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History

History is a popular subject choice for pupils both at GCSE and A Level. The subject provides pupils not only with an understanding of the past, but also develops key analytical and evaluative skills essential across the curriculum and to most careers. The department currently comprises of five teachers, several of whom have other important responsibilities within the school.

Head of History
Mr Nicholas Mills BA MA
Teachers
Mr Peter Lidington BA Mr Adam Sibley BA Mrs Suzanne Spencer BA Mr Simon Tait BA

Resources

The Percival library houses an extensive collection of relevant history books and historical publications, and provides access to various on-line resources. The department's classrooms, primarily situated in the school's central quadrangle, contain supplementary libraries, and the school's intranet site provides an ever-expanding quantity of history material for pupils to access.

Teaching

Year 9

Pupils are taught a broad syllabus that incorporates many of the defining events of the first half of the 20th century. Pupils study the key aspects of the First World War and its legacy into the 1920s through the successes and failings of the League of Nations. The rise of militarism in the 1930s leads to coverage of the outbreak of the Second World War and the horrors of the Final Solution and the use of the atom bomb. This syllabus provides the large number of pupils who continue with GCSE History in Year 10 an appropriate grounding for their study of the Cold War.

GCSE

We follow OCR’s Modern World History (B) syllabus. For Paper 1 the core component is a study of international relations incorporating the origins of the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War. In addition pupils will study the USA through the Roaring ‘20s, the Great Depression and Roosevelt’s New Deal. For Paper 2 pupils undertake a depth study of Britain between 1890 and 1918, focusing on the beginnings of the welfare state, the campaign for women’s suffrage and the Home Front during the First World War. The final component, the Controlled Assessment unit requires pupils to produce an extended piece of writing on a chosen topic under exam conditions over several weeks.

A Level

At AS level the department offers a wide range of courses from the AQA specification, reflecting the specialism of individual teachers. Pupils are required to take two courses: Unit 1 is designed to develop understanding of change over time; Unit 2 involves a source-based study-in-depth of a significant period. From September 2011 the following combination of courses are offered:

For A2, pupils currently study either 19th century Britain or 19th century France. All students also undertake a study of Africa and European imperialism, from which they are required to produce a 3500 word piece of coursework to a title of their own choosing.

First World War Battlefields Trip

For the past 12 years, a group of approximately forty Year 10 students and staff have visited battlefield sites and memorials in Belgium and Northern France. The most regular visits have been to the Ypres Salient and the battlefields of the Somme, but many other places have been visited, such as Vimy Ridge, Arras and Verdun. Pupils gain a deep awareness of the enormity and horror of warfare during the First World War, made all the more real by our visits to the graves of Old Cliftonians or of relatives of pupils on the trip.

Read the pupil experience and see the gallery from the 2009 trip.

A Level Paris Trip 2011

Taking place over Lent half term, a group of AS Level pupils and teachers spent 3 days criss-crossing Paris, visiting historical sites such as Les Invalides, Pere Lachaise cemetery and the Louvre, as well as making a day trip to the Palace of Versailles. With both the French Revolution and 19th century France featuring on our A Level syllabus, the trip gave pupils a more profound and tangible understanding of these periods.

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