History

Interesting Questions

The Key Stage 3 History curriculum is built around stimulating over-arching key questions for students to investigate. Each Key Question leads to a significant outcome. These could be written, verbal or visual. They include such things as video presentations, living graphs, booklets for primary school children and talking essays. Each piece of work is marking using the latest 'Assessment for Learning' techniques. Our aim is for students to know exactly what they need to do in order to get better at history.

Over-arching 'Key Questions' are as follows:

Year 7

• What is 'History'?
• Why is 1066 such an important date?
• What is the English think when King William I took control?
• How were medieval castles attacked and defended?
• Why could no one ignore the Church in the Middle Ages?
• Were Thomas Becket's murderers licensed to kill?
• What makes a good story about the Black Death?
• Why was Parliament set up?
• What was new and what was old about the Renaissance?

Year 8

• What happened when Henry VIII took control of the Church?
• 1547 to 1603: When was it safe to speak your mind?
• The Gunpowder Plot: Were the Catholics framed?
• Why did civil war break out in 1642?
• Should Oliver Cromwell's head be reburied in Westminster Abbey?
• Who had control after 1660?
• How did the triangular 'Slave Trade' work?
• Why was slavery abolished?
• What was life like for freed slaves?

Year 9

• Why was Quarry Bank Mill so successful?
• When was Britain closest to revolution between 1815 and 1832?
• The British Empire: What were the attitudes of the rulers to the ruled?
• Did the First World War really start because someone called Archie Duke shot an ostrich?
• Does the film 'The Battle of the Somme' give a realistic portrayal of life in the trenches?
• Why did the Second World War break out?
• When was the turning point in the Second World War?
• How and why did the Holocaust happen?