History
“The study of History is the beginning of wisdom”
Jean Bodin, a French economist (1530–1596)“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots”
Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican-born Civil Rights leader (1887-1940)
A high-quality history education will help students gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It should inspire students’ curiosity to know more about the past. Teaching and learning should equip students to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, sift arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. History helps students to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.
The history curriculum at Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School aims to ensure that all students from all backgrounds:
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know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world
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know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; achievements and mistakes of humankind
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gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’. Furthermore they should be able to gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts
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develop historical skills and resilience whereby they can key understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses
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understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed.
The History department takes individual needs and styles into account in promoting the most effective learning for our students, in which we seek to maintain an aspirational, high-achieving culture of learning. Students who grasp historical concepts quickly have their learning taken to the next level through engaging stretch and challenge tasks. Those who require additional support with historical ideas and concepts are provided with this to help them consolidate and develop their understandings.
History students at Queen Elizabeth’s Girls’ School should extend and deepen their chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of British, local and world history, so that it provides a well-informed context for wider learning and so that it also engenders a mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. They should identify significant events, make connections, draw contrasts, and analyse trends within periods and over long arcs of time. They should use historical terms and concepts in increasingly sophisticated ways. They should pursue historically valid enquiries and create relevant, structured and evidentially supported accounts in response. They should understand how different types of historical sources are used rigorously to
Key Stage 4 Curriculum
Details of the Key Stage 4 History subject content and examination board.
Key Stage 5 Curriculum
Full details can be found on our Sixth Form Subjects Offered page.