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St Oscar Romero Catholic Academy Trust

History & Sociology

Intent

To develop an in depth knowledge and understanding of the past and see how it shapes the present. Lessons should inspire curiosity through the teaching of key events, people and discoveries.

IMPLEMENTATION

Students will learn about the past through investigating a series of engaging enquiry questions that may cover; first and second order concepts, a topic or theme in breadth, or delve into a narrower topic in depth. Through investigating the answers to enquiry questions students develop a broad base of knowledge of the past as well as developing key historical skills such as causation, change and continuity, interpretations and using sources.  Consideration has been given to ensure progression across skills throughout the time the students are in school as well as ensuring that students develop a sense of chronology. Opportunities for assessment have been clearly identified and planned for. Cross curricular themes have been specifically linked – for example literacy and citizenship. (See the Curriculum Map and Curriculum Overviews for further details)

IMPACT

Students’ exercise books, online learning areas as well as completed assessments and exams provide evidence of a broad and balanced history curriculum and demonstrate they have developed key knowledge and skills.

By the time they leave Notre Dame RC Girls’ School students will be able to:

  • Show an understanding of the present through a respectful engagement with the past.
  • Engage in the process of historical enquiry and understand how history is created.
  • Engage with evidence and interpretations in meaningful ways.
  • Understand the development of history over long periods of time as well as in the short term.
  • Show an understanding of a diverse, broad range of periods and people.
  • Engage with the history around them

Curriculum Map

History Curriculum Map

Curriculum Plans

Year 7

What we teach and why?

Autumn Term

Spring Term

Summer Term

Who had power in the middle ages?

  • What is history/ what is a historian and how do they research the past?
  • Life in Anglo-Saxon England
  • The causes, events and impact of the Norman Conquest -
  • The role of the monarchy (case study of King John)
  • The role of the church
  • Ordinary life in the middle ages

Why?

This provides the early foundation of students’ chronological engagement with Early Medieval History. These topics develop students’ understanding of why 1066 is seen as a significant turning point in British History. It also provides the foundation for understanding the changing role and influence  of the church.

What was the impact of the Silk Roads?

  • What were the Silk Roads and what was traded?
  • Did the Silk Road cause a global pandemic?
  • What was the impact of the black death?
  • What were the causes, events and consequences of the peasants’ revolt?

Why?

These topics will help students to understand essential development in the cultural exchange between the Eastern and Western worlds.  Students will also learn how the past influences the present and be able to compare the impact of the current pandemic to a historical one.

 

 

 

 

How did the Tudors shape modern Britain?

  • Why did the Christian church split in the 16th century?
  • Henry VIII and the break with Rome
  • The long and short term impact of the English reformation (including local study, Bermondsey Abbey, )
  • How did Miranda Kaufman research the black Tudors?

Why?

Learning about the Tudors, in particular the Reformation helps to form the basis of an understanding of the development of church state and society in Early Modern Britain. Learning in detail about how historians discover the past helps students to develop their critical thinking skills and understand that we can’t always be 100% certain about the past.

 

 

Year 8

What we teach and why?

Autumn Term

Spring Term

Summer Term

What was the Age of

Discovery?

  • How successfully did Elizabeth I deal with the problems she faced during her reign?
  • Case Study - the African Kingdom of Benin - what life was like before 1700, the impact of the arrival of Europeans.
  • European Voyages of Exploration.
  • The causes and impact of the growth of the British Empire.

Why?

Many of the changes during this time period still influence the world we live in today. The Elizabeth helps students to understand the institutions of Britain today. Studying European voyages of Exploration helps students to understand the connections between Britain and other countries and how European empires have shaped the world we live in today.  

Diversity, Ideas and Industry - is it fair to compare the lives of pauper apprentices to slaves?

  • The causes, events and impact of the Transatlantic slave trade
  • Resistance and Rebellion
  • Reasons for the abolition of slavery
  • Why the industrial revolution took place
  • living and working conditions in industrial towns

Why?

The legacies of both the transatlantic slave trade and the industrial revolution have had a long lasting influence on the society we live in today. For example, It is important to learn how the industrial revolution influenced the world of work today and how enslaved Africans actively resisted and were active in fighting for their own freedom.

 

 

Suffrage, Democracy and Power - when did women in Britain gain power?

  • Why the voting system in the 1830s was unfair
  • How and why some people campaigned to get the vote before 1900
  • How Victorian women were expected to behave
  • The impact of direct action on the suffrage movement
  • Reasons why (some) women were given the vote in 1919

Why?

This topic will help students to understand that in the past people have fought for choice, rights and freedoms that many of us take for granted today. Learning about the suffrage movement builds empathy; helping students to understand the passion and fury felt by women of the later 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as those involved in anti-suffrage campaigns.

 

Year 9

What we teach and why?

Autumn Term

Spring Term

Summer Term

Remembrance and wider word challenges - were the two world wars inevitable?

  • Cause events and consequences of world war one.
  • The contribution of soldiers from around the British Empire to WW1.
  • How conscientious objectors and soldiers with shell shock were treated
  • The Treaty of Versailles and its consequences
  • The difference between democracy and dictatorship
  • How Hitler was able to become dictator of Germany

Why?

The first world war was truly global conflict fought on a scale never seen before. The consequences were wide ranging, including the introduction of remembrance, the changing borders of Europe (and overseas colonies) and the rise of Hitler to power in Germany. Learning about Hitler’s rise to power helps students to understand reasons why extremists ideas may become appealing to people in times of crisis

 

 

Democracy and Dictatorship - what damage do dictatorships do?

  • What life was like in Nazi Germany.
  • Pre-war Jewish life in Europe
  • How and why the Holocaust happened
  • The significance of the Nuremberg trials
  • The origins, key events and consequences of the Cold War (including the threat of Nuclear War, the Berlin crisis and the Cuban Missile Crisis)

Why?

Study of the Holocaust underlines that genocide is a process which can be challenged or perhaps stopped rather than an inevitable event. Learning about the Holocaust and the Cold War  is an opportunity to analyse the decisions and actions taken (or not taken) by a range of people in an emerging time of crisis

 

How successfully was racial injustice challenged around the world after 1945?

  • Civil rights in the USA: Attempts to achieve civil rights before 1955; Methods used to achieve civil rights after 1955; The significance/ limitations of the Civil Rights Act
  • The Civil Rights movement in Britain - Case studies of Seaport riots, Bristol Boycott, Notting Hill and Stephen Lawrence.
  • Debates surrounding the statues of individuals who were involved or benefited from the slave trade

Why?

This unit will help students to understand the impact and successes of different protest methods used to achieve civil rights and racial justice. There will be a particular focus on the case studies of the USA and Britain, topics studied will include the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade as well as institutional racism. Students will also gain an understanding of recent debates surrounding controversial statues.

 

Year 10

What we teach and why?

Autumn Term

Spring Term

Summer Term

Paper 1 -  Crime and Punishment (thematic study)

  • The different nature of crimes in the Medieval, Early Modern, Industrial and Modern period.
  • The different punishments which have existed in the Medieval, Early Modern, Industrial and modern period
  • The different systems of policing which have existed in the Medieval, Early Modern, Industrial and modern period.
  • The factors which have contributed to change and continuity in crimes, punishments and policing methods
  • The changing role of the Monarch and the Church in issues to do with crimes and punishments.
  • Change and continuity over time.

Why?

This forms the GCSE Paper Thematic Study. You will gain a clear understanding of the differences between key themes such as retribution, deterrence, reform and rehabilitation, the nature of crime, punishment and law enforcement  This historical understanding will enable you to reflect on change over time and the systems we have in place today. 

 

 

 

Paper 1 – Crime and Punishment – the historic environment – Whitechapel, 1870-1900

  • What was Whitechapel like?
  • Fear of crime in the East End
  • The working of the Metropolitan Police
  • Difficulties of policing

Why?

This unit applies knowledge gained in the thematic study to a specific time and place. You will develop your analytical skills in applying contextual knowledge to evaluate sources.

Paper 2 – Early Elizabethan England

The Virgin Queen; legitimacy, gender, marriage. Her character and strengths.

  • Challenges and threats from abroad
  • Religious divisions and challenges in England from 1558
  • Elizabeth’s Religious Settlement

 

 

 

Paper 2 Early Elizabethan England (continued)

  • The Church of England and its role in societyMary Queen of Scots and her claim to the throne
  • War with Spain, reasons for the defeat of the Spanish Armada
  • Education and leisure from 1558
  • The problem of the poor
  • The Age of Exploration

Why?

This forms the GCSE Paper 2 British Depth Study. This allows students to dive deeper than KS3 and immerse themselves in the so called ‘Golden Age’ of Elizabethan England. They will learn about the threats Elizabeth faced and the accomplishments of her reign. 

Paper 3 – The USA, Conflict at home and abroad

  • Civil Rights, 1954-60
  • Protest and progress, 1960-75

Why?

This forms part of the Modern Depth Study of Paper 3 at GCSE. Students engage with the struggles black Americans faced after WW2, the early civil rights movement and its achievements, the protest movement in the 1960s and its successes, the significance of the civil rights and voting rights acts.  

Year 11

What we teach and why?

Autumn Term

Spring Term

Summer Term

Paper 1 - Superpower relations and the cold war

In this unit, you will learn:

The early development of the Cold War, division of Germany and Berlin and the ‘Soviet sphere of influence’.

  • Cold War Uprisings including the Hungarian Uprising (1956) and The Prague Spring (1968)
  • The Arms Race, development of nuclear weapons and the Cuban Missile Crisis.
  • Improved Superpower relations during Détente.
  • The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
  • The significance of Reagan and Gorbachev’s ‘new thinking’

Why?

This forms the GCSE Paper 2 Period Study. This period study covers a time span of over 50 years to give students a chronological and long-term overview of the significance and impact of the Cold War. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paper 3 - The USA and the Vietnam War Year 11

US involvement in Vietnam, 1954-61

  • Kennedy and Vietnam, 1961-63
  • Escalation of the conflict under Johnson
  • Conflict in Vietnam 1964-68
  • Changes under Nixon 1969-73

Reactions to Vietnam and US failure 1974-75

  • Reasons for the growth of opposition
  • Continued opposition to the war
  • Support for the Vietnam War

The peace process and the end of the war

  • Why the US failed:

○ Strengths of North Vietnam

○ Weaknesses of the US armed forces

○ Impact of opposition to the war

Why?

Students engage with the origins of the Vietnam War, the reasons for American involvement in the Vietnam War, the tactics used by each side, the reaction to the Vietnam War in the USA and the reasons why the USA lost.

Revision and GCSE exams

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Sociology (KS4)

Course Outline

Sociology students at Notre Dame enjoy the course immensely and achieve good results (87% 4 or above in 2019)

Sociology is the study of human behaviour and society. It is a Social Science with its’ own set of guiding principles which are used to question, research and explain our social world. If you are someone who enjoys questioning their own life and why we have to do the things we do, this subject will allow you to thrive. If you are interested in why the riots of 2011 started, how family can influence the choices you make or how schools and media shapes our opinions then you should choose Sociology. You need to be happy to challenge your own opinions and respect others.

AT GCSE, students explain and evaluate different sociological theories such as Feminism, Marxism, Functionalism and social research that explains how humans have constructed our society. Particular focus is placed on the role of gender, ethnicity, social class and age in society today. The themes of power and inequality are explored through all of the units on the course which include; Researching Society, the Family, Education, Crime and Deviance and The Mass Media. Sociology is an academic subject, and students should be prepared to analyse statistics, construct their own social research, evaluate sociological evidence and write extended answers.

Assessment

The course is assessed by 2 written examinations that are worth 50% each. Both these written exams are sat at the end of Year 11. There is no controlled assessment or coursework.

Paper 1: Understanding Social Processes – including families, education, cultural transmission and sociological research methods (50%)

Paper 2: Understanding social structures – including social differentiation, crime and deviance  (50%) 

Sociology Additional Information

Sociology at GCSE is useful for a range of careers including Journalism, Media, Health Care, Law, Teaching, Social Work, Politics, Criminology, Public Services and much more. Sociology is a discipline that can be studied at A-level , degree level and beyond for those who wish to work within the civil service and government departments, pressure groups, overseas development, public relations welfare and probation services.

More information on the Eduqas GCSE course can be found here:

https://www.eduqas.co.uk/qualifications/sociology/gcse/