Skip to content ↓
Ridgewood School

Ridgewood School

History

The vision of the History department, which also includes the teaching of Politics, is: ‘Developing Enquiring Minds.’

Through the History Curriculum at Ridgewood School we create academically successful and intellectually curious historians, whose fascination with, and thirst for the subject drives many of them to continue to pursue the discipline in their futures.

Our History Curriculum will provide extensive and wide-ranging opportunities by:

  • Studying topics and events of historical significance at a local, regional, national, international, continental and global level.
  • Enabling students to gain a chronological understanding of how Britain, Europe and the world has changed over time.
  • Having a knowledge-first approach to the curriculum, allowing students to master and retrieve precise details from each unit, including: names, dates, places, facts and figures.
  • Supporting students to develop an understanding of how to apply and write about historical concepts such as causation; continuity and change; significance; consequence; diversity.
  • Allowing students to reach developed and reasoned judgements.
  • Exposing students to a high level of historical and conceptual vocabulary and scholarship.
  • Explicitly teaching students sophisticated terminology and literacy devices to include in their written and verbal responses.
  • Teaching students how to write like a historian, including through the use of academic devices like footnotes and bibliographies.
  • Incorporating a variety of sources and historical interpretations, of multiple types, to be analysed and evaluated.
  • Helping students to be able to present and debate with clarity, fluency and passion.

Please get in touch via the enquiry form on our Contact Us page. Should you have any further questions about our History Curriculum, please contact Mr Carlin, Curriculum Lead.

KS3

Year 7

Half-term 1 (September – October)

Romans

Half-term 2 (Until Christmas)

Romans and Hastings

Half-term 3 (Up until February)

Hastings

Half-term 4 (Until Easter)

Medieval Life

Half-term 5 (Until May)

Tudors

Half-term 6 (Until the end of the school year)

Stuarts and Victorians

Students will be assessed regularly on content and skills covered since September.

Support

For each topic, a Knowledge Box is available on Microsoft Teams which summarises all the key information students will need to learn. Please test your child on these and ask to see that they have made extra revision notes using them.

In the run up to assessments, students will be given revision materials to learn in preparation for the test.

Useful web links:

 

Year 8

Half-term 1 (September – October)

Age of Revolutions

Half-term 2 (Until Christmas)

World War One

Half-term 3 (Up until February)

Weimar Republic

Half-term 4 (Until Easter)

Hitler's Germany

Half-term 5 (Until May)

Hitler's Germany

Half-term 6 (Until the end of the school year)

Holocaust

Students will be assessed regularly on content and skills covered since September.

Support

For each topic, a Knowledge Box is available on Microsoft Teams which summarises all the key information students will need to learn. Please test your child on these and ask to see that they have made extra revision notes using them.

We set homework regularly; it will be to read an extract and answer summary questions.

In the run up to assessments, students will be given revision materials to learn in preparation for the test.

Useful web links:

 

Year 9

Half-term 1 (September – October)

Miners’ Strike

Half-term 2 (Until Christmas)

Ireland and Empire

Half-term 3 (Up until February)

Slavery

Half-term 4 (Until Easter)

Apartheid in South Africa

Half-term 5 (Until May)

 British Civil Rights Movement

Half-term 6 (Until the end of the school year)

 Cambodia and Global (in)justice

Students will be assessed regularly on content and skills covered since September.

Support

For each topic, a Knowledge Box is available on Microsoft Teams which summarises all of the key information students will need to learn. Please test your child on these and ask to see that they have made extra revision notes using them.

We set homework regularly; it will be to read an extract and answer summary questions.

In the run up to assessments, students will be given revision materials to learn in preparation for the test.

Useful web links:

KS4

Students follow the Pearson/Edexcel History GCSE specification.

We would strongly recommend students purchase the Revision Guides which accompany each topic to support their learning. There are four in total which summarise all the key information and provide tasks and practice questions within them. 

The topics we study are:

  • Paper 1) Crime and Punishment with Whitechapel
  • Paper 2) Early Elizabethan England
  • Paper 2) Cold War
  • -Paper 3) USA, 1954-75

The School Shop sells these at a reduced rate of only £2.45 each.

Alternatively, they can be purchased via this link:

https://qualifications.pearson.com/en/qualifications/edexcel-gcses/history-2016.resources.html?filterQuery=category:Pearson-UK:Publisher%2FPearson

Topics (Year 10)

Half-term 1 (September – October)

Civil Rights: USA

Half-term 2 (Until Christmas)

Civil Rights: Vietnam

Half-term 3 (Up until February)

Cold War

Half-term 4 (Until Easter)

Cold War

Half-term 5 (Until May)

Whitechapel

Half-term 6 (Until the end of the school year)

Assessment Preparation and Crime and Punishment

Topics (Year 11)

Half-term 1 (September – October)

Crime and Punishment

Half-term 2 (Until Christmas)

 Crime and Punishment

Half-term 3 (Up until February)

Early Elizabethan England

Half-term 4 (Until Easter)

 Early Elizabethan England

Half-term 5 (Until May)

Revision

Half-term 6 (Until the end of the school year)

Exams

Assessment

There will be three terminal examinations at the end of Year 11 – Paper 1 (Crime and Punishment with Whitechapel, which is worth 30% of the overall qualification), Paper 2 (Elizabeth and the Cold War, which is worth 40% of the overall qualification) and Paper 3 (USA, which is worth 30% of the overall qualification). There is no coursework.

Students will be set homework each week. This will either be to learn key information, or complete revision tasks and exam planning. Students will be assessed regularly in class on all topics taught.

Support

Homework

What we will ask students to do

How parents can support

Revision

We will tell students there will be a knowledge test on a particular topic and provide them with revision materials. We will expect students to produce their own notes / flashcards / mind-maps and self-test themselves regularly.

Ask to see the notes your child has prepared.

 

Test them on the content.

Practice questions

We will give students a set of practice questions to answer.

Check the presentation of the work.

 

The homework should take at least an hour – please check to ensure sufficient time has been spent on it.

 

Read the answers to check it achieves each criterion on the structure sheets / checklists provided.

 

Encourage your son / daughter to use the revision materials on this webpage to supplement their answers.

Useful web links:
Cookie Policy