History
At Burnley High School, we believe that History helps students to make sense of the current world using past experiences and events and allows us to understand the complexity of people’s lives. History nurtures personal identity in a multi-cultural world and enables all students to discover their own place in their stories of their families, communities, and nation. Our students learn about and explore the lives of the many individuals and groups of people that have come before them and shaped the world in which they live. It helps our students to understand how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world. Most importantly, we want to inspire students’ curiosity to know more about their past, respect and embrace diversity and difference and allow them to become a well-rounded individual who is equipped to be successful in an ever changing world.
Our History curriculum covers the full National Curriculum and in our delivery of this, we challenge pupils to think critically, weigh evidence and develop perspective and judgement. They are encouraged to enquire, analyse and evaluate different events and actions that have helped to shape the world in which we live. Pupils are expected to show resilience and to “think outside the box” as they debate and challenge ideas through respect and tolerance of others.
Knowledge of the past underpins our curriculum. Pupils are given an overview of their learning journey at the start of each unit of work so that they have a clear understanding of the journey they will go on. This allows pupils to see where each topic fits in their history and wider curriculum.
The curriculum at Key Stage Three is sequenced chronologically to build on existing knowledge and incrementally develop new knowledge. We place emphasis on the acquisition of subject specific vocabulary, modelling and explaining this in our teaching and facilitating exposure to it using ‘real-life’ application of their learning. At Key Stage Four, we follow the EDEXCEL History scheme covering the units:
Paper 1 – Crime and punishment in Britain, c1000–present and Whitechapel, c1870–c1900: crime, policing and the inner city.
Paper 2 – Early Elizabethan England, 1558–88 and The American West, c1835–c1895
Paper 3 – Weimar and Nazi Germany, 1918–39
In addition to the diverse and rich opportunities offered through the teaching, we value opportunities to take pupils out on trips and welcoming visitors to the school, such as ex-war veterans and local historians to enhance the extra-curricular opportunities. We offer a trip to Berlin and Poland as part of the GCSE course and also to our historical environment, Whitechapel in London.
History Road Maps:
Please note, every subject exercise book your child has contains a subject ‘Burnley High Road Map’ that outlines the content covered, timelines and assessment points for the current year.
