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.
“I really liked going to the trenches and in the caves, it was really interesting and it was really nice finding one of my relatives on the plaques. I liked walking around town with my friends and the place we stayed was really fun. The teachers were all really nice and looked after us really well.”
“I really enjoyed going in the tunnels. It was really interesting as it made it more real than just statistics. I learnt a lot and it was very impactful. It was an amazing trip.”
“I liked laying the wreath: it was a huge honour to represent my school with something that important. I also liked the caves as it conveyed how the soldiers in the army weren’t just a statistic and were real people.”
“I really enjoyed seeing the old trenches and walking through the caves. It was very interesting and helped improve my understanding of WW1. I also enjoyed spending time with my friends walking around the streets of Ypres. Overall a very good trip.”
“The trip was fun and I learnt a lot. I really enjoyed the tunnels as I’d never seen anything like it so I found it very interesting. I loved how we had time to wander around to explore the town.”
“I really appreciated visiting the cemeteries, as seeing the loss of human life from WW1 in this way and not as a statistic has really opened my eyes to how many were affected.”
“The trip was very interesting and didn’t have a single dull moment . It was the perfect mix of tourism activities and history activities. I really enjoyed the caves and tunnels that the soldiers used in WW1 and it was very interesting to see how the lived.”
