History
Vision:
The History Department at Fakenham Academy’s vision is to enable students to develop an enquiring mind and that history is provisional. Students are encouraged to to think critically about past events as well as how and why interpretations change. What impact these events and people have had on their own lives is considered as well as history on the global, national and local scale.
This vision is achieved by building on the History students have experienced at Key Stage 2. Year 7 introduces the basic concepts and skills such as chronology and use of sources that are necessary in order to build a foundation for later more advanced analysis. Throughout the remainder of Key Stage 3 and into Key Stage 4 and A level knowledge, concepts and historical skills are revisited. Students develop their skills of interpretation and source analysis as well as their ability to unpick arguments and develop their own supported by the recall of specific detail presented in a cogent and coherent way.
Yearly Intent Statements
What are the aims of specific stages of the curriculum?
Year 7: By the end of the year…
Students will be able to get to grips with some of themes in history as well as engaging enquiry based work each of which is focussed around a particular question. They will begin to engage evaluative longer pieces of written work expressing their opinions in a sophisticated way and examining different sides of an argument.
Year 8: By the end of the year…
Students will be building on their foundation work from Year 7 by integrating source analysis into their writing as well as further developing their essay writing skills along with their ability to verbally articulate their point of view and dealing with opposing points of view. All of which will be inclusive in their study of the Industrial Revolution, slavery and Nelson’s statue.
Year 9: By the end of the year…
Students will have moved their focus to more modern history and particularly contentious aspects including life in the trenches, origins of the Holocaust and the rise of the Nazis. Along with formal essay writing they will also engage in more formal historical debate and consolidate skills learned throughout KS3.
Year 10: By the end of the year…
Students will be able to explain, analyse and evaluate a wide range of source material in relation to the units of Crime and Punishment (to be replaced by Medicine Through Time from Sept ‘23) as well as Early Elizabethan England. They will now be able to apply specific detail and reach conclusions having examined differing points of view.
Year 11: By the end of the year…
Students will be able to successfully apply their knowledge and discern interpretations of particular events and understand why sources have been produced and to what effect. They will also be able to evaluate alternative arguments and reach conclusions of their own. They will study the American West (to be replaced by the Cold War from Sept ‘23) and Germany 1919-1939.
Year 12: By the end of the year…
Students will have an in-depth understanding of Germany 1971-1991. They will understand themes around democracy and nationalism and how they forged a national identity. They will evaluate causational factors that led to the dramatic change in Germany’s political sphere and draw conclusions about the most significant factors in this journey. From the birth of German nationalism under the Kaiserreich to liberal democracy to Nazism to a divided Germany then finally unified. They will examine aspects of economic, politically, social and cultural history. They will be able to write at length analysing different points of view and able to marshall specific detail in a coherent and logical manner in order to build and sustain an argument. Simultaneously, they will be engaged in independent research as part of their NEA themed on Tudor Rebellions.
Year 13: By the end of the year…
Students will have completed their NEA, learning the skills of research, source analysis and writing at length in an engaging and persuasive manner. They will finally undertake the depth study of Making of Modern Britain 1951-2007 where they will undertake an in-depth study of how and why recent history has shaped our lives in Britain. Running along themes of social, cultural, political and economic history they will be able to draw detail and sources to create intellectually rigorous responses to interesting and stimulating questions. From post-war Britain to the boom of the 1960s and recessions caused by international factors to Thatcher’s revolutionising actions to Blair’s New Labour and search for a middle ground against the back drop of the Cold War and the Troubles of Northern Ireland.
