History at The Maynard is engaging, motivating and rigorous. History should have both relevance and resonance for students, firing their curiosity for the past in order to inform the present and future.
History teaches us about the diversity of human experience, about people and how they interact, and the motives and emotions that tear them apart or draw them together. The skills of historical enquiry equip our students with some of the skills most prized in later life – the abilities to research, to analyse evidence, to identify truth and to recognise myth, propaganda or downright lies.
At Key Stage 3 (years 7– 9) the History course explores British History from 1066 to 1945. Students will undertake a series of enquiries into some of the key moments in our history. In addition, they will also have the opportunity to investigate a number of important topics in European and World History, gaining an appreciation of how the world has developed and the debates that have arisen from, for example, the Crusades, the slave trade and the development of total war. History is taught using a wide variety of approaches. As part of this we make extensive use of ICT, debate and role-play as means of engaging with a broad spectrum of historical evidence and ideas.
GCSE
Awarding Body: AQA
This qualification will take students on a journey through some of the most significant events in modern world history, linking these events with the present and basing their understanding on a wide variety of historical evidence. The focus will not just be on learning history but learning from history!
The course will make extensive use of multi-media in its delivery and our students are encouraged to present their work in many different ways including class presentations, written essays, posters, wall displays and app-based iPad learning tasks.
Our new specification consists of two assessments, each worth 50% of your final grade. There is no longer any controlled assessment.
Assessment 1: Written exam – 2Hrs
- Section A: focuses on the key developments in a country’s history over a 50 year period. We will be studying Option 1D: USA 1920-1973: Opportunity & Inequality in which you will learn about the huge changes that took place within American society during these years.
- Section B: focuses on the wider modern world as a depth study with an emphasis on understanding rising tensions and growing conflict. We will be studying Conflict and Tension between East and West, 1945-1972, focusing on the dramatic events that surrounded the ‘Cold War’.
Assessment 2: Written exam – 2Hrs
- Section A: is a thematic study looking at the key developments that have taken place over a long sweep of time. We will be studying Option 2A Britain: Health and the people. We will learn about the extraordinary journey of progress (and occasional regress) that medicine and public
health has undergone from Roman times right up to the present day and the controversies that surround health care in the 21st century.
- Section B: is specifically focused on learning about a period of British history
in depth and will include the study of an historic environment. We will be studying Elizabethan England, focusing on the final 35 turbulent years of her reign and weighing the extent to which this was a ‘Golden Age’.
