaust.

Assessment

Throughout Key Stage 4 you will complete TWO ‘controlled assessments’ that replace coursework and will ultimately make up 25% of your final mark.

At the end of Year 11 you will also complete TWO examination papers which make up the remaining 75% of the course.

Tiered papers are not available and the course is heavily weighted towards extended pieces of writing.

Progression Routes

If you take History you will develop skills of historical enquiry that will be beneficial in all walks of life. You will acquire an ability to explain and analyse events and information, and form your own opinions with reasons that justify such decisions.

History is a very popular subject both at A’ Level and university and gaining valuable experience at GCSE will help to bridge the ever increasing gap between KS4 and higher education. Jobs for which the skills acquired in History will be useful include: Journalism and broadcasting, law, social work, Marketing, the Civil Service, teaching and the police.

KS3

Key Stage 3 History is covered in Years 7, 8 and 9 at Manor College of Technology. Each year your child will complete a number of National Curriculum tasks which help us to build a profile of his/her abilities in the key historical skills of:

  1. Causation - explaining why events in the past happened.

  2. Empathy - understanding what it was like to live in the past and how people's attitudes, views and beliefs were different from today.

  3. Interpretation - how people have different views about events in the past and why.

  4. Source evaluation - using documents to find out about the past and evaluating them for reliability and usefulness.

  5. Research - using different sources of information to find out research and write about a topic.

  6. Factual Recall - how well your child can remember information covered in class.

For each task your child will receive a National Curriculum level (from 1 to 8) according to how they have done. These levels are sub-divided into A, B and C (e.g. 5A = high level 5; 5B = standard level 5; 5C = low level 5 etc.)

More detail is given below to find out what specific tasks your child will be doing and more about what these levels mean and how your child can improve.

Curriculum Content and Areas of Study Year 7 Year 8 Year 9

KS4: GCSE

The most important keys to success at GCSE History are as follows:

  1. To make sure notes taken in class are detailed, well-organised and complete.

  2. To stop and ask the teacher if there is something that they do not understand.

  3. To consolidate class work at home with supplementary reading or by exploring some of the websites with links from this one.

  4. To revise for each practice GCSE question that we set carefully and to listen carefully to the teacher's feedback noting how to improve.

  5. To practice the skills of source evaluation and essay writing by trying the example GCSE questions.

  6. To join in class discussions - this helps knowledge and understanding to become active rather than passive.

  7. To find a quiet study area at home away from distractions and temptations and to work out a revision programme well in advance of the exams.

  8. To watch relevant documentaries about 20th century history on TV and to take brief notes whilst doing so.
Curriculum Content and Areas of Study Year 10 and 11

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