History
The History department at Harris Rainham Sixth Form embodies the values of curiosity, compassion, and commitment. We are committed to providing an academic and challenging learning environment to enable all our students to develop intellectual curiosity and historical understanding so that our students become well informed members of society and empower them to make decisions in future careers and their own lives that will benefit them and others.
The A Level History curriculum is demanding, rigorous, inclusive, and empowering. We aim to cultivate academic scholars who have a genuine appreciation of powerful knowledge and are innately curious about History, extending far beyond the bounds of our A-Level specification. Our curriculum empowers students by providing the substantive and procedural knowledge required to navigate the subject and make a positive and long-lasting impact on society.
A Level history allows for students to develop a range of different skills and characteristics that allow students to:
- develop their interest in and enthusiasm for history and an understanding of its intrinsic value and significance
- acquire an understanding of different identities within society and an appreciation of aspects such as social, cultural, religious and ethnic diversity, as appropriate
- build on their understanding of the past through experiencing a broad and balanced course of study
- improve as effective and independent learners, and as critical and reflective thinkers with curious and enquiring minds
- develop the ability to ask relevant and significant questions about the past and to research them
- acquire an understanding of the nature of historical study, for example that history is concerned with judgements based on available evidence and that historical judgements are provisional
- develop their use and understanding of historical terms, concepts, and skills
- make links and draw comparisons within and/or across different periods and aspects of the past
- organise and communicate their historical knowledge and understanding in
- different ways, arguing a case and reaching substantiated judgements
Our curriculum strives to support students' understanding of wider historical concepts, developing their understanding of first and second order concepts over the course of a two-year study and building on prior substantive and procedural knowledge acquired from KS3 and KS4.
Our curriculum in Year 12 explores the history of Britain and its transformation 1918-1997 (1H), so that students can develop an understanding of how Britain has changed and developed over the Twentieth Century.
Simultaneously, students will study the complimentary unit 2H.2, so that they can see the similarity and difference that exist within American society and how that has also transformed in the Twentieth Century.
By Year 13 students will explore a study of witchcraft in the early Modern period, which will enable them to explore the witch craze in Britain, Europe and North America and build their understanding of the changing attitudes to magic, sorcery that eventually contributed to its design.
Students will also complete an interpretations NEA, which will enable to them to draw on their skills and deepen their historical understandings.
Students will complete 50% of the A-Level in Year 12, studying the two complimentary units to deepen their understanding of the Twentieth century. In Year 13 they will move to Witchcraft and Early Modern history to broaden their understanding of society and explore the similarities and differences in the way society was structured and how people thought about the world. The NEA will be constructed in Autumn of Year 13 so that students are able to use their knowledge of interpretations to develop an effective study.
Our A Level curriculum is structured through historical enquiries to support student progress. Careful sequencing of units has taken place to ensure students develop and retain a rich, deep, and wide knowledge of the past. Therefore, unit 2 is sequenced chronologically, whilst unit 1 explores historical knowledge thematically and unit 3 covers depth studies before breath. This ensures all learners develop a set of schemata which can be built upon with new and more advanced knowledge and that key concepts are revisited to support the retention of powerful knowledge.
By promoting an interleaved view of curriculum content, students develop a more cohesive understanding of History. In class, lessons are structured to incorporate multiple opportunities for knowledge recall, low stakes quizzing and exam style application.
Outside of the classroom, students' progress is supported through engagement with wider reading of recent publications and historical scholarship to extend their knowledge and understanding and through the application of knowledge to extended written responses which will enable students to consolidate and retain their historical knowledge.
Year 12
Students begin their A-Level course with a breadth study of Britain Transformed from 1919 to 1997. In this unit students will learn about the extent to which Britain was transformed politically, socially, economically, and culturally in the years 1918-79.
Students will consider responses to the challenges of war, fluctuations in the economy, technological advancement, and the desire for greater social equality. Students are required to analyse changes over time in relation to society, culture, politics, and economics and understand the nature, and effectiveness, of the response to these challenges.
This option also contains a in depth study of historical interpretations on the impact Thatcher’s governments had on Britain, 1979-97, where students will be required to analyse and compare historical interpretations.
Through the study of this unit, students will build on their knowledge and understanding of core concepts learned at KS3 and KS4 such as government, politics, economy, migration, and gender, as well as themes such as social development, economic crisis and recovery and the changes ushered in because of war.
This unit will also build upon the prior learning of immigration and the legislative changes that took place in Britain because of Britain becoming a multi-racial and diverse society. It will also build upon disciplinary knowledge of second order concepts including cause, consequence, change/continuity, similarity/ difference, and significance.
Simultaneously, students will embark on a depth study of the USA, 1955–92: conformity and challenge. Students will study the post-1945 affluence of the USA, racial and political protests in the 1960s, the rise of right-wing groups in the 1980s and the development of bitter divisions between Democrats and Republicans.
Students will gain an in- depth understanding of the challenges posed to the American political system by popular protests and different styles of leadership, and the effects on society of widespread economic, social, and cultural change. This unit will build upon students’ knowledge acquired around the USA’s emergence as a superpower in the post-war period and the developing tensions between the Communist and Capitalist world powers.
Moreover, this unit builds upon students’ knowledge from KS3 and KS4 by revisiting concepts such as race, politics, and government as well as themes such as the fight for social equality. Having mastered skills such as source evaluation by the end of KS4, students will apply these skills to more complex questions at A-Level where they are required to assess the utility of historical evidence in relation to the historical context and make judgements on their utility in relation to both provenance and content. This unit also extends students ability to analyse and evaluate change over time.
Year 13
Upon progressing to the final year of KS5 study, students will complete a piece of coursework that accounts for 20% of their overall A Level. The purpose of the coursework is to enable students to develop skills in the analysis and evaluation of interpretations of history in a chosen question, problem, or issue as part of an independently researched assignment. The focus is on understanding the nature and purpose of the work of the historian.
Students will be required to form a critical view based on relevant reading on the question, problem, or issue. They will also be specifically required to analyse, explain, and evaluate the interpretations of three historians. This is where students now apply the ‘skills of a historian’ that they have developed and mastered since the beginning of year 7. Undertaking this enables students to develop their research skills in preparation for any further study they may embark on post-18.
Students will also cover the witch craze in Britain, Europe, and North America, c1580–c1750. This option explores the nature of the witch craze that took hold in the late sixteenth century and the changing attitudes to magic and sorcery that eventually contributed to its decline. Students will study the social, economic, and political, dimensions of the phenomenon, and the broad intellectual changes that ushered in what is often called the Age of Reason.
Students will study The North Berwick witches in Scotland 1590-91 and the aftermath to 1597, The Lancashire witches of 1604-13, The Great Witch Hunt in Bamberg, Germany 1623-32, Matthew Hopkins, and the East Anglian witch craze 1645-47 and Cotton Mather and the Salem witch hunt 1692-93. This will build upon students prior learning of the Early Modern period studied at KS3 and KS4, the discovery of knowledge and the emergence of a greater understanding of the universe, development of scientific enquiry and the invention of the printing press. This option invites students to study a fascinating and vital part of the evolution of contemporary thought and society and enable them to understand the importance of the witch craze and the realisation that witches are still being persecuted and burnt in parts of the world today.
By the end of their history education our students will have refined and deepened their knowledge of powerful core concepts and developed and mastered a range of skills such as non-routine problem solving, critical thinking, decision making and reasoning, that prepares them for university, future careers and above all to be successful, happy, and innovative citizens with much to offer society in their future life outside of education.