Upper Shirley High School - History Home page

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History Home page

In the last year the History Department has adopted the new National Curriculum for History at Key Stage 3. We have kept our exciting and popular units that have been tried and tested for a number of years. But we have also added new topics that centre around a study of the British Empire and its major developments over time.

In year 8, the key theme is the foundation of the British Empire, encompassing the early Empire in America and India as well as Britain’s involvement in the world Slave Trade. The study ends with the decline of the British Empire in the 1940s. This allows a neat link with the year 9 curriculum, beginning with an investigation in to the Empire building of the late 1800s, leading to the outbreak of World War One in 1914. Other topics studied include the Industrial Revolution, the Suffragettes and the Holocaust.

As part of the whole school policy of setting challenging but varied tasks (P2i), the History Department has designed a variety of independent research tasks that allow students to choose whichever way they want to deliver their findings.