History

Our aim in History at Dame Alice Owens is to excite and enthuse students into the subject, as well as developing their historical skills to help them to make sense of the past. We do this through the topics that are studied and the variety of teaching and learning techniques applied in the classroom. We like students to take an active part in their learning and encourage them to show their understanding in variety of ways, such as research projects, making films, historical re-enactments, magazines and of course extended writing to enhance their analytical reasoning.

We hope that at the end of their period of studying History students will be thoughtful, critical thinkers with the ability to scrutinise the world around them and for their views to be based on evidence and a deep understanding of the human world.

KS3

From Years 7 to 9, we cover a broad span of history from the ancient Silk Road through to the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945.

Students have the opportunity to look at the conquest of England from 1066, the power struggles and rivalry of the Tudors and Stuarts, the barbarism of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, the horrors of World War One and the rise of dictatorship in the interwar period.

Year	Topics covered
Year 7	The Silk Road, Norman Conquest, The Crusades, Medieval Life
Year 8	The Tudors, English Civil War, Empire, African Kingdoms and Slavery, Comparative Analysis of Civil Rights in the USA and the Suffragettes in the UK
Year 9	World War One, Weimar Germany and the Rise of Hitler, The Nazis in Power, The Holocaust, Fighting For Justice: Research Project into Protest and Resistance around the world in the 20th Century.

Assessment at KS3 is focused on building up key historical skills such as analysing utility and examining historical interpretations whilst also testing our students’ understanding of key concepts and knowledge.

GCSE

At GCSE, the course with a broad scope from the rise of Communism in Russia to Stalin’s brutal regime, the Nuclear Arms Race between the Superpowers after World War Two culminating in the Cuban Missile Crisis, Star Wars and the eventual collapse of Communism. The GCSE now encompasses Early Elizabethan England and the changing nature of Crime and Punishment in Britain with a focus on Whitechapel in the late 19^th Century.

A Level

For A-Level, the students study some major concepts including democracy, nationalism and Nazism. During Year 12 their focus is on how Italy came to be unified. Students also look at the dynamics, which helped to move Britain closer towards democracy in the 19th Century, in addition to growing socio-economic discontent protest and reform. At A2 Level, students study Germany from 1871 to 1990 including the rise of Hitler and the Nazi State. For coursework students are now allowed to choose a topic of their choice to investigate ranging from the Mongol Empire to Irish nationalism to Ancient Athens.