History

Why is History important?

History is an enquiry into the past, in all its diversity. As historians, we ask difficult questions of our predecessors and their lives. Did England welcome the Reformation? Were the enslaved able to resist their enslavement? Did the Norman Conquest transform England? Did the Mansa of Mali rule like the Oba of Benin?
In answering these questions we make claims about the past that require careful and thoughtful uses of sources of contemporary evidence.
In doing so we develop curious and critical learners. A student who embraces History is a student who is empowered to change the world.

What is the aim of the History curriculum at Oaklands?

The History curriculum at Oaklands aims to foster in students a curiosity and a critical approach. Students will ask themselves: how do we know this happened? Why has the story of these events been told in such a way? What can we learn from these events? We are also keen to foster an appreciation of ‘world history’. In studying such a range of significant moments in the history of our globe, we aim to equip students with a deeper understanding of ‘the past’- one that existed both before and beyond the borders of our contemporary nation states. Indeed from Year 7 to Year 13 we aim to examine and re-examine ‘our Island story’ in all its contradictions, inconsistencies and retellings. These diverse histories are rooted in an appreciation of the historical skills required to do justice to the past.

Click here for for further details about History at Oaklands School.

How is the curriculum in History structured?

The structure of the History curriculum at Oaklands is purposeful and meaningful. From their first lesson in Year 7, students are encouraged to grapple with second order historical concepts. We build up an understanding of how to deal with evidence, similarity and difference, significance, change and continuity, interpretation and causation. Students return to these concepts through enquiries across Key Stage 3, 4 and 5. As an example, students are asked in Year 7 to assess the value of the ‘England's Immigrant database’ for historians enquiring into the lives of medieval migrants. In Year 8 they are asked to draw inferences from contemporary sources on how the Mansas of Mali and Obas of Benin ruled their kingdoms. In Year 9 they are asked to build on their evidential understanding to make a legal case of genocide against the Pakistani military in Bangladesh in 1971. At KS4, students are asked to deal with evidence when enquiring into the causes and consequences of the Reformation. Finally at KS5 students are asked to assess the value of contemporary sources to historians studying post-war Britain. At all stages students are being asked to progress their evidential understanding.

Topics covered in Year 7

What can we infer from 'migrant sources' about British history?
How far did Anglo Saxon England survive the Norman Conquest?
How should Al-Andalus be remembered?
Why was the Church so central to the lives of Medieval England?
How powerful were Medieval Queens able to be?
When was it safest to speak your mind in Tudor England?

Topics covered in Year 8

How much light can we shed on Medieval Mali?
How much has changed and endured in the Oceti Sakowin's resistance to the US' relentless war?
How much of an impact did peoples' ideas have in the seventeenth century?
How far were people able to resist Transatlantic Slavery?
Why is it important to hear stories of struggle from the 1970s and 80s?
How far did women’s lives in Britain change over 100 years (1860s – 1960s)?

Topics covered in Year 9

Why did Britain 'scramble' for the Niger Delta?
What do the stories of Gavrilo, Walter, Melvina and Rosa suggest was the cause of WWI?
Why have people cared so much about the Russian Revolution?
How do we tell the story of 1947?
Why are the stories of 1971 so difficult to tell?
Who should shoulder the responsibility for the Holocaust?

Topics covered in Year 10

Why were some Early Modern migrants (1500-1730) welcomed with open arms while others were treated poorly?
Was the British Empire the main reason for migrants coming to Britain in the Industrial Era?
What challenges did migrants face when trying to make Modern Britain their home?
How far was Great Britain united by 1730?
Why did Britain become an economic powerhouse by 1730?
How were the lives and ideas of people shaped by Empire?
How have migrants before us shaped Spitalfields?