Why do we learn history?
The History curriculum at Ark Soane aims to ensure that students are better able to understand the past, enabling them to participate in educated discourse around the discipline. This in turn will enable them to participate in the various social and political worlds that exist within society. The curriculum achieves this by ensuring that students not only have broad and strong substantive knowledge – a coherent picture of the past – but also understanding of the discipline of history.
Head of Department
Mike Hill
Our approach
Students will study a coherent, chronological narrative of British history, as well as significant aspects of world history. Since the past is diverse, students will also study a diverse past: a broad range of human experiences and perspectives in diverse settings that take students into the unfamiliar, broadening their experience and horizons by giving them knowledge of communities distant from their own. The knowledge students gain from this study will not only help students to build a strong sense of the past, but also will transform how they see the world, helping them to interpret all that they hear, see, or read.
At GCSE, students will follow the Edexcel course. As part of this, students will study the Norman Conquest, the history of medicine, Weimar and Nazi Germany and the Cold War
Year 7
| Autumn 1 | Autumn 2 |
|---|---|
| Medieval Islam and medieval Christianity | The Norman Conquest; the First Crusade |
| Spring 1 | Spring 2 |
|---|---|
| Power in medieval England and medieval Africa | The Black Death; the Wars of the Roses |
| Summer 1 | Summer 2 |
|---|---|
| The Renaissance; the Reformation | The Incas; the Ottoman Empire |
Year 8
| Autumn 1 | Autumn 2 |
|---|---|
| The Kingdom of Benin; the Mughal Empire | The English Civil War; transatlantic slavery; early colonies in North America |
| Spring 1 | Spring 2 |
|---|---|
| The Restoration; the East India Company | The American Revolution; the French Revolution; the Industrial Revolution |
| Summer 1 | Summer 2 |
|---|---|
| Political reform in Britain; Jamaica before and after abolition | The Chartists; the Great Exhibition |
Year 9
| Autumn 1 | Autumn 2 |
|---|---|
| Colonisation in East Africa; the socialist and suffrage movements in Britain | The Russian Empire; the First World War |
| Spring 1 | Spring 2 |
|---|---|
| The Soviet Union; Nazi Germany | The Second World War; the Holocaust |
| Summer 1 | Summer 2 |
|---|---|
| Post-war Britain; the Partition of India; the Cold War | Decolonisation in East Africa; the fall of the Soviet Union |
Year 10
| Autumn 1 | Autumn 2 |
|---|---|
| Medicine in Britain, 1250 - present | Medicine in Britain, 1250 - present |
| Spring 1 | Spring 2 |
|---|---|
| Spain and the 'New World' | Spain and the 'New World' |
| Summer 1 | Summer 2 |
|---|---|
| Early Elizabethan England | Early Elizabethan England |
Year 11
| Autumn 1 | Autumn 2 |
|---|---|
| Early Elizabethan England; Mao's China | Mao's China |
| Spring 1 | Spring 2 |
|---|---|
| Mao's China | Revision |