History

Key Stage 3 Curriculum Summary

Northampton Academy’s KS3 History curriculum is focused around enquiry questions following a chronological approach. The enquiry questions equip students with the skills necessary to tackle second-order concepts at GCSE including: significance, causation, change and continuity, similarity and difference, source analysis, evaluating interpretations, etc. Beginning in 1066 in Year 7, students analyse the development of English political, religious and social history up until the Renaissance.

In Year 8, students begin by tackling the causes, events and consequences of the Reformation. Following on from this we move into the Early Modern and Modern era analysing the impact of the English Civil War and the Industrial Revolution. Towards the end of Year 8 we begin to consider Britain’s role in the wider role and ask questions about the legacy of the slave trade and British Empire. In Year 9 we deal with more international History in preparation for GCSE, with a focus on the First World War, the Civil Rights Movement, the Soviet Union, and finally the Holocaust and other 20^th century persecutions.

Students are assessed through half-termly end of unit assessments, aimed at preparing them for GCSE through a variety of GCSE-style questions. Students receive a grade for this assessment and this then contributes to the teacher’s judgement in whether students are ‘secure’ or ‘emerging’ in that unit’s KPIs. Students will also complete significant mid-year and end of year assessments assessing their cumulative knowledge from across the year. By the end of Year 9, students are equipped with the skills, knowledge, confidence and intellectual curiosity to excel at GCSE History.

KS3 History
Year 7	Year 8	Year 9
How effective were William I and the Normans in taking control of England? To what extent did England change as a result of the Norman Conquest? How significant was religion in medieval society? How similar were the challenges to medieval kings and how well did the monarchs deal with them? To what extent was medieval life dirty, diseased and chaotic? How significant was the Renaissance?	Why did Henry VIII break away from the Catholic Church? Why had England become so hostile to Catholicism by the early seventeenth century? Why did the English Civil War break out in 1642? How similar was the experience of English people in the Industrial Revolution? Why have historians disagreed about the abolition of the slave trade? How far did the British Empire change between 1760 and 1960?	Why did the world go to war in 1914? When were the most significant steps forward for equality after 1945? What does propaganda tell us about life in the Soviet Union? Was the Holocaust unique in twentieth century persecution? (GCSE units – Medieval and Renaissance medicine in Britain)