Intent

The recent revision of our curriculum has led us to move to a chronological style of teaching at KS3, rather than the previous thematic approach. The curriculum covers the time period from 43AD to the present day, with a discreet emphasis on the concepts of Church, Power and Diversity. As a largely monocultural, seaside town community, the choice to broaden the curriculum to include wider access to culturally diverse histories has been an important step. With the aim of ensuring all students see themselves represented in our lessons, as well as enabling our students to place their own histories in a wider context.

The KS4 and KS5 History curricula continue to build on the concepts studied at KS3. The emphasis on Church and Power remain as key concepts of the courses studied by students, and learners continue to develop their procedural knowledge and literacy skills through the focus on scholarship and source analysis.

Our curriculum intends for students to:

• Develop a sense of “period” for the different time periods they are studying so that they can explain similarities and differences between time periods and identify areas of progress or regression.
• Understand how concepts such as Church and Power change over time, and how they have impacted on the different time periods studied.
• Evaluate the role of Britain in a global historical context. Studying the histories of other cultures with a positive, non Euro-centric approach.
• Identify specific events and people as significant in history, and explain their importance.
• Recognise the part played by Devon and the local area in national and international history.
• Develop their procedural knowledge of the writing of history by analysing sources and comparing interpretations.
• Revisit second order concepts such as change, continuity, cause, consequence and significance in different contexts, whilst developing their understanding of first order concepts such as church, revolution and empire.
• Make links between history they have studied previously, and their current topic of study.

A breakdown of how this will look for students as they make their journey through the college is outlined in the table History Department ECC Curriculum Milestones below.

History Department ECC Curriculum Milestones

Curriculum Implementation

The implementation of this intent is achieved by the following:

• The teaching of engaging lessons with a clear focus and enquiry based approach.
• Retrieval practise with a focus on knowledge that supports the understanding of the key concepts
• A supported approach to the use of sources and interpretations in lessons- scaffolding the procedural knowledge to develop the analytical writing over time.
• An emphasis on using scholarship in lessons to develop the literacy skills required of ambitious history teaching.
• Encouraging students to develop an interest in History beyond the lessons- links to podcasts and historical articles on the knowledge organisers and provided in lessons.
• Regular quality assurance to enable sharing of good practise and ensure consistency of the experience of students across the department.
• The use of knowledge organisers and/or support booklets in lessons to support the learning of students with SEND.
• Cultural capital that supports and extends the curriculum for all. This includes providing links to key podcasts, articles and documentaries on the knowledge organisers, exploring cross curricular links with other subjects, including opportunities to explore careers that are linked to History, as well as offering trips that enable students to experience the history in situ.

Curriculum Impact

As a result of these actions the following impacts should be evident:

• Students have a consistent experience of History teaching across the college.
• Students are confident in their historical understanding and have a clear sense of “period” for the different time periods they have studied.
• Students are confident in their ability to analyse sources and interpretations
• Students can see how the key concepts have changed and progressed over time.
• Students are able to make comparisons between time periods and cultures, and are able to justify clear historical arguments.
• Students are aware of how the time period they are currently studying fits in with their previous learning.
• Students enjoy their History lessons and recognise the value of studying History to a higher level.