History

All societies have wished to know of their past whether from priests, poets, minstrels or historians. The Old Testament, the Iliad, the Aeneiad, the Norse Sagas, the Welsh Bruts, the Chanson de Roland testify to this deep concern for the past as surely as Thucydides, Livy, Bede, Clarendon or Macaulay. It is a social necessity. History has an important part to play in establishing a social identity - who we are and where we have come from. "History", it has been said, "is to the community what memory is to the individual". Through a study of history the student gains some notion of his/her relation to, and dependence on, others in a range of communities locally, nationally and globally.

History is a subject which has evolved over the years from a dry and musty study of the past to a vibrant and varied examination of our heritage using a wide range of sophisticated study and research skills from source recovery and evaluation, the use of libraries and computer archives (including the internet) for research through to the clear and analytical explanation of findings. It is truly "a study of the past using the skills of the future".

The Department is fortunate to have a very strong team including a GCSE Principal Examiner and senior moderator. Indeed all members of the Department either are or have been GCSE examiners. Most recently the Department has also begun teaching AS Archaeology (although this has been taught as an extra-curricular activity through further education for some years). This has proved very successful and marks a new stage in the Department's development.

KEY STAGE 3 

Course Outline and Planning

Twentieth Century World

September/October:

  • Background to WWI: - Austria-Serbian rivalry/Balkan instability - the alliance system - Anglo-German rivalry - the Schlieffen Plan
  • The Nature of War: - trench warfare - the experience of war - casualty figures - major engagements
  • Make Germany Pay: - the Weimar government - terms of the Versailles Treaty - German reaction
  • League of Nations: - structure and role of the League - the weaknesses of the League

November/December:

  • Economic Ruin: - causes of hyper-inflation - consequences of inflation
  • Rise of Extremism: - political terms - rise of communism - rise of fascism
  • Rise of Hitler: - background/origins of the Nazis
  • Appeasement: - definition of - reasons for - Rhineland/Anschluss/Munich

Depth Study - Munich Putsch - Abyssinia 1935 - Reichstag Fire - Night of the Long Knives

January/February:

  • World War II: - major turning points
  • The Holocaust: - anti-semitism - Nazi racial views/Nuremburg Laws - Chrystal Night - The Final Solution
  • The Home Front: - Evacuees - The Blitz
  • The Legacy of War: - the new map of Europe - the Cold War - the collapse of Communism - the beginnings of European unity.

Basic Text Book: Kelly and Whittock; Era of the Second World War; Heinemann (with differentiated Teacher's Resource Pack) or Reynoldson; Era of the Second World War; Heinemann Foundation History (with differentiated Teacher's Resource Pack)

Supplementary Text: Nichol and Gibson; Germany; Blackwell History Project

African Peoples of the Americas

March/April:

  •  African cultures pre 1700: - geographic location - examples of cultures: Ghana Songhay Mall
  • The slave trade: - origins and growth of slavery - 'triangular trade' - scale of the trade
  • The experience of slavery: - conditions on slave transports - slave auctions - slave work: field hands/plantation slavery house servants - treatment of slaves
  • The fight for freedom 1699 to 1860: - early revolts: Toussaint L'Ouverture Nat Turner John Brown
  • Abolitionists and the Underground Railway: - what the Railway was - key characters: Frederick Douglass Harriet Tubman Sojourner Truth Harriet Beecher Stowe - Fugitive Slave Laws and their impact

April/May:

  • Slavery and the Civil War: - Contrabands - Slavery and the Confederacy - Blacks in the Union forces - CASE STUDY: the 54th Massachusetts Regt. - Proclamation of Emancipation
  • Reconstruction: - Freedmen's Bureau/'Black Codes' - Ku Klux Klan - growth of discrimination

June/July:

  • Blacks and the West: - pioneers - cowboys - buffalo soldiers
  • Campaign tor Civil Rights: - early Black leaders: Ida Wells Booker Washington W.E.B. Dubois Marcus Garvey - Civil Rights since the 1920's - impact of World War II - end of segregation - Martin Luther King/Malcolm X

Basic Text Book: Field; African Peoples of the Americas: From Slavery to Civil Rights; Cambridge History Programme

KEY STAGE 4

History: GCSE

History develops the skills of :

  • Locating and extracting information
  • Evaluating information
  • Communicating relevant information in a concise and appropriate format.

These skills are widely sought after by employers making this a popular and widely accepted GCSE.

The course is the Schools History Project syllabus and comprises four distinct units, or modules, assessed by a combination of coursework and formal examination. There are two pieces of coursework which take the form of research exercises. Coursework comprises 25% of the total marks available. Modules 2 and 3 are assessed entirely by coursework. Modules 1 and 4 are assessed by two examinations taken at the end of the course, one which includes a section testing the student's ability to interpret and evaluate sources.

The modules are:-

  • An Enquiry in Depth: The American West - this study aims to dispel the myths of the 'Wild West' and replace them with a factual account of the development and settlement of the Great Plains between the years 1840 and 1895. This is done through an in-depth study of a wide range of primary and secondary source material, for example letters, photographs, objects. This module is assessed by examination.
  • A Modern World Study: The Conflict in Ireland - a consideration of the conflict in Northern Ireland studying the issues and groups involved from an impartial viewpoint. The background to these troubles is also studied in order to show how tensions have developed over the last 450 years. This module has one piece of coursework focusing on the events of Bloody Sunday.
  • A History Around Us: The Local Study - this module represents a chance for students to use a wide variety of skills and historical sources in order to examine an historical/archaeological site in detail. The object is to assess how the site has changed through time and why. This module has one piece of coursework based on the fieldwork.
  • A Developmental Study: Medicine Through Time - is a developmental study to show how a single idea - medicine - has developed from early stone-age spiritual medicine to modern open-heart surgery, considering how and why such factors as war, politics, religion, social attitudes, advance or hinder its development. This module is assessed by examination.

Paper 1 Coursework 25%
Paper 2 Medicine Through Time 37.5%
Paper 3 American West 37.5%

All students sit the same examination at the end of the course which offers the full range of grades A* to G.

Course Structure:

The American West

September/October:

  • The Great Plains: - geographic location - flora/fauna - image of 'The Great American Desert'
  • The Plains Indians: (Origins) - their origins and arrival of the horse
  • Indian lifestyle: - dependence on the buffalo - nomadic lifestyle - merits of the tipi
  • Indian culture: - tribal government - laws and ceremonies - religious beliefs/attitudes to the land - bravery and warfare
  • White expansion: - reasons for (Push/Pull factors) - different groups
  • The Mormons (Case Study) - origins of the Mormon Church under Smith - reasons why Mormons were hated - what was done to them (incl. death Smith)

November/December:

  • Brigham Young and the move to the Salt Lake
  • Brigham Young's role in success of the move
  • building of Salt Lake City
  • war of 1848 and the State of Deseret
  • final settlement
  • Cowboys and cattle: - why the Plains were suitable - impact of the Civil War on ranching - the long drive - cowboys' jobs and equipment - spread of ranching to the North - key characters eg Goodnight, Iliff
  • The Homesteaders: - who they were - reasons for going to the Plains - influence of newspapers/railways/1862 Act - the soddie and its merits - the role of women on the Plains - the problems of farming the Plains - new methods of farming

January/February:

  • Fate of the Indians: - official policies : permanent frontier : reservation : concentration : small reservations : military solution
  • Little Big Horn: (Case Study) - Bozeman Trail/events of Red Cloud's War - Custer and gold in the Black Hills - Little Big Horn - plan of campaign - what actually happened? - role of Custer - egotist or genius? - why a 'victory in defeat' for the Indians? - the Ghost Dance/Wounded Knee
  • Govt. Law and Order: - territories and states - levels of law enforcement - problems of law and order : mining camps : cow towns : Johnson County War

The Irish Question

March/April:

  • Defining the current situation: - selecting sources - evaluating sources - producing a factual account of events
  • Henry VIII to the Plantation: - why Ireland is important to Britain - the protestant/catholic division - the Plantation of Ulster and impact
  • Increasing bitterness - 1800s: - The Act of Union and its implications - reasons behind the developing rift
  • Home Rule to the Easter Rising: - what Home Rule was and represented - role of Parnell and the Liberals - Home Rule Bills and outbreak of WWI - the growth of armed forces - the Easter Rising and its impact
  • The Government of Ireland Act: - the separation of north and south - the civil war of 1921-22

May/June:

  • Protestant supremacy in North: - growing differences north and south - the power of the Unionists - the evidence for discrimination
  • Increasing tension/Civil Rights: - the outbreak of violence in 1968 - what the civil rights movement was - Battle of Burntollet Bridge - the reasons for sending in troops - the introduction of internment
  • The Provisional IRA and aims : - how the Provos were formed - what their aims are - how they seek to achieve these aims ' - the IRA and Sinn Fein
  • Bloody Sunday and reaction to it: - what happened - claims and counterclaims - the impact of the event on terrorism - the introduction of Direct Rule
  • The search for peace: - Sunningdale and power-sharing - the Anglo-Irish agreement etc.... - who has opposed what and why?
  • The Situation Today: -- what is currently happening - how have the events of the past created the situation today?

The Local Study

September/October:

  • Historical context: - purpose of education pre-1870 : for rich : for poor - opportunities for education pre-1870 - : Church schools : Sunday schools : Ragged schools : Charity schools : Dame schools: Public schools - 1870 Act and subsequent developments - 1902 Act and subsequent developments - 1918 Act and subsequent developments - 1926 Hadow Report - 1944 Act - introduction of Comprehensive schools
  • Background to St. Michael's: - source evaluation and interpretation - use of relevant sources
  • Field work skills: - observational skills - questioning and hypothesis - recording skills: describing : sketching : annotating
  • St. Michael's Field trip

November: Writing up of Assignment

Standard Text Book: Cochlin, R; Life and Work From 1700 to the Present; Hutchinson

Medicine Through Time

November/December:

  • Prehistoric medicine: - the extent of evidence - limitations of evidence - use of ethnographic parallels
  • The Aborigines: - lifestyle - religious beliefs -- Dream Time - Aboriginal Medicine/Medicine Man
  • The Egyptians: - Historic background - Differences Stone Age/Egyptian - Egyptian medicine - spiritual - natural - Anatomy physiology -role of religion - Surgery - The New Theory of disease
  • The Greeks: - Historic background - Asclepios and temple medicine - the early philosophers - Hippocrates and clinical observation - The theory of the four humours - The programme for health - Alexandria/Greek surgery

January/February:

  • The Romans: - Historical background - Roman public health measures - Claudius Galen and his influence
  • The Middle Ages: - the changing face of Europe - consequence of change on medicine - Health and Hygiene - monasteries - towns and cities - Disease and epidemics
  • The Renaissance: - What it was - Renaissance in art and impact on medicine - Renaissance medicine - - Vesalius: anatomy - Pare: surgery - Harvey: physiology - Ordinary medicine - The Great Plague 1665 - Death of Charles II
  • The l9th Century: - Situation in 1800 March/April
  • The battle against infection: - Jenner and smallpox - Theory of Spontaneous Generation - Pasteur's germ theory - Koch and anthrax - Pasteur and chicken cholera/anthrax etc
  • The drug revolution: - limitations of vaccines - Ehrlich and Salvarsan 606 - Sulponamide drugs
  • Fleming and Penicillin: - the discovery of penicillin - the role of war in penicillin production
  • The revolution in surgery: - the three problems of surgery: - anaesthetics: Davy and Simpson - antiseptics: Lister/aseptic surgery - blood loss and blood transfusions
  • Development of public health: - Leeds case study - the cholera epidemic of 1831-2 - government action 1831-1848 - Edwin Chadwick - events leading to 1875 Public Health Act - events 1875-1939 - Birth of the National Health Service

Resources:

  • The basic text-book for this module is the Holmes McDougall Medicine Through Time trilogy which follows a broadly chronological approach.
  • One class-set of the Joe Scott Medicine Through Time book has also been purchased which follows a more thematic approach.
  • Given that much of the assessment requires a thematic understanding much of the available resource material transcends historical periods and does not therefore fit easily into a broadly chronological breakdown.

SIXTH FORM 

Archaeology: Advanced Subsidiary AS

Entry Qualifications: No previous knowledge of history is expected and interested candidates can approach the subject through any combination of A Levels (including Science)

Course Details:

Module 1 - 35%
Archaeological methods: Pre-Excavation and Excavation Methodology - how sites are excavated - a study of how sites and landscapes are discovered and recorded without excavation (field work, aerial photographs, survey, geophysical research etc.)

Module 2 - 35%
Archaeological methods: Post-Excavation

  • site analysis (post-excavation processes including environmental analysis)
  • dating (relative and absolute and the methods)
  • site interpretation (including experimental archaeology)

Module 3 - 30%
Religion and Ritual - a study of religion and ritual practices (and their related monuments) in pre-historic Britain and Ireland

Next Steps: A2 Archaeology may be taught as an extra-curricular activity within the College and support subjects such as science, geography and history.

History: Advanced Subsidiary AS. Advanced A2

Entry Qualifications: GCSE Grade C or above in History or comparative subject eg Geography. 5 A*-C passes.

Course Details:

AS Unit (Year 12)

  • The Triumph of Bolshevism: Russia 1917 - 1924 (15%)
  • Rise of National Socialism (Nazis) in Germany 1919 - 1933 (20%)
  • Coursework: The Illusion of Peace: European relations 1918 - 1928 (15%)

A2 Unit (Year 13)

  • Individual Assignment (15%) (a piece of personal research in response to a question set by the candidate on any aspect of history - whether covered by the course or otherwise)
  • Coursework: British Foreign Policy 1814 - 1914 (15%)
  • Stalin's Russia 1924-1941 (20%)

Overall balance: Both AS/A2:

Exam 55%
Coursework 30%
Individual Assignment 15%

Next Steps: History develops the skills of thinking, analysing, evaluating and debate. It is therefore an excellent preparation for a very wide range of courses and careers beyond the obvious. Students in recent years have progressed into: Law, Psychology, Banking, Business and Industrial Management and even Medicine.