History

“The calling of Humanities is to make us truly Human in the best sense of the word.”

History uses the past to build comprehension of British values and worldwide identities to better perceive current world affairs and events. We have worked hard to ensure that all of our students receive diverse and interesting knowledge from around the world, enabling all students to see themselves throughout History, and through the people and events we study. While History is a study of the past, we are also teaching the students important life skills to develop their thinking. We focus on 6 specific historical skills throughout both KS3 and KS4 to enable students to become critical thinkers, question the information they are given, and evaluate the information that they are constantly presented with. Our aim is to create students that will delve deeper, not to just accept what they are told at face value. We have changed to teach thematically, as this enables us to cover a wider range of topics and ideas, as well as enabling each teacher to tailor the learning experiences towards the specialities and preferences of the individual students and classes in front of them. 

Key Stage 3:

Students will be assessed on our key Historical skills, including Cause and Consequence, Change and Continuity, Evidence, Significance, interpretation and chronology. We have identified these as the key skills needed to be an effective Historian and these will be developed from KS3 into KS4.

Key Stage 4: 

For students opting to continue studies at KS4, the GCSE on offer is History, WJEC Eduqas exam board. 

https://www.eduqas.co.uk/qualifications/history-gcse/#tab_overview

We study the following 4 options:  Development of the USA 1919-1929, Germany in transition 1919-1939, Elizabethan England 1558-1603 and Crime and Punishment in Britain 500.c to the present day. 

We have chosen these modules to give a varied and broad course, studying interesting and relevant topics from around the world. 

At KS3 students complete home learning tasks once a fortnight using Google Classroom. This increases to once a week in KS4. These tasks are linked to and build upon that which is covered in lessons.

Welcome to History at Trafalgar School! I am immensely proud to be the Director of Humanities, as well as the lead for History. Humanities are subjects that complement each other in so many ways, and work effortlessly together to create well rounded humans. History is my passion, and has been my passion for many years, and I ensure that the passion I feel is transferred into the classrooms that teach this subject.

As a History department we have an impressive wealth and breadth of knowledge between us, with several specialities across the department. My passion extends beyond the school as I am currently completing my masters degree, with a focus on the Home front in Portsmouth during the Great War, a project which will be making its way into lessons to ensure the students have a knowledge of the city they are in. I am immensely proud of the History department, and the Humanities faculty, as we continue to grow and develop together. 

Laura Hudson (Director of Humanities) lhudson@trafalgarschool.org.uk

Katherine Davies kwatson@trafalgarschool.org.uk

Jan Morrison jmorrison@trafalgarschool.org.uk 

Alice Arnold AArnold@trafalgarschool.org.uk

Shantel Cohall scohall@trafalgarschool.org.uk