History is a vibrant subject within Malet Lambert School. The History Department aims to encourage pupils to think deeply about key historical questions in order to both broaden their horizons and strengthen their links to the local community. Pupils are encouraged to celebrate and cherish British values through activities such as studying how democracy and the law have developed in Britain, gaining an understanding of different cultural traditions and religious ideas and having respect for these and their own, understanding what discrimination is and how it has and can be challenged and participating in democratic decision making exercises and mock trials. Pupils develop a range of historical, numeracy and literacy skills including spoken, reading and written communication. The curriculum and extra-curricular activities are enriched with a variety of spiritual, moral, cultural and social opportunities which support pupils as good citizens.
There are four History teachers. The History Department teaches History to all pupils in Y8 and Y9 in three lessons per fortnight. Lessons are designed to support the skills and contextual knowledge pupils need to be successful at GCSE. Pupils in Y7 follow a Humanities curriculum. At KS4 pupils have the opportunity to opt for GCSE History. History is a popular subject in the school with strong option uptake.
For more information, please refer to year group curriculum information booklets (found under Curriclum, organised by year group) or contact the head of department, Miss N Cutts.
Facilities
The History department has outstanding facilities and resources within the school. There are four specialist History rooms recently refurbished as part of the BSF programme. Classrooms have interactive whiteboards and projectors and staff have access to a wide range of resources including textbooks, artefacts, visual sources, microphones, flip cams, digital cameras, visualizers, smart slates, response voting pads and laptops. There is a breakout space where small groups of pupils can work independently. There is an outdoor amphitheatre for use on fair weather days and a staff work room on the Humanities corridor.
Courses
The key questions addressed in Y8 include:
Did the Saxons English deserve William the Conqueror? Did Thomas Becket deserve to die? Was Life fair in The Middle Ages? Did the Tudors and Stuarts cause chaos? How far did life change in the Industrial Revolution? What was life like in the trenches?
The key questions addressed in Y9 include:
Why was Hitler voted into power in Germany in 1933? What can we learn from the story of slavery? How far did life change in the early C20th? Why was there a Cold War from 1945-1991?
In Y11 pupils at GCSE follow the OCR History B GCSE full course:
Germany: 1918-1945
Aspects of international Relations: The Cold War 1945-1975
British Depth: 1890-1918
Controlled Assessment: The USA, Land of Freedom? 1945−1975
In Y10 pupils at GCSE follow the new Edexcel specification for 2016 onwards:
Thematic study: Crime and Punishment through time c.1000-present.
Whitechapel c.1870-c.1900 crime, policing and the inner city.
British Depth Study: Early Elizabethan England, 1558-88.
Modern Depth Study: Weimar and Nazi Germany, 1918-39.
Period Study: Superpower Relations and The Cold War, 1941-91.
Download our Year 6 History booklet
Download our Year 7 Advice and Guidance for Humanties guide.
