History | KAA - Kensington Aldridge Academy

The History curriculum is designed to encompass the “whole game” of History. Our curriculum aims to develop students’ critical thinking and a strong understanding of both substantive and disciplinary historical concepts. The curriculum has been constructed to:

– Empower students of all backgrounds

– Draw connections between the past and the present

– Challenge common misconceptions about the past

– Recognise the complex interactions between communities and cultures in the past

– Sequence students skills to ensure they have a strong foundation upon which they can achieve the very best grades from KS3 to A level

Curriculum Map

The Year 7 History curriculum explores the fundamental skills required to succeed: recall, select and communicate their knowledge; using historical terminology; demonstrating their understanding through explanations; using historical sources to understand different interpretations in history; and demonstrating excellent spelling, punctuation and grammar in their work. The programme of study will ensure all students are introduced to how history is constructed through the study of the Medieval world. They will be able to draw parallels across topics and explore core concepts such as religion, power, monarchy, and complex interactions between diverse communities and groups.

You can download the full curriculum overview via the link below:

Year 7 History KAA Curriculum Overview

The Year 8 History curriculum explores the fundamental skills required to succeed: recall, select and communicate their knowledge; using historical terminology; demonstrating their understanding through explanations; using historical sources to understand different interpretations in history; and demonstrating excellent spelling, punctuation and grammar in their work. The course will build on the ideas of power from the Year 7 course to explore the complex concepts of empire and revolution. Students will be able to make connections between key themes and how ideas such as the enlightenment shaped the Industrial period. They will also be introduced to ideas of protest and class struggle which will lay the foundation for Year 9.

You can download the full curriculum overview via the link below:

Year 8 History KAA Curriculum Overview

The Year 9 History curriculum explores the fundamental skills required to succeed: recall, select and communicate their knowledge; using historical terminology; demonstrating their understanding through explanations; using historical sources to understand different interpretations in history; and demonstrating excellent spelling, punctuation and grammar in their work. The programme of study will ensure all students have a breadth of understanding on the key features that have formed modern British society through the exploration of how various groups fought for greater civil rights. They will build on their studies from Year 7 and 8 to explore the complex relationship between powerful nations during WW1 and explore how the nature of government and of war changed in the 20th Century. Students will study the evolution of democracies and dictatorships, power, revolution and political ideologies of communism and capitalism.

You can download the full curriculum overview via the link below:

Year 9 History KAA Curriculum Overview

Assessment

Students will complete a formative “Little Write” – this is a short extended written piece in order to gain feedback to move students forward.

Students will then complete a summative “Big Write” – an extended piece of writing which will focus on one of the core historical skills such as: Source Utility, Causation, Change over time, Interpretations.

Homework

There will be a weekly knowledge test posted onto Google Classroom. This will be a Google Form multiple choice quiz which will be automatically marked so you can keep track of your score. Your teacher will also be monitoring your progress throughout the year using the data from our quizzes.

At each half term there will be a MEGA quiz covering all topics to date. The aim is to ensure that you are continuously revisiting core content.

Useful Resources

Google Classroom will have a variety of resources to help support learning.

The library is stocked with relevant books and periodicals to extend the students’ learning – please speak to your class teacher or school librarian if you are interested in reading more, a few examples are provided below:

Year 7 – The Silk Roads: The Extraordinary History that created your World – Illustrated Edition by Peter Frankopan.
Year 8 – The Story of Harriet Tubman: A Biography Book by Christine Platt
Year 9 – Black and British: An illustrated history by David Olusoga

GCSE History

Exam Board: Edexcel
Why study history?

History is crucial if we are to understand the world around us today. It allows us to make sense of current events, whether its pandemics, protest movements or wars, each event is tied to the past and we can learn from the mistakes of others. By examining the history of different cultures, we can build up a better understanding of the experiences of different groups. To help us do this, we are very excited to be launching our new GCSE paper on Migration to Britain through which we will explore how, for over a thousand years’, groups from the around the globe have settled and shaped Britain and the challenges they have faced. This paper also has a case study on Notting Hill and will help us understand our local history.

Our KS3 curriculum is designed to support your journey towards a History GCSE. The topics you are learning in Year 9 will build a strong foundation upon which you can build your content knowledge and all the assessments that you have done so far are based on GCSE skills and questions. This all puts you in a good position to do well in a History GCSE.

What will I study and how is the course structured?