History
Welcome to our History Department
At Newman, we believe that history can unlock doors to the past and to the future. We strive to allow students to discover a love for history as well as the skills to apply their learning to current tasks and their futures. Our vision is to foster this enthusiasm to enable students to be the best they can possibly be.
We approach history in a diverse way and use a wide range of teaching styles to accommodate this. History can allow us to understand the way our world is today and how it has been shaped by people and events in the past. It helps us to ask questions properly and develop our own interpretations, based on evidence. It is also a foreign land filled with amazing stories. At Newman, we take students through over a thousand years of local, British and global history.
Miss E Lowrey
Head of History
Key Stage 3
Year 7
Students will study:
• The Norman Conquest of 1066
• Life in Medieval Britain including castles
• The Black Death
• The Crusades
• The Tudor Monarchs: Henry VIII, Edward VI, Lady Jane Grey and Mary I
• The Reign of Elizabeth I
We also offer a Religion, History and Society course in conjunction with the RE department which supports the history curriculum and allows students to explore a wider range of religious and historical issues and develop their understanding of social, moral, spiritual and cultural issues and British Values. This includes pre-Christian polytheism; the early Christian Church in Britain; Medieval Christianity; the relationship between Church and State in the Medieval period (including Thomas Becket); Islamic beliefs; the European Reformation; and Tudor religion.
Year 8
Students will study:
• Victorian Britain and the Industrial Revolution
• Slave Trade
• Black Civil Rights
• The development of democracy in Britain
• The role of women in history
• Suffragettes
• World War Two
• Communism
The year 8 Religion, History and Society programme includes: migration to America; Native American life and beliefs; Mormons; the British Empire with particular focus on India; immigration and the idea of Britain as a multicultural society; human rights; prejudice and discrimination; Heroes of Human Rights; terrorism; and conflict in the Middle East
GCSE
This course should give students a broad range of knowledge through engaging topics and dynamic teaching. It aims to develop the students’ enquiry skills to understand cause and consequence; significance; and change and continuity. Source evaluation and knowledge recall are strengthened components of the exams so students will get a lot of practice with these.
At GCSE, we follow the new AQA specification with units on Health and the People; Conflict and Tension during World War One; Democracy and Dictatorship in Germany and Norman England. This will be assessed by two terminal exams at the end of year 11. There is no longer any coursework.
All students will begin studying GCSE history in year 9 with focus on Conflict and Tension during World War One and the first half of the Democracy and Dictatorship in Germany unit. Students make their Guided Choices half way through year 9. If they choose not to continue with history into year 10 and 11 they will still have spent year 9 learning about World War One and the rise of dictatorship in Germany which are important historical events to understand even if not taking the GCSE exams. Find out more here.
Religion, History and Society is also taught in year 9 in conjunction with the RE department. We have constructed a unit which links the RE GCSE unit on Judaism with the History GCSE unit on Dictatorship in Germany. Students study the basics of the Jewish faith before beginning an exploration of how life changed for Jews in the 20th century including the escalation of persecution; ghettos; pogroms and Kristallnacht; the Holocaust; and the impact of the Holocaust.
Find out more here.
A-level
With the recent specification changes, Sixth Form history students no longer sit modular exams. There are 3 units to the A-level: Tsarist and Communist Russia; the Wars of the Roses and the non-examined assessment (NEA).There will be a mid-point exam at the end of year 12 but this no longer contributes towards the full A-level. The entire course will be re-assessed at the end of year 13.
The Tsarist and Communist Russia focuses on the changing political context of Russia in the modern period. Focus will be on analysing historians’ interpretations of key events and allowing students to form their own justified interpretations. The Wars of the Roses unit allows students to look in depth at a period of history that they have not studied before. It allows us to immerse ourselves in a shorter time period. The focus is on evaluating the value of primary sources and developing interpretations of key issues.
The NEA may have been called coursework in the past. Students select a topic, covering a 100 year period, that they are interested in and spend time independently researching this. They then write a 4000 word essay to analyse a key issue. This is on par with first year university work and requires dedication and commitment to working independently.
