History

At LHAA, we see our students as ‘trainee historians’. The purpose of our ambitious and challenging curriculum is to develop our trainees into ‘exceptional historians’ who leave the school as ‘lifelong historians’ with a lasting enthusiasm for history.  

 To achieve this, we have set ourselves four key objectives: 

• To give students secure substantive knowledge of the breadth of British history and other significant world events. 
• To give students secure disciplinary knowledge and understanding of how historical study works and the key concepts, developing the key skills of an historian.  
• To empower students to construct their own interpretations of the past through study of evidence and making inferences. 
• To encourage the development of students’ ethics and morality, helping them to understand modern society through the study of the past. 

Our lessons take the form of challenging historical investigations with students developing skills to allow them to interpret the past for themselves. From KS3, our purpose is therefore to develop in our trainees the key skills required of historians; analysis of sources, critical thinking about different interpretations of history and the ability to draw one’s own conclusions about the causes, facts and consequences of key moments in the past. We develop skills of analysis, research, argument and critical thinking that are useful not only during the student’s time at LHAA, but also for their lives as young adults and beyond. These skills are interwoven throughout our ambitious curriculum and, revisited in ever increasing complexity in order to develop strong historical skills that students feel confident using independently.  

 In years 7 and 8, our trainee historians will examine the last two thousand years of British history, from the Romans to World War Two, in order to give our them a firm grasp of the chronology of our nation and a solid understanding of how our society has developed over those years. Throughout, they will look at how key events have impacted our local area.  

In year 9, our students turn their skills to the history of the wider world with studies of the USA, Russian and Germany, comparing and contrasting these three nations and how they impacted world history in the twentieth century. This is also our ‘mastery’ year, where students apply all of the skills they have accumulated to complex areas of history.  

At KS4, we then apply these skills to prepare for success at GCSE examining Norman England, the American West, the Cold War, Civil Rights in America, the Vietnam War and Crime and Punishment through time.