History Department Vision
The History Department at The English School is led by passionate historians who aim to inspire a lifelong love of history in their students. We believe that studying history is essential in developing young minds and equipping them with critical, enduring skills. All students should possess a fundamental understanding of the past, recognizing how historical events have shaped the modern world. Through history, students build skills in thinking, evaluating, analyzing, empathizing, and communicating. Our goal is to provide lessons and resources that enable students to grow in all these areas.
Aligned with the school’s policy, the overarching goal of the History Department is to foster empathy, understanding, and high standards, preparing students for life and work in the 21st century. The aims of the History Department are to:
- Develop students’ knowledge of people in the past and how they lived.
- Explore concepts of causation, continuity, and change.
- Cultivate an understanding of how the past shapes the present.
- Teach historical skills in analysis, comparison, and synthesis, which are valuable for future careers.
- Encourage critical use of historical sources within their context.
- Foster an understanding of how the past has been represented and interpreted.
- Guide students to draw and reassess historical conclusions as new evidence or interpretations emerge.
- Nurture qualities of skepticism, empathy, and imagination.
- Help students recognize their environment as a record of historical change.
- Instill an appreciation of history that will last a lifetime.
Curriculum
Year 1
Introduction to History
Life in the Middle Ages
The Black Death
Religion and Power
The Crusades
The English Reformation
The Industrial Revolution
Life in Industrial Britain
Empire and Slavery
The British in India
World War I and its Effects
The Russian Revolution
America: Boom and Bust
Causes of World War II
Paper 1: Depth Studies
Dictatorship and Conflict in the USSR, 1924–53
- The leadership struggle, 1924–29
- Five-Year Plans and Collectivization
- Purges, Show Trials, the Cult of Stalin, and the Revision of History
- Life in the Soviet Union, 1924–41
- The Second World War and After, 1941–53
- The Red Scare and McCarthyism
- Civil Rights in the 1950s
- The Impact of Civil Rights Protests, 1960–74
- Other Protest Movements: Students, Women, Anti-Vietnam
- Nixon and Watergate
Russia and the Soviet Union in Revolution, 1905–24
- Tsarist Rule in Russia, 1905–14
- Opposition to Tsarist Rule, 1914–17
- The Impact of War and the February Revolution
- Provisional Government and the Bolshevik Revolution
- The Bolshevik Consolidation of Power and the Civil War
- War Communism and the New Economic Policy (NEP)
- Creation and Successes of the League, 1919–29
- Challenges to the League, 1930–39
- Establishing the United Nations and Its Work to 1964
- The UN Challenged, 1967–89
- The UN at Bay, 1990–2011
Paper 1: Germany, 1918–45
- The Democratic Experience, 1918–29
- The Rise of the Nazis, 1919–33
- Nazi Germany, 1933–39
- Germany at War, 1939–45
- The British Raj: Governance in India, 1857–1948
- Resistance to British Rule, 1857–1948
- Military Power and Its Limits, 1857–1948
- The Economics of Empire, 1857–1948
Paper 3: Civil Rights and Race Relations in the USA, 1865–2009
- 'Free at Last', 1865–77
- The Triumph of 'Jim Crow', 1883–c1900
- Roosevelt and Race Relations, 1933–45
- 'I Have a Dream', 1954–68
- Race Relations and Obama’s Campaign for the Presidency, c2000–2009
- Seeds of Conflict: How Did the Cold War Develop, 1943–53?
- Conciliation and Confrontation, 1953–64
- Stalemate and Détente, 1964–79
- Renewed Confrontation and Resolution, 1980–90
