Our curriculum vision applies to all our young people, regardless of background, gender, sexual orientation or ability.

In history, our young people will develop a life-long love of learning through our rich, broad and balanced curriculum and expert delivery. They will access a rich tapestry giving them the knowledge and understanding of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative from pre-1066 through topics such as ancient medicine, to 20th century history such as World War One and Two, the Holocaust and the Cold War.

Students will examine how people’s lives have shaped this nation through topics such as Migration from Anglo-Saxons to 1066 and how those groups and societies have influenced Britain. They will look at how Britain itself has influenced the wider world by looking at topics such as Empire; the impact of Britain specifically in India and the role of the North East in World War one.

Through our threads of; Migration, Power, Society, Environment and Belief, history students at Heworth will understand significant aspects of the wider world through a clear and sequenced curriculum from ancient and medieval worlds in year 7 through the Renaissance in year 8 to the more modern in year 9. They will study the most significant periods of history; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies such as African societies, the Islamic Empire, Indigenous north Americans. Their studies will encompass both the achievements and follies of mankind from surgical developments in World War One to significant historical events like the Holocaust. Students will examine the causes of such events and the impact that they had in the wider historical context, while never losing sight of the peoples who were affected.

All history students at Heworth Grange School receive a world class education that is holistic, ambitious and aspirational. The history curriculum at Heworth Grange ensures that all students have the ability to achieve great depths of cultural capital through the gaining of historical perspective.

Our students will understand their roles in the school, local, national and international societies of which they can be proud active members of.

Students will study diverse cultures of the past and present such as the Indigenous Americans or Industrial miners, build empathy and understanding of their experiences in order to make comparisons with their own. Preparing our young people so that they are engaged, positive and respectful citizens. Our curriculum will act as a mirror and a window. Students will see themselves in it and they will see other peoples also. A number of diverse histories will be used to tell important topics, for example Empire soldiers will help us to understand the Western Front. Jewish, disability, women’s history will help us to understand how the USA changed the world in the 1920’s and 1930’s.

Our students will understand their region’s role in history by including it a majority of our topics.

At Heworth we ensure that students are consistently developing the key skills needed by giving students the opportunity to develop their understanding of key historical concepts and skills such as change, cause and consequences, and significance and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured account, including written narratives and analyses. Here students study who has the power in England from the medieval to the renaissance periods, considering concepts such as monarchy, government and religion. Throughout this unit they study the local, national and international aspects of these changes considering cause, consequence and significance. The unit also links nicely to others such as empire and enslavement and the study of various revolutions enabling students to make clear comparisons, connection and contrasts and reach their own historical judgements.

Through our challenging and rigorous curriculum topics at KS3 and KS4 and the development of historical skills such as analysis, judgement and debate we ensure our young people are confident to pursue ambitious next steps in education and life. To enable this the history department at Heworth are committed to ensuring the development of literacy at Heworth. Supplying all students with subject specific tier two and three vocabulary and equipping students with the literacy skills to engage with up-to-date scholarship and form their own historical interpretations.

Knowledge and skills:

Through our curriculum, students:

• Build knowledge and understand how concepts and skills link between significant historical topics and concepts such as ‘empire’, ‘war’ and ‘government’.
• Develop confidence in communication skills and have opportunity to critically question and debate key aspects of history and historians.
• Develop a love of reading and the skills to read a wide range of scholarship.
• Engage with interpretations, learning how historians form interpretations, form their own, why they differ and why the historical process is an ongoing journey.
• Become confident working with contemporary material and study significant texts such as the Domesday Book and Magna Carta. They will analyse archaic language in order to develop their understanding of the laws and legislation of the past. They will critically analyse a variety of written texts to learn more about what life was like for people of the past. They will be introduced to the work of notable historians from a range of fields and times including Tiya Miles, AJP Taylor and Odd Arne Westad
• Learn to self-regulate and work independently with clear guidance and support as well as collaboratively through pair and group work as well as class debate.
• Students will learn about the past of the world around them and inclusive historical contexts. For example, they will study the British Empire and the impact it had on other peoples. They will examine the history of other societies such as America including its indigenous peoples, colonialism and the independence of America, African life before, during and after the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans and the impact of the British in the world. They will study the history of the British Isles from ancient medicine in the Stone Age to the Industrial Revolution, through to its role in the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950’s and 1960’s. They will also study local history including castles of the Northeast, the role of Tyneside during the war and the importance of the Northeast during the Industrial Revolution and how the region affected and was affected by the British Empire.
• Will have the opportunity for deep thinking through challenging topics, concepts, and tasks and to get into their ‘flow’ through engaging lessons encouraging a passion for history.

Click on the document at the bottom of this page to view an easy read version of the full curriculum overview