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Devonport High School for Girls

Name of Head of Department

Miss L Matthews, BA (Hons) QTS

Statement of Intent 

History at DHSG will provide students with a comprehensive understanding of purposefully selected historical events, cause and consequence, and resonance to the modern day in line with the National Curriculum.  

The diversity of the content also acknowledges the narrative of marginalised groups, which challenges and provokes curiosity to be developed through debate. This is delivered in harness with the development of core history and historiographical skills centering on analysis, evaluation, interpretation, and significance.  

We interleave the curriculum across the three key stages to provide students with a sound understanding of the world in which they live, carefully developed transferable skills which are monitored and delivered with intent by subject experts.    

Key stage 3 (Year 7, 8)  

In Year 7 students investigate and study some key events in British Medieval History, including aspects of Anglo-Saxon Britain, the Norman conquest and its impact, King John's reputation and the significance of the Magna Carta, the impact of the Black Death, the 1381 Peasants revolt and religious developments. There is also a study of the changes to religion made by the Tudors, including the Tudors.

In Year 8 students investigate and study some key events the industrial revolution, the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire, women's suffrage, the origins of World War One, the causes of the 1917 Bolshevik revolution, the origins of World War Two, anti-Semitism in Nazi Germany and the Holocaust.

Key stage 4 (Year 9, 10, 11) 

Students will follow the AQA GCSE course. The examination takes the form of two papers.  Students will study the Paper One options: America, 1920–1973: Opportunity and inequality and Conflict and tension: the inter-war years, 1918–1939.  On Paper Two students will study Britain: Health and the people: c1000 to the present day and Restoration England, 1660–1685.  AQA have designed a course that provides students with a breadth and depth of understanding of History and builds on the skills introduced at Key Stage 3. 

Full details of the specification and assessment criteria can be found on the AQA website  GCSE History Specification

Curriculum Programmes of Study 

Year

Cycle Content

Year 7

Cycle 1

Mediaeval Britain

Cycle 2

Tudor/Elizabethan Britain

Cycle 3

Stuart Britain

Year 8 

 

Cycle 1

Victorian Britain

Cycle 2

Empire and Enslavement

Cycle 3

Modern World History

Year 9

Cycle 1

Mediaeval Medicine
Renaissance Medicine

Cycle 2

Enlightenment Medicine
Modern Medicine

Cycle 3

Medicine on the Western Front

Life and Government in England

Year 10 

Cycle 1

America 1920-73 – Divided Society
Americans’ experience of the Depression and the New Deal

Cycle 2

Post War America

Cycle 3

Peace-Making

Year 11

Cycle 1

The Origins and Outbreak of the Second World War
The League of Nations and International Peace

Cycle 2

The League of Nations and International Peace
The Origins and Outbreak of the Second World War

Cycle 3

The Norman Church and Monasticism
Revision and Exams

Extra-curricular activities 

Year 7 students spend a day at Buckfast Abbey Devon, exploring a number of cross-curricular themes.