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History

History is a popular subject at Polam Hall, and the department has a long record of supporting teaching in the classroom with both day trips and longer, residential trips at home and abroad. We follow a traditional curriculum using a chronological format, to enable students to locate events in time and effectively study concepts such as change and continuity. We study all kinds of history: social; economic; political; religious and cultural. We try to be as cross-curricular as possible in our approach e.g. offering American history at GCSE and A Level to support the American politics we study for A2 in Government and Politics.

In the department, we view history as a literary subject which strongly supports key English skills, such as essay writing and vocabulary building. We encourage our students to read around the topics they are studying and watch relevant television programmes. We also work closely with the drama and English departments, taking part in theatre visits to plays such as an adaptation of George Orwell’s ‘1984’ and ‘Journeys End’.

We are very proud to say that we achieve strong results at both GCSE and A Level, and help to send students to both Oxford and Cambridge universities. This year two of our students have both begun their studies at Cambridge University, one studying Social and Political Sciences, and one studying Theology.

Holiday Visits at Home and Overseas

In the past, we have offered the following visits to our students (mainly in conjunction with the geography department), inviting the former Hurworth House School to participate on at least two occasions:

  • L4/U4 four day visits to London. This has always included a visit to a musical and the cinema.
  • M5/U5 3 day visit to London: in conjunction with the RS department.
  • First World War Battlefields five day visit to the Ypres area of Belgium and Somme area of France
  • Eastern Mediterranean cruises: we have organised several of these.
  • USA: this week long visit was arranged with the Politics Department, as well as Geography, and took us to New York and Washington DC. The highlight was singing at Ground Zero.
  • Italy: this week long visit was arranged instead of a cruise and allowed our students to spend time in Rome and Naples, and climbing Vesuvius.
  • European coach tour: this took us to Berlin, Prague and Cracow to visit Auschwitz.
  • Auschwitz visits through the Holocaust Memorial Trust’.
  • Moroccan expedition: this week long visit included an expedition in the Atlas Mountains, and Marrakesh.

The next history department overseas expedition is taking place in October 2011. We are also looking into the possibility of our next First World War battlefields visit.

Day Visits at Home

Closer to home, our day programme includes visits to York, Durham, Richmond, Ripon and London. We also attend conferences to support our studies at A Level, which have recently involved visits to Leeds, Manchester and London. This term we have attended a production of ‘1984’ and next term we will be attending a production of ‘Journeys End’.

L4 Curriculum

What is History? Chronology. Archaeology. Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. The Norman Conquest. The Roman Catholic Church. Life in the Village. The Domesday Book. The Feudal System. The Castle. The Town. Pilgrimages. Chaucer. Use of Sources.

U4 Curriculum

Renaissance and Reformation. Voyages of Discovery. Wars of the Roses. Princes in the Tower. Henry VII. Henry VIII. Edward VI. Mary I. Elizabeth I. Stuarts. Use of Sources.

L5 Curriculum

Comparison of 1750 and the present day. Agricultural Revolution. Transport Revolution. Industrial Revolution. Urbanisation. Methods of securing change. The World in 1900. The British Empire. The Causes of the First World War. An outline of the First World War. Use of Sources. Causation and Consequence.