Our aim at Sir Thomas Boteler Church of England High School is to deliver a curriculum that equips our students to learn skills alongside knowledge, ensuring that both are explicitly developed. Our curriculum allows students to develop detailed knowledge & skills whilst helping to build a comprehensive historical vocabulary to enhance their writing and communication skills & prepare for further study. We believe that the study of History should form a key part of a balanced curriculum. As well as fostering a love of the subject. We want our students to learn how to construct arguments and balance evidence alongside knowledge of historical chronology. Through their educational journey, we believe that students should gain the knowledge and skill so they can communicate their ideas and arguments effectively to others. Our curriculum is coherent, ambitious, engaging & relevant to the present day. Our intention is to explain the world around them and to help them to understand the main events that have shaped the way we live today.
In our History curriculum we believe we are able to foster the talents and ambitions of all our young people through a knowledge-based curriculum. We have faith in our actions and trust our judgement as we are safe in the knowledge our curriculum is broad, challenging and will holistically develop our students. Our curriculum is always rooted in Christian teachings: Psalm 119:66 “Teach me knowledge and good judgement for I trust your commands “
Key Stage 3
The teaching of Key Stage Three History is based on a series of historical enquiries which allow students to explore and develop the key concepts and skills required to develop a mastery of the discipline and therefore allow any student to study the subject at their chosen level. All enquiries are based on five key assessment criteria that are required for students to progress to a deeper understanding of the subject. In this way all teachers and students can plan for this progression. The enquiries are engaging, rooted in sound historical practise and linked to key historical narratives. In the history department we follow a curriculum that allows for ‘spacing’ to enable revision throughout the course whilst ‘interleaving’ which helps students to ‘switch’ between ideas /topics whilst students learn. These techniques help to boost students long term memory and retrieval of key information. Our History department’s aim is to help students to see the links, similarities & differences between ideas more easily. Therefore, our KS3 Curriculum interleaves different concepts together which helps students to ‘block’ or ‘chunk’ content and scaffold to help understand new concepts.
In each Year we examine 5 key questions when studying each topic:
- How do we know about the past?
- How was it governed?
- Were people happy?
- What was important to people at the time?
- What are the achievements of the past?
Assessment Overview
The five Key Assessment areas that underpin our historical enquiries:
- Cause and consequence
- Analysis
- Interpretation
- Evaluation
- Significance.
All these skills are underpinned by a knowledge and understanding of key concepts and historical narratives.
Key Stage 4
At this stage, we focus on enabling our students to develop and extend their knowledge and understanding of specified key events, periods and societies in local, British, and wider world history; and of the wide diversity of human experience. It challenges them to engage in historical enquiry to develop as independent learners and as critical and reflective thinkers, develop the ability to ask relevant questions about the past, and to investigate issues critically and to make valid historical claims by using a range of sources in their historical context. Students are encouraged to explore the past from a variety of different perspectives in order to become analytical citizens who can question human motivation and society with skill and confidence. At KS4 we study key figures such as Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Elizabeth I which have played a significant part in which has shaped our History today. We examine the impact of their actions on society and learn from examples in History and how it has shaped our History and the world we live in today. By engaging with complex and emotive issues in the past, students are led to draw relevant and contemporary parallels which challenge them to maintain open minds and confront prejudice. They can test hypotheses, develop opinions, and be challenged on a wide range of topics. We deliver a sequenced curriculum that aims to immerse the students in the content of all three exams across Years 10 & 11 to ensure that they have a broad and balanced granular knowledge of the content as well as the skills needed to respond to the exam questions. Students are equipped with a skill set which ranges from the art of writing to the science of source analysis and back again. These are highly valuable skills which do not become outdated. They help students to show that they are well-rounded and employable people.