History

Powerful Knowledge in History

Defining ‘powerful knowledge’ in History is problematic and it is possible to argue endlessly over the relative merits of one topic or period or another. However, it is perhaps easier to agree upon some general principles:

• Children have a right to know about the world in which they live.
• They have a right to be taught about humans in the past, what those humans did and how we live today with the consequences of what happened before we were alive.
• They have a right to be taught about the kinds of stories humans tell one another and how humans live in societies that are divided in different ways by wealth, class, gender and race.

The response to delivering on these rights, and of making sense of this complexity, is the academic discipline of History.

Therefore, the powerful knowledge History curriculum at the Laurus Trust seeks to provide students with an induction into this great discipline.

Curriculum Features

The History curriculum aims to develop students’ substantive knowledge of transferable historical concepts, as well as period-specific knowledge, through rigorous enquiry into the following periods and topics:

• Ancient Rome
• Anglo-Saxon England
• The Norman Conquest
• The Crusades
• The Silk Roads
• Medieval England
• The Reformation
• Witchcraft
• The English Civil Wars
• 18th century revolution
• 18th century British politics
• The Industrial Revolution
• The British Empire
• The First World War
• Female Suffrage
• 20th century dictatorships
• The Second World War
• The Holocaust
• 20th century British social change
• Cold War

Students will also acquire an understanding of the disciplinary knowledge required for authentic historical thinking. Over the course of the curriculum, students will study the following disciplinary strands:

• Causation
• Change and continuity
• Interpretations
• Historical evidence

Co Curriculum Enrichment

To further develop historical awareness and wider cultural capital, the History Department offers students a range of experiences outside of the classroom environment.

These include a GCSE History trip to Berlin, where students explore the rich and powerful history centred around this capital city, including the effects of the Nazi regime and Berlin’s role throughout the years of the Cold War.

In addition to out-of-school activities, the History Department runs a History Ambassadors club for those students with a real passion for the subject. These students organise various History House Competitions and have also introduced National History Competitions that students across the whole school have had the opportunity to enter. This includes the Historical Association Writing Competition and the Great Debate.