The History Department
Welcome to Presdales History department webpages. The History department is a team of expert historians with specialist interests in particular areas of History: Miss Workman (Head of History), Mrs Inwood, Miss Mockett and Miss Martin.
The History department teaches across all of the key stages, and lend their particular expertise to the design and delivery of a curriculum spanning Ancient, Medieval, and Modern periods of History, and covering topics that encompass the local, History of the British Isles and of the wider world.
As a department we offer a range of extracurricular activities which further develop students’ interest in and enjoyment of the subject. Residential trips to the Battlefields of the First World War and a GCSE Study Tour of Berlin support students’ engagement with the lived-experience of the past. Our team of 6th form History prefects support the learning of students in the lower school and at GCSE through lunchtime sessions offering a range of activities, from support with particular historical skills to showing historical films linked to the curriculum.
Our Vision
The History department aims to inspire all students with a fascination for the past. Through engaging students with the human experience of people in past times and cultures, we encourage students to develop a sense of their own identity and an ability to engage with issues from different perspectives.
Our Aim
We seek to create enquiring minds, equipped for the challenges of life in the 21st century. Students are taught to apply a process of historical enquiry and reasoning: forming hypotheses and analysing and evaluating evidence to reach and support independent conclusions. Learning in History focuses on establishing a secure foundation and framework of knowledge of the past and of history as a discipline. This includes how historians communicate their ideas and arguments, in spoken and written form. These skills are highly valued in all careers and walks of life, and thus our students are successful not only in examinations at school and in higher education, but also in the workplace.
Our curriculum is based upon the National Curriculum within which we approach History in a chronological framework. Within that framework, we develop the story of the past with a particular thread throughout Key stage 3.
Our focus lies with the key theme of power and control and how people in the past assumed power and lost control. In Year 7 we start with the early settlers to Britain making connections with Europe and Asia along the Silk Roads and to Baghdad.
This theme is then further developed in Year 8 with how people reacted to the changes in power and control from the Reformation to the Civil War and the Industrial Revolution.
Finally we end our Key Stage Three study with how people in the 20th Century seized control in order to have power over others, for example through the First and Second World Wars.
By adopting a chronological and thematic approach, students are exposed to a mixture of local, national and global history. Themes such as the political, social, economic and cultural helps students to recognise and use substantive concepts. By having a good understanding of the past through the lens of people, places and events, students are able to illustrate how people have changed over time and with what consequences. It is with these skills at KS3 that we prepare the students for both GCSE and A-Level study.
My report on the Battlefields Trip for Year 9:
On Friday morning, at 5:40 am, 79 students from Year 9 got on coaches to travel all the way to Belgium. During this, we went on the euro-tunnel, crossed through France and ate far too many sweets to wake us up; the coach ride back and forth was long and came in at 8 hours road time but we all had a good time with each other and got to know everyone better and even make friends with people we’ve never spoken to.
Our itinerary for the trip set us up to go to three cemeteries and sights of the First World War on the first day through Belgium. Firstly, we visited Lijssenthoek CWGC Cemetery. Here is the burial site of Nurse Nellie Spindler (one of the only two female casualties that happened in the First World War) and has over 10,000 graves of soldiers from the Allied Forces. With that, we also visited the Essex Farm CWGC Advanced Dressing Station where soldiers who had been wounded in battle would come first for medical attention before field hospitals; this was also the site of 15 year old Valentine Strudwick’s grave, who the teachers gave us the task of finding . To see our last cemetery on the first day, we travelled to Brandhoek New Military Cemetery, where Nellie Spindler was mortally wounded on the 21st of August 1917. During the evening of the first day we all explored the city of Ypres, where we all brought souvenirs and ate delicious Belgian pancakes, waffles and ice cream. Afterwards, we went to the In Flanders Fields museum where we were taught more about the Front Lines of the war in different countries, demonstrated land borders and how the Schlieffen TackTick would’ve worked in the lays of the land, saw military uniforms that were worn at the time and so much more.
Again after dinner at the Poppies Hostel, all of us walked out into the beautiful Ypres to go into the Leonidas Belgian Chocolate Shop where they gave us incredible chocolates and had the opportunity to buy with amazing discounts (whole bar of chocolate, box of 10 Belgian treats and 8 stroop waffles for 15 euros!). We all brought some delicious sweets. Following that, we walked to the Menin Gate to participate in the Last Post ceremony that is held every night at 8pm to pay respect to all deaths from the War but especially to remember those who are lost at war or have no grave. Two students Niamh Wynne and Lucia Lopez were chosen to lay a wreath from the whole of Presdales School in honor of the lives that were lost. Many people all gathered, whether being tourists, locals or military personnel we all were together in mourning and remembrance. It was one of the most moving experiences of my life.
On the second day we had the journey back to do and still had an amazing schedule to do. Starting the day, we drove away from Ypres and travelled to Newfoundland Park, this is the site where the Battle of the Somme happened. In the site there were many memorials, cemeteries and almost perfectly preserved trenches. We had the opportunity to walk through the Allied forces trenches and just imagine how life could be down there just 109 years ago, also seeing the German trenches (which were visibly built better due to the fact they were deeper dug). Whilst walking we also saw the “Danger Tree”, this is a tree that during the battle, soldiers would seek shelter behind in hopes the Germans would not see and shoot them. This sadly did work as when the sun came up everyone was able to be seen. We now know this because Mrs Inwood explained it to us as we walked around the site as well as other facts. Secondly, we arrived at the Thiepval Memorial dedicated to giving graves to soldiers with no recognition and bring light to all lost at war. It has a 43 meter tall memorial with thousands of names wrapping around it of soldiers with no resting place, lost forever. Our last place we visited on this trip was Vimy Ridge, a site with preserved trenches and Canada memorial in Belgium for their soldiers; it is 30 meters high and is placed there because it is the place the Canadians made the most impact for their fighting and helped out the whole of the Allied forces.
On our way back we took 9 hours, two passport controls and a lot of sleeping but made it back to school at 9:30, having done one of the best school trips of our lives. I’d like to thank all of the amazing staff that organised and chaperoned this trip, that was : Miss Workman, Miss Martin, Miss Mockett, Mrs Inwood, Mr Payne, Mr Baldwin, Mrs Yates and Mrs Dray. They were all incredible to us, helped us and taught us all more about WWI. A special thank you to Miss Workman though who organised this whole trip and put hours of effort into making it all work seamlessly. This trip was eye opening and fascinating to all of us. We all loved it.
By Sophia Riley
