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History Intent
The Neale Wade history curriculum aims to instill a curiosity in each and every student from the very first day of Year 7 which will make them want to discover more about the past and encourage a better understanding of the world they live in today. Our curriculum will inspire students to think critically about what has happened in the past and the impact that this has on today’s society. It will encourage students to question and challenge sources and interpretations enabling them to confidently articulate their opinion to make substantiated judgements. This will build knowledge and understanding of the history of Britain and the wider world from the earliest times to the present day. Our curriculum will encourage students to discover how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world.
We sequence our learning chronologically in KS3 building on prior learning at KS2 and moving towards a greater depth of knowledge and understanding in KS4 and KS5. We actively encourage students to think like historians and to do this our curriculum is designed with the aim of developing and securing the knowledge, understanding and skills to think like a historian. To achieve this, our curriculum golden threads are the key historical concepts of change and continuity, cause and consequence, similarity and difference and significance equipping students with the knowledge and key skills needed to use sources and interpretations, critically analyse, argue and evaluate to make valid judgements with reasoning. Our students learn how to undertake historical enquiries including how evidence is used to make historical claims and compare contrasting interpretations and arguments of the past. This enables them to think critically about the historical debate around events or people and make their own contributions. Key abstract terms such as monarchy, power, authority are threaded through our learning from year 7 to year 13 layering changing meanings, different contexts and encouraging students to address misconceptions throughout our journey through history. This allows our students to confidently apply these terms to various situations improving their literacy and extended writing. Retrieval opportunities in every lesson support learning and these are further supported by homework which focuses on current and previous learning.
History at Neale Wade helps students to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time. Our curriculum provides opportunities that many of our students do not have at home to learn about the elements in the past that shape who we all are today – not only in our local community but the large diversity of the wider world. It allows students to gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts whether this is making connections between local, regional, national and international history or investigating cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history. Our curriculum links with the aims of National Curriculum and the ethos of our Academy in supporting and encouraging our students to take every opportunity and make a positive contribution to our local community and wider society.