DEPARTMENT VISION

The History Department vision is that students are able to locate themselves and their world within a much larger tapestry of time. Doing so should be through the lenses of second-order concepts, in order to see the changes, continuities, patterns, diversity, interpretations and stories of the past. With one eye metaphorically on the past and one eye literally on the present, we aim to give them an informed platform to look towards the future. History is where we learn to pass on the torch of human civilisation.

The motivating ethos of the department is to be thinking like a historian.  This ethos is delivered through:

1. The development of the individual from the Norman Conquest to the Holocaust.
2. Three times per year students will be presented with a template that helps map and track the story of the individual
3. It should be made explicit to students that the person that they are forming is not different from your own life- you are merely separated by time.
4. The story of the individual will help tease out both Tier 2 vocabulary and key issues that run through the five years; Power, Authority, Governance, Conflict.
5. There’s something in the air - how moral values change over time. Why do we have the values we have today and not those from 100 years ago?

KS3 CURRICULUM

Currently in History students cover a variety of topics.

In Year 7 students cover: Introduction to key skills, Norman Invasion, Medieval Life, Renaissance and Reformation culminating with the English Civil War.

In Year 8 students cover: Industrial Revolution, Colonies and the Empire, The First World war and its impact on America in the early 20th Century, culminating in the rise of Hitler and the Holocaust

KS4 CURRICULUM

At KS4 Historians follow the AQA 9-1 8145 course covering the American West, World War One, A History of Medicine and Queen Elizabeth I.

The range of topics allows students to investigate the past following a depth and breadth study approach to History.

HARRIS VALUES

The driving force behind our daily interactions, and that which makes us unique in Rugby, is our values. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Through our values we provide a moral compass at Harris and the evolution of this compass, as students find themselves in the rich tapestry of History, is fundamental in the study of History. We look at how attitudes have changed over time, we see patterns and trends that empower us here in the present. In the passage above, Mark 8:36, if our students are equipped with only knowledge rather than reason and a set of values to live by then what do they take forward when passing on the torch of human civilisation?