History

Department Staffing & Roles

  • Mr M Walby – Head of History & Head of Humanities
  • Miss C Cavell – Teacher of History
  • Mr A Young – Teacher of History
  • Ms A Bennett – Teacher of History

Department Intent

‘To provide a diverse curriculum, exploiting both skills and knowledge, to empower students on their route to success.’

In History, we aim to provide a broad and balanced curriculum which allows our students to engage with aspects of local, national and global history. Each OCA historian will have the opportunity to experience immersive history lessons on a range of topics across a range of locations, classes and cultures, allowing them to engage with the human race’s eventful past from varying perspectives. We firmly believe that understanding our past is the key to unlocking our future.

In History lessons, it is our aim to provide pupils with all of the information to allow them to make informed decisions. Our History teachers inspire curiosity and allow pupils to come to their own conclusions when discussing key historical events and changes. We nurture inquisitive, engaged young historians who thrive on knowledge.

Our adaptive learning sequences link to the modern world to make learning relevant, leading to secure student reflection and consolidation of understanding. Careers links are signified throughout KS3 and KS4 to allow pupils to uncover potential future pathways.

KS3 Curriculum Overview

History National Curriculum – KS3

KS4 Curriculum Overview

Edexcel GCSE History

At OCA, we strongly believe that careers education is a vital aspect of our curriculum. In History, we aim to broaden our pupils’ idea of the opportunities available to them post-16. In order to do this, we:

  • Organise visits to the University of Liverpool to trial History based degrees
  • Include career links in lessons (researcher, lawyer, lecturer, history teacher, archivist, archaeologist)
  • Arrange visits from professionals to discuss career pathways
  • Provide opportunities for international travel (Krakow, Berlin)
  • Offer careers advice for pupils during the options process to guide/support in decision making
  • Maintain our History careers board giving a wide range of career opportunities and the qualifications required

Further Education Opportunities

Locally, we have excellent post-16 provisions for studying History at A-Level and beyond. There are several options and we love to see our pupils continuing to uncover the past. Below are some links for further study options for History:

KS3

We love to see our OCA historians engaging with our curriculum outside of the classroom and run a range of opportunities for this to flourish. Examples include our Year 7 castle competition and our cross curricular project exploring civil rights.

KS4

At GCSE level, Year 11 follow a whole school timetable of support in intervention. However, we realise that pupils may want to enrich themselves further and offer supplementary sessions before and after school. Saturday Academy is also available in timetabled sessions.

The following resources are useful for languages revision outside of the History classroom:

KS3

KS4

At OCA, we believe that opportunities outside of the classroom are just as important as those that we find in lessons. Studying History lends itself perfectly to developing a broader sense of self and we aim to offer as many opportunities as possible for our pupils to link language learning to real life.
Prior trips have included:

  • University of Liverpool – History Degree Taster Sessions & Campus Tour
  • Liverpool Slavery Museum
  • Krakow – Visits to Auschwitz, Jewish Quarter, Tour of Krakow, Meeting Holocaust Survivor
  • Berlin – Visits to Brandenburg Gate, Hitler’s Bunker, Berlin Wall, East vs West
  • First World War Trenches
  • Normandy
  • Beaumaris castle

As History careers ambassador, Miss Cavell organises enrichment in house. Examples include a Holocaust survivor Q and A and a careers pathway speech from an aspiring past GCSE History student.