Departmental vision
The History department at The English School is run by historians who are passionate about their subject. It is our aim to enthuse our pupils with their own love of history in the hope that it will become a lifelong interest for them. We believe the study of History is vital in developing the minds of our young people, equipping them with vital life long skills. All pupils should have fundamental knowledge and understanding of the past, understanding how the world today has been shaped by events of the past. The study of History helps pupils to develop key skills for life such as thinking, evaluating, analysing, empathising and communicating, and it is our aim to ensure that our lessons and resources provide our pupils with the opportunity to develop in all of these areas.
Departmental aims and ethos
Subject Aims
Consistent with the policy of the School, the overall aim of the Department is to promote the caring for and the understanding of the needs of others, to help the individual students to achieve the highest standards possible for them and to prepare them for life and work in the 21st century.
The aims of the History Department are to enable students to:
- develop knowledge and understanding of people in the past and how they lived their lives
- explore concepts of causation, continuity and change
- understand how the past shapes the present
- learn historical skills of analysis, comparison and synthesis which are relevant to employment in the future
- use historical sources critically in their historical context
- develop an understanding of how the past has been represented and interpreted
- draw conclusions and appreciate that these and other historical conclusions are liable to reassessment in the light of new or reinterpreted evidence
- develop qualities of scepticism, empathy and imagination
- develop an understanding of their environment and to recognise it as a record of the changes that have occurred
- encourage an appreciation of history that will remain with them throughout their lives.
Objectives
- to place the events, people and changes within a chronological framework
- to be familiar with and able to use dates, terms and conventions that describe historical periods, e.g. medieval, renaissance
- to be able to analyse the key features of particular periods and societies including a range of attitudes and beliefs
- to be able to explain the causes and results of historical events and changes
- to develop an overview of the main events and changes within and across periods
- to assess the significance of the main events
- to be able to investigate independently aspects of the period studied, using a wide range of sources
- to be able to collect and record information relevant to a topic and reach conclusions
- to be able to explain why some historical events, people and situations have been interpreted differently
- to be able to analyse and evaluate interpretations
- to be able to communicate their knowledge using a variety of techniques including extended narratives and descriptions and substantiated explanations
- to be able to use accurately terms used to describe or explain topics, e.g. government, parliament, nobility, state, class, communism.
