Year 7 History

Brief summary of the syllabus:

Work in Year 7 will focus on aspects of the six National Curriculum key concepts of chronological understanding; cultural, ethnic and religious diversity; change and continuity; cause and consequence; significance and interpretation. An extended variety of exercises will be set to meet the demands of the National Curriculum. Boys will use a range of textbooks, worksheets, source material and ICT based resources. Work will also be targeted to develop the essential skills of historical enquiry, using evidence and communicating about the past. 

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What skills are being developed and examined?

Pupils will be taught to employ the following skills:

Historical enquiry - pupils should be able to:

• identify and investigate, individually and as part of a team, specific historical questions or issues, making and testing hypotheses
• reflect critically on historical questions or issues

Using evidence - pupils should be able to:

• identify, select and use a range of historical sources, including textual, visual and oral sources, artefacts and the historic environment
• evaluate the sources used in order to reach reasoned conclusions

Communicating about the past - pupils should be able to:

• present and organise accounts and explanations about the past that are coherent, structured and substantiated, using chronological conventions and historical vocabulary
• communicate their knowledge and understanding of history in a variety of ways, using chronological conventions and historical vocabulary

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What can parents expect to see in classwork and homework specifically?

Homework is set on a weekly basis and may take a variety of forms, such as:

1. Comprehension exercises for example question and answer tasks. Answers should always be in full sentences and pupils must either write out the question or include the terms of the question in the answer. If this is not done, the pupil's work will have little value when it comes to revision. 
2. Source material exercises. They may be asked to make deductions, comment on a source's usefulness, put together information from a source, compare the sources, or judge their value. They must give an indication of what the source contains as well as analysing the provenance of the source. 
3. Research. Pupils will sometimes be asked to find out information from reference books, libraries, the Internet, or by questioning adults. 
4. Other tasks such as the preparation of a role play exercise, a piece of work for display (posters, leaflets etc) or a presentation to the whole class.

The department uses also a wide variety of learning material to stimulate historical interest, including the use of role play, DVDs, audio and ICT. The department also encourages boys to bring in relevant newspaper cuttings and magazine articles of historical interest, and puts them on display.

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What can parents do to help in this subject at this stage?

1. Ensure history homework is well ordered and presented, and sufficiently detailed.
2. Discuss work with your son, concentrating particularly on the way he justifies his views.
3. Help him in gathering extra material, particularly for research assignments.
4. Discourage him from trying to explain the past using the attitudes and values we hold today as tools of analysis.
5. Encourage visits to places of historical interest in your locality and the reading of historical material. Anything that stimulates interest in the first instance is of value - even the Horrible History series, for example, can provide a starting point.

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Setting and course schedule:

Pupils are set after the first full term i.e., from January of Year 7. Setting is undertaken on the basis of test results. Boys are divided into two halves of the year - PSU and BHL. There is a top, middle and bottom set in each year half.

Performance in tests throughout the year will determine whether boys move up or down at the end of the year.

The core themes covered in Year 7 History include:

• What is History? - An introduction to the subject at secondary school
• Rulers and the Ruled – a focus on how power has been distributed in Britain between 1066 and the present day
• Empires – an investigation into 3 or 4 empires, their growth, extent and decline
• A local history project

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Revision:

Revision will be guided by class teachers in relation to each half-term test. The boys must revise for their specific tests where this is appropriate. Feedback from tests and examinations highlights particular areas of the curriculum that have been tested. From this a boy can determine for himself those areas in which he is confident and those in which he is weak. Pupils are then encouraged to formulate action plans (as part of the bespoke tutoring system in Year 7) which concentrate upon improving the weaker areas.

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Working towards Target National Curriculum Levels:

In the Autumn term, each pupil and his parents will be made aware of a target National Curriculum Level which he should be aiming to achieve by the end of the academic year. Progress towards this target will be reviewed at the end of each half-term and in the mid-year review of pupil progress, which is reported home in the Spring term. The criteria for each National Curriculum level in History can be read here.

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