History at KLS
"A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots." - Marcus Garvey
The Kings Langley History department are dedicated to providing our students with a wide range of knowledge about the past and also developing critical analysis skills which enable them to learn more about the world around them. We are passionate about delivering engaging and challenging lessons which encourage students to ask students about the past in order to deepen their thinking in order to be able to learn from the past. Our aim is to provide students with a solid foundation for their adulthood so that they are able to make informed decisions which positively impact society in the future.
Character education is integrated into our curriculum because it helps us to be able to bring history alive for our students. Without being able to empathise with the past, students cannot be able to understand or really appreciate the experiences of people in the past. Informal and formal assessments are a consistent art of lessons and students are tested regularly to enable teachers to be able to monitor their progress.
Lessons are planned around the key historical concepts which form the foundation of our planning in order to help students understand how to critically analyse sources, evaluate the causes and consequences of significant historical events/ people as well as making judgements about the past. We begin Key Stage Three with various depth studies of medieval History. Students arrive in year 7 from a range of different primary schools and this allows us to be able to establish their basic skills as well knowledge they are bringing with them from Key stage Two. Medieval History also provides a good contextual background for our GCSE Medicine through Time course and this means that we our students are able to use their contextual knowledge from Key Stage Three in order to be able to understand the historical context of the course. All Assessments in Key Stage three have been changed to reflect the demands of GCSE so that students are able to develop the skills that are required of them at an earlier stage before they enter Key Stage Four. Elements of GCSE content are also taught throughout years 7 – 9 so that students can excel at recalling knowledge and information in order to be able to exceed in their exams.
The GCSE course covers four main topics that students are examined on over three papers. By the time students begin GCSE they would have already been assessed in Key Stage Three using the GCSE style questions that they are expected to answer. ALL GCSE students are expected to sit a two weekly ‘exam’ where they are expected to answer a GCSE style question in exam conditions. The regular assessments enable teachers to closely track progress. We have high expectations of our students and department policy is that students who fail to score at least 50% will be expected to re sit during an intervention session. We have found that students who have been asked to re sit these assessments in the past have made good progress in their future assessments and regular contact with parents also helps us to work closely with families to support our students’ learning.
We encourage students to take the subject at a level and our more able students are always keen to enrol onto our course of study. The skills developed at Key Stage Four provided an excellent foundation for our A Level History course which covers a wide range of international and national history building in the skills developed in the earlier key stages of their education and also helping to develop their critical analysis in order to provide them with a strong platform for their undergraduate studies.
There are six main secondary concepts which we teach as part of our History curriculum. They are:
"A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots." - Marcus Garvey
The Kings Langley History department are dedicated to providing our students with a wide range of knowledge about the past and also developing critical analysis skills which enable them to learn more about the world around them. We are passionate about delivering engaging and challenging lessons which encourage students to ask students about the past in order to deepen their thinking in order to be able to learn from the past. Our aim is to provide students with a solid foundation for their adulthood so that they are able to make informed decisions which positively impact society in the future.
Character education is integrated into our curriculum because it helps us to be able to bring history alive for our students. Without being able to empathise with the past, students cannot be able to understand or really appreciate the experiences of people in the past. Informal and formal assessments are a consistent art of lessons and students are tested regularly to enable teachers to be able to monitor their progress.
Lessons are planned around the key historical concepts which form the foundation of our planning in order to help students understand how to critically analyse sources, evaluate the causes and consequences of significant historical events/ people as well as making judgements about the past. We begin Key Stage Three with various depth studies of medieval History. Students arrive in year 7 from a range of different primary schools and this allows us to be able to establish their basic skills as well knowledge they are bringing with them from Key stage Two. Medieval History also provides a good contextual background for our GCSE Medicine through Time course and this means that we our students are able to use their contextual knowledge from Key Stage Three in order to be able to understand the historical context of the course. All Assessments in Key Stage three have been changed to reflect the demands of GCSE so that students are able to develop the skills that are required of them at an earlier stage before they enter Key Stage Four. Elements of GCSE content are also taught throughout years 7 – 9 so that students can excel at recalling knowledge and information in order to be able to exceed in their exams.
The GCSE course covers four main topics that students are examined on over three papers. By the time students begin GCSE they would have already been assessed in Key Stage Three using the GCSE style questions that they are expected to answer. ALL GCSE students are expected to sit a two weekly ‘exam’ where they are expected to answer a GCSE style question in exam conditions. The regular assessments enable teachers to closely track progress. We have high expectations of our students and department policy is that students who fail to score at least 50% will be expected to re sit during an intervention session. We have found that students who have been asked to re sit these assessments in the past have made good progress in their future assessments and regular contact with parents also helps us to work closely with families to support our students’ learning.
We encourage students to take the subject at a level and our more able students are always keen to enrol onto our course of study. The skills developed at Key Stage Four provided an excellent foundation for our A Level History course which covers a wide range of international and national history building in the skills developed in the earlier key stages of their education and also helping to develop their critical analysis in order to provide them with a strong platform for their undergraduate studies.
There are six main secondary concepts which we teach as part of our History curriculum. They are:
- Chronology
- Cause and consequence
- Interpretation
- Significance
- Change and continuity
