Intent of the Key Stage 3 Curriculum.

The Key Stage 3 Curriculum has been designed to achieve the following goals:

1. Develop students who demonstrate a love of History and learning.
2. Inspire a sense of curiosity about our world and how it developed throughout history.
3. Instil a sense of key British values through a chronological and thematic study of the nation’s history, creating respectful and responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society.
4. Help students to make good progress and achieve excellence.
5. To encourage tolerance of differences through a diverse curriculum.
6. Build up the key skills and concepts required for studying the past and help students become critical thinkers about the world around them.

Curriculum content

The Key Stage 3 Curriculum has been designed to extend and deepen students’ knowledge of British and world history through a chronological and thematic study of significant historical individuals and events. The core focus of the curriculum is the study of Britain from AD43 - present. This provides students with a clear understanding of Britain’s social and political history, the shaping of British values such as equality and democracy and how this has influenced and been influenced by the wider world. 

Year 7:

The Year 7 course establishes the key concepts needed to engage with History and starts with a short unit on the Roman Empire, linking to knowledge from KS2. The year focuses on the development of power and monarchy through medieval and early modern England, with highlights on foreign affairs impacting key reigns in the period. Throughout the year students will assess the significance of key monarchs and compare how things have changed throughout 1000-1500. Developing their analysis of sources and interpretations. Year 7s have a depth study on the Black Death and its impact on England. Ending the year with the first forays into the expansionism that will be covered in Year 8.

Year 8:

The focus of this year is mostly outside of the UK, how the British Empire expanded and the significance it had in the colonies. This is where a thematic approach is introduced, looking in depth studies at America, India, Australia and Africa in order to compare the reasons for the Empire’s colonisation through 1700-1900. This will continue to embed the second order concepts of change and continuity introduced in Year 7. Increasingly challenging content will be used to build discussion and criticism of how we have reached the world we live in today and how interpretations of these events are ever changing over time.

Year 9:

This year focuses on the modern world form the industrial revolution through to the end of World War Two. Continuing to enhance the skills introduced and developed in previous years. Acknowledging and reinforcing between how the Year 8 content can be directly linked to the development of industrialisation and causes of war in this period. It is within this year that students make their GCSE option choices, our department has had an uptake of more than 60% of the cohort for the last three years.

Curriculum Overviews are available below