History
History Curriculum Intent
The Oxford Academy's history curriculum aims to help pupils make sense of the world we live in and the stories we tell about the past. We immerse our students in rich stories and equip them with the knowledge to make their own informed judgements about our history. Throughout the curriculum, pupils will encounter the historical concepts of change and continuity, consequence, causation, similarity and difference and significance, underpinned by engagement with historical sources and historians’ interpretations of the past. Our aspiration is that pupils will leave TOA better understanding how history is constructed, and the relationship between fragments of the past and the accounts we know today. We hope that pupils will leave their time at TOA better able to make connections between past, present and future, and better able to understand themselves and others.
These principles have guided our choice of enquiries. Throughout Key Stage Three, pupils will learn the story of how England formed and developed as a nation, including early migration, challenges to monarchical power and the development of democracy. Our curriculum also equips pupils with an understanding of the relationship between Britain and the World, looking at the expansion of the British Empire, followed by the decline of British international power in the twentieth century. Our curriculum also seeks to expand pupils’ horizons by looking at world histories, helping them to make sense of the wider world today and their own histories. It also provides fertile connections to our British History studies, providing new lenses or points of comparison. Our Year Nine Curriculum focuses on an integrated approach to the World Wars and the Holocaust, using sources to explore individual stories. On a local level, Oxford history case-studies are woven through the curriculum, enabling pupils to use familiar locations to better connect with bigger stories.
At GCSE, we do the Edexcel History Course. Students will start by examining Crime and Punishment throughout British History, with a historical environment study of Whitechapel c. 1870-1900. Students will then study the history of Germany 1918-1939, looking at the hopes and failures of the Weimar Government and the subsequent rise of Hitler. Students will then study an aspect of the aftermath of World War Two, looking at how the World fell into a ‘Cold’ War between the USA and USSR, and the world ended up on the brink of Nuclear War. Finally, we look at early Elizabethan England, and the establishment of the Elizabethan age, the longest serving and final Tudor monarch, who was never meant to be queen.
At A Level, pupils study the OCR course. They start with Modern British Political History up to 1997, as well as a unit and coursework on the Cold War in Europe. This will be a deeper examination of the narrative studied at GCSE, and a chance to engage with historical scholarship and sources directly. In Year 13, pupils will study the tumultuous Tudor years, looking at how successive rulers dealt with revolt and rebellion.
Please find the curriculum overview document in the link below.
