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History

Year 7

Half Term Topic & Key Content Additional Reading/Resources
Autumn 1 The Anglo-Saxons and Vikings
  • Who were the Anglo-Saxons?
  • Anglo-Saxon daily life.
  • Why did the Vikings raid the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms?
  • Was King Alfred the Great really Great?
  • The role of Anglo-Saxon women, with a focus on Aethelflaed.
  • The role of evidence and scholarship in helping us to have a picture of the Anglo-Saxons.


Castle 175m north of Stone Barton in Chulmleigh Parish. Late Anglo-Saxon – 12th century. Click here for more details.
Chulmleigh is a Saxon village – see here for more information.
BBC Bitesize topics
 

Autumn 2
 
The Norman Conquest
  • Who had a claim to the English throne in 1066?
  • The Bayeux Tapestry as a source on the Battle of Hastings.
  • What problems did King William face?
  • How did King William secure his kingdom – castles case study.
  • How King William changed England – the Domesday Book, the Church and the Norman Feudal System.


Motte sites at Heywood, near Eggesford and Barnstaple civic car park!
Dunster Castle - see here for more details.

Spring 1 Medieval Life
  • What was life in medieval towns and villages like?
  • The Black Death case study.
  • How did England link to the wider world? The role of the Silk Roads.
  • The power of the medieval church.



Hound Tor medieval village deserted after BD.
Exeter Cathedral.

Spring 2 How much power did medieval monarchs have?
  • Matilda and Stephen.
  • King Henry II and Thomas Becket.
  • King John.
  • The Peasants’ Revolt
 
Summer 1 The Crusades
  • Why did people go on crusade in the medieval period?
  • What was the chronology of the crusades?
  • The leadership of Richard I “the Lionheart” and Saladin.
  • Why did children decide to go on crusade in 1212?
  • Why were the crusades significant for European society?


BBC Bitesize

Summer 2 The Tudors
  • Who were the Tudors?
  • Why did Henry’s Reformation in religion cause so much controversy?
  • Has history been unfair to Henry VIII?
  • Why was the Tudor period a religious roller-coaster?
  • Queen Mary I – "Bloody" Mary or just misunderstood?**
  • Why was the idea of marriage so important for Tudor women?
  • What can the lives of black people in England tell us about Tudor society?


Historic Royal Palaces
Hampton Court Palace
Hampton Court Palace Life at the Tudor Court
BBC Bitesize 

 

Year 8

Half Term Topic and Key Content Additional Reading or Resources
Autumn 1 The English Civil War/War of the Three Kingdoms
  • Monarch and Parliament.
  • Key Civil War Battles, including local History focus.
  • The execution of Charles and whether this was justified.
  • The role of Oliver Cromwell and the Protectorate.
  • The Restoration of the monarchy and long-term impact.



The Moorlander - Histories and Mysteries - Devon and the English Civil War
Local: several sites of sieges/battles, Chudleigh Fort, Bideford; Online Time Trail & objects in RAMM collection, Battle of Torrington.

Autumn 2 The British Empire
  • Why did colonisation take place?
  • Precolonial African kingdoms.
  • The growth of the transatlantic slave trade.
  • The colonisation of India and life during the Raj.
  • Independence, eg. America, India and post WW2 Africa.
  • The long-term legacy of the British Empire.
  • Examining the scholarship around empire, Niall Ferguson and Olusoga for example.


Black and British by David Olusoga [children’s edition]. Also available on the AR scheme.
Niall Ferguson series on Empire. Six editions available freely on YouTube.
See the Benin Head and other objects obtained during the British Empire, Ramm Museum.

Spring 1 The Industrial Revolution
  • Changes in Britain from 1750.
  • What were living conditions like in the cities of the Industrial Revolution.
  • The role of children as labour.
  • The links to Empire via the cloth/cotton trade.
  • Diseases of the Industrial Revolution, e.g. cholera.


Local visits:
Morwellham Quay Victorian mine.
Coldharbour Mill Wool factory.
Ilfracombe Tunnels.
National visits:
SS Great Britain, Bristol.
Online: BBC Andrew Marr History Industrial Revolution
 

Spring 2 How did ordinary people get the right to vote?
  • The ideas behind the campaign for universal suffrage and its legacy today.
  • The role of the Chartists etc.
  • The campaign for women’s suffrage in the 20th century.
  • The impact of war on the women’s suffrage campaign.
  • Opposition to universal suffrage.



Parliament UK Living Heritage

Summer 1 World War One
  • The long-term causes of WW1.
  • The assassination of Franz Ferdinand.
  • The Western Front and the Battle of the Somme.
  • The role of Empire soldiers.
  • Life on the Home Front.
  • How should we remember World War One?


Local visits: Barnstaple Museum WW1 Gallery, has records from Gallipoli, North Devon Hussars.
Online: The Imperial War Museum collections.
World War One at the National Archives.

Summer 2 World War Two (focus on the Blitz)
  • Causes of World War Two.
  • The Home Front, evacuation, rationing etc.
  • The Battle of Britain.
  • The Blitz, including the Exeter Blitz.
  • Interpretations of the Blitz.


Local: Free redcoat guided tour of Exeter Blitz & VE day.
Saunton Beach/Crow Point/Slapton Sands for US preparations for D-Day landings.
Online: Imperial War Museum.

 

Year 9

Half Term Topic and Key Content Additional Reading or Resources
Autumn 1 Rise of the Dictators
  • Introduction of terms and study of the political conditions of dictatorships.  Case studies on Mussolini’s Italy and Hitler’s Germany.


Reading: ‘This is a dictatorship’, Plantel E, 2021.
Watch: 'Hitler, the Rise of Evil', 2003 film.  Age rating 12.

Autumn 2 Rise of the Dictators continued
  • Case studies on Stalin’s Russia, Mao’s China.  Dependent on time – Idi Amin’s Uganda, Pinochet’s Chile, Emperor Hirohito of Japan and General Franco of Spain.


Online: Maoist China links.
Online: Stalin links.

Spring 1 The Holocaust
  • Context of 1920s and 30s in Germany, persecuted groups and labour and death camp research.
  • Holocaust denial, source utility.


Reading: 'The Book Thief'.
Learn about the Holocaust and genocides.

Spring 2 The Cold War
  • JFK’s achievements and areas of weaknesses as president.
  • JFK’S assassination.
  • Vietnam War case study.


Online: The Whitehouse - John F Kennedy.
Visit: the American Museum, Bath.

Summer 1 The British and American Civil Rights Movement
  • Role in WWII.
  • Windrush generation.
  • Steven Lawrence case study.
  • Case studies of Emmett Till, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, Barack Obama.
  • Discussion points surrounding how far have the aims of the Civil Rights Movement been met?
  • Discussion points surrounding how far have the aims of the Civil Rights Movement been met?



Reading: 'Black and British', Olusoga D.
Visit: the American Museum, Bath.
Visit: Museum of London, but online collections available

Summer 2 People and Protest in the 20th and 21st Century
  • Case studies of the Miners’ Strike, protests against political regimes/decisions of war – Vietnam, the Iraq War, Chile, Poll Tax riots, women’s rights and LGBTQ+ changes.
  • Discussion points to include – how far are people able to influence political change through protest?



Visit: Museum of London but online collections available.
Visit: People’s History Museum, Manchester but online collections available.
Online: Police protests and public order.