History​

Our curriculum trains students to think, speak and write ‘like a historian’ confidently, with a strong focus on disciplinary and literacy skills being taught. They will learn how to ask thoughtful questions, weigh evidence and make substantiated judgements. By acquiring this transformative substantive and disciplinary knowledge, students will engage more confidently with the wider world.

It is more important now than ever for our students to understand why the world is the way it is today. The substantive knowledge and disciplinary skills taught at Alsop allow our students to draw connections and find links between the past and today. Our curriculum content is coherently structured as a narrative which allows students to grow schema and harness the conceptual knowledge of how people in the past lived, how they were ruled and what they believed. The topics are sequenced in a chronological framework which acts as a progression model, becoming incrementally more ambitious as the learning journey progresses. 

Students begin their History lessons with a Do Now knowledge retrieval activity to assess and reactivate prior knowledge. New knowledge and challenging vocabulary is then introduced in the "I do" phase of the lesson. Students are encouraged to apply this new knowledge in both their spoken and written work throughout the lesson. Students are encouraged to fully participate in class discussion through the use of cold-calling and oral debates during the "we do" phase. Teachers frequently model their thought process when writing extended answers and provide students with modelled, worked examples. This helps to prepare students to complete a "purple zone" task independently during the silent "you do" phase of the lesson. Teachers circulate and offer live feedback to help students understand how to improve their written work. Finally, there is an "exit ticket" task to check that students have secured the core, essential knowledge linked to the lessons learning question.

Students are assessed formatively through low stakes quizzes and targeted questioning where misconceptions and gaps in knowledge are addressed by teachers. Students are also assessed through summative assessments each half-term which check their understanding of a whole topic or disciplinary skill as well as their written communication. Students receive feedback from their teachers and are given opportunities to act upon this feedback so that they know how to develop specific skills.

In Key Stage 3, students are set a variety of homework tasks including research and creative projects to help spark their curiosity and passion for History. In Key Stage 4, homework is set fortnightly on GCSE Pod. This platform utilises quizzes which are useful for both knowledge retrieval and exam revision. In Key Stage 5, students are set weekly homework tasks to develop their knowledge and understanding of A Level topics. Students are provided with opportunities to go on History trips for example to Speke Hall, the International Slavery Museum and the Auschwitz-Birkenau memorial site.

History can lead on to further study at A-Level and degree level. The range of skills developed can lead to a plethora of opportunities including careers in law, politics, journalism, research, civil service, archaeology, museum work, teaching and more!