Subject/Curriculum Leader: Mr B Evans

A passion for the past and the impact History has in society is at the heart of students’ experience of History at Norton College. As a department, we strive to foster our students’ appreciation of History and to develop their understanding of why it is important to learn from History. ‘Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it’ Edmund Burke. The curriculum we offer is broad and enriching, designed to develop an appreciation for and enjoyment of History. 

The History Department is ambitious, high achieving and creative, staffed by four teachers, a mixture of experience and youth. It is our aim to promote learning in a lively and engaging way that combines fun with academic rigor. We are well resourced, with 4 classrooms, each with interactive whiteboards and a range of textbooks for all Key Stages. We also possess a range of resources for KS5 in the Sixth form library. 

To further develop students’ passion for History, the department offers a range of extra-curricular activities and students are encouraged to expand their interest in History outside the classroom. Students are encouraged to take part in competitions, both local and national, we were successful in the Historical Associations RAF centenary competition with the Science Department in 2018, which was a national award. We also work closely with local universities and Museums to provide enrichment opportunities. 

‘We study History not to be clever in another time, but to be wise always’ Cicero 

In Years 7, 8 and 9 students study History in four one-hour lessons per fortnight. Lessons are based on developing historical skills and promoting active and accessible learning. 

Each scheme of work includes a range of different and challenging topics providing students with the key historical skills, knowledge, concepts, sources and interpretations. The curriculum at KS3 is broadly chronological starting with What is History? Which enables us to assess any prior knowledge students may hold. Year 7’s focus is primarily focused on 1066 to the end of the Tudors in 1603 but also gives a background from the Iron Age onwards. Year 8 focus is on the early modern world up until the twentieth century. Year 9 ranges from pre-WW1, through to the modern age and popular protest in the 21st century. These topics also give students a grounding in what is taught at GCSE enabling them to have a relevant understanding of the context around events and not seeing them in isolation. 

What is History? 

Focus on Historical Skills – Causation, Chronology, Sources, Interpretations, Significance, Similarity and Difference, Usefulness and Reliability and Change and Continuity. 

Britain from the Iron Age to Vikings. 

Key Focus – Migration to Britain 

The Norman Conquest.  

Key Focus – The Anglo-Saxon Succession Crisis, Conquest and Settlement 

Power of the Monarchy.  

Key Focus – Feudalism, Henry II and Becket, King John, Simon De Montfort 

Medieval Warfare.  

Key Focus – Knights and Chivalry, Castles and Sieges, Rise of Islam, The Mongols, Hundred Years War 

Medieval Life.  

Key Focus – Society, Religion, Women, Pastimes, Crime and Punishment, Outlaws, Literature, The Black Death, The Peasants Revolt 

Local study on Wharram Percy.  

Key Focus – Wharram Percy from success to desertion 

The Crusades.  

Key Focus – The First Crusade, The Third Crusade, Richard and Saladin 

The Medieval World 

Key Focus – Medieval Baghdad, The Silk Road, Medieval China, African Kingdoms, Medieval Japan 

The Wars of the Roses  

Key Focus - Battles, Politics, The Princes in the Tower 

The Tudors 

Key Focus – Henry VII, Henry VIII, Reformation, Bloody Mary, Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, The Spanish Armada 

The End of the Tudors and the advent of the Stuarts 

Key Focus – Recap on The Tudors 

The Stuarts 

Key Focus – James I, Charles I, The Causes of the Civil War 

The English Civil War 

Key Focus – Roundhead or Cavalier, Life during the Civil War, Battles, Execution of Charles I, Cromwell 

The 17th Century Witch craze 

Key Focus - Pendle witches, Salem, Matthew Hopkins, European Witchcraft 

Empires Comparison 

Key Focus - Aztecs, Spain, Mughals, Pirates, Early English Empire 

The British Empire 

Key Focus – Migration, Life in the Empire, Law and Order, Pax Britannica, Effects of the Empire 

Slavery 

Key Focus – Pre-Colonial West Africa, Capture and Middle Passage, Auctions, Plantation Life, Resistance, Abolition 

Industrial Revolution 

Key focus – Agricultural Revolution, Causes, Worst Jobs, Inventors and Inventions, A Smaller World 

Local Industrial Revolution Study 

Key Focus – Early Industrial Revolution, Later Industrial Revolution, The Workhouse 

Warfare in the Industrial Revolution 

Key Focus – Napoleonic Wars, Crimean War, U.S. Civil War, Technology, British Empire at War 

Victorian Society  

Key Focus – The Cholera Epidemic, Medical Improvements, Jack the Ripper, The Victims of Jack the Ripper, Holidays and Social Life 

Popular Protest 

Key Focus – The French Revolution, What was wrong with Democracy? Chartists, Suffragists and Suffragettes 

Changes in Warfare 

Key Focus – Recap on Industrial Warfare, Long-Term Causes of WW1 

WW1 

Key Focus – Assassination, Short-Term Causes, Why did People Fight?, Schlieffen Plan, Trench Warfare, Victory 

The Interwar Years 

Key Focus – The Treaty of Versailles, Weimar Republic, Russian Revolution, USA-Prohibition, Rise of the Dictators 

 WW2 

Key Focus – Dunkirk, Battle of Britain, War in the Atlantic, Global War, Bletchley Park, D-Day, Victory 

WW1 and WW2 Local Study 

Home Front, Local Soldiers, Evacuees WW2 

The Holocaust 

Key Focus – Pre-War Jewish Life, Indoctrination, Discrimination, Persecution and Genocide, Memorialization 

The Cold War 

Key Focus – The Atom Bomb, Communism v Capitalism, McCarthyism, Spies and Propaganda, The Space Race 

The End of Empires 

Key focus – China and Communism, Britain and the End of Empire, Korean War, Vietnam War, The Break-up of Africa 

Warfare in the Modern World 

Key Focus – Arab-Israeli Crisis, Suez Crisis, USSR Invasion of Afghanistan, Falklands War, Yugoslavia 

Civil Rights 

Key Focus – Reconstruction and Jim Crow Laws, Black Soldiers, Martin Luther King, Women in Civil Rights, Malcolm X, Black Panthers 

Popular Protests 

Vietnam Protests, Apartheid and Nelson Mandela, Miner’s Strike, Tiananmen Square, Poll Tax Riots, Arab Spring 

 At KS3 Homework is on a fortnightly basis to consolidate and expand students historical knowledge of the time period being studied.

 Key Stage 4 

History is a popular choice at Key Stage 4, students are entered for Edexcel GCSE History in year 11 but we are moving to a new exam board OCR B for 2026. This means year 10 are following the new curriculum.

Final assessment of these GCSEs for current Year 11 (2024-25), in the form of four separate topics in three formal examinations. Paper 1 is on Crime and Punishment c1000 to the Present Day including a Depth Study on Whitechapel c1870 to c1900. Paper 2 is a combined paper in two parts on The Anglo-Saxons and Norman England c1060 to C1088 and Superpower Relations and the Cold War 1941 to 1991. Paper 3 is Weimar and Nazi Germany 1919 to 1939. There are 5 History lessons a fortnight at KS4 for students. The link to the syllabus is here https://qualifications.pearson.com/content/dam/pdf/GCSE/History/2016/specification-and-sample-assessments/gcse-9-1-history-specification.pdf

The link to the specification is here https://www.ocr.org.uk/Images/207164-specification-accredited-gcse-history-b-.pdf The examination is over three separate papers. 

Over the course of the two years, students will be assessed regularly, and their progress tracked. Students are also provided with revision guides and have the opportunity to buy further revision resources at a discounted price. Formal mock examinations take place at the end of Year 10 and in the early spring term of Year 11. To extend students’ learning, we offer a range of extra-curricular activities including a trip to Munichand we are also aiming to put on trips to York Dungeons and local historical sites related to the course content. In the spring term of Year 11, students are provided with an extensive revision programme in preparation for their final exams, which take place at the end of Year 11. 

Key Topic 1: Viking Expansion

Key Topic 2: Norman Conquest 1065-1087

Key Topic 3: Local Study (History Around Us)

Key Topic 1: The Weimar Republic, 1918-29 

The origins of the Republic, 1918-19 

The early challenges to the Weimar Republic, 1919-23 

The recovery of the Republic, 1924-29 

Changes in society, 1924-29 

Key Topic 2: Hitler’s rise to power, 1919-33 

Early development of the Nazi Party, 1920-22 

The Munich Putsch and the lean years, 1923-29 

The growth in support for the Nazis, 1929-32 

How Hitler became Chancellor, 1932-33 

Key Topic 3: Nazi control and dictatorship, 1933-39 

The creation of a dictatorship, 1933-34 

The police state 

Controlling and influencing attitudes 

Opposition, resistance and conformity 

Key Topic 4: Life in Nazi Germany, 1933-39 

Nazi policies towards women 

Nazi policies towards the young 

Employment and living standards 

The persecution of minorities 

Year 11 - Spring term 

Key Topic 1: The Origins of the Cold War, 1941-58 

Early tension between East and West 1 

Early tension between East and West 2 

The development of the Cold War 1 

The development of the Cold War 2 

The Cold War intensifies 1 

The Cold War intensifies 2 

Key Topic 2: Cold War crises, 1958-70 

Increased tension over Berlin, 1958-61 

The Cuban Missile Crisis 

The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, 1968 

Key Topic 3: The end of the Cold War, 1970-91 

Attempts to reduce tension between East and West 1 

Attempts to reduce tension between East and West 2 

Flashpoints 

The collapse of Soviet control of Eastern Europe 1 

The collapse of Soviet control of Eastern Europe 2