5 replies to this topic

[Jill S]

Hello all

We are moving to a 2 Year KS3 curriculum and therefore will have to re-write Y7 and 8.

I am keen to include the good stuff that we usually teach in Y9 but am not sure what to leave out.

Do you think Y8 could deal with the holocaust?

Which topics are important to teach to students before they take GCSE history/or drop history completely?

Has anyone else re-written their KS3 curriculum and if so what have you included/left out?

Thanks

[Tony Fox]

Do you think Y8 could deal with the holocaust?

Yes and no

Yes in that if you focus on individual stories, and look at the change from pre-war Jewish life, focussing on the impact on Jewish culture rather than on Auschwitz

No as in the majority of Y8's will not be mature enough to conprehend the horrific nature of Genocide

thus it can be done, but not properly, and if you are brave enough you could use this to argue against the 2 year KS3 -you are unable to fulfil the National curriculum as it is designed for 3 years. Mind you I did this and lost the argument and my job!

[WilliamsonK]

We changed this year to a 2 yr KS3 (we also argued against it, but to no avail!)

What is History for about a month; Romans until Xmas, Medieval life and change until Easter, then the Tudors
Stuarts until Oct Half term, Empire and Industrialisation - this includes life in Africa before slavery, slavery, pirates and exploration, and the industrial revolution - we kind of go back and forth between england and the usa to try and give them a sense of period; then we do WW1.

We are lucky we get just over half the year group opting to take history and generally have 3 classes so most of them will do WW2 and the Holocaust etc in detail in year 9. We decided year 8 was too young to do it, it would be done so superficially.

School do let me make a big fuss of HMD and we do assemblies etc so just have to hope that's enough for the kids who don't opt! We will be looking at jazzing our current 2 year scheme up as we go, but this was a quick way of doing it. We had about 2 months to sort it!

[Roy Huggins]

We teach the following in our two year KS3:

Year 7: Term1 - Norman Conquest; Term2: Medieval Society; Term 3: The Tudors

Year 8: Term1 - The Stuarts & Industrial Rev until Feb. We then finish off the rest of Year 8 with the 20th Century.

Kind Regards

Roy

[Allen]

I took out the Holocaust from KS3 when we moved to a 2 year course but we have Holocaust Memorial Week every year which the History department plans for the rest of the school to deliver. There's a different focus each time and all assemblies and form times are based around the topic. That way you can differentiate so it's age-appropriate as well.

[Lauren Conway]

We changed this year to a 2 yr KS3 (we also argued against it, but to no avail!)

What is History for about a month; Romans until Xmas, Medieval life and change until Easter, then the Tudors
Stuarts until Oct Half term, Empire and Industrialisation - this includes life in Africa before slavery, slavery, pirates and exploration, and the industrial revolution - we kind of go back and forth between england and the usa to try and give them a sense of period; then we do WW1.

We are lucky we get just over half the year group opting to take history and generally have 3 classes so most of them will do WW2 and the Holocaust etc in detail in year 9. We decided year 8 was too young to do it, it would be done so superficially.

School do let me make a big fuss of HMD and we do assemblies etc so just have to hope that's enough for the kids who don't opt! We will be looking at jazzing our current 2 year scheme up as we go, but this was a quick way of doing it. We had about 2 months to sort it!

What do you do in your what is History section??

I'm currently trying to write a SoW on this - looking at evidence, chronology, etc.