History - Key Stage 3

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What pupils will learn

How it builds on learning

EQ1. How much can we know about life in Pompeii? (6 lessons)

Pupils learn about how historians such as Mary Beard use sources (including ancient letters, bones, and carbonised bread) to make claims about life in the Roman Empire.

 *This enquiry is assessed with students constructing their own historical claims

This enquiry builds upon what pupils learnt about the Roman Empire in Key Stage 2. It builds towards learning about the fall (EQ2) and the legacies (EQ8) of the Roman Empire.

EQ2. Did the Roman Empire disappear? (5 lessons)

Pupils learn about European history from 400 to 800 AD – and work out how much really changed after the Sack of Rome.

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This enquiry builds upon what pupils learnt about the Roman Empire and Pompeii (EQ1). It builds towards learning about the rediscovery of Roman ideas during the Renaissance (EQ8).

EQ3. How similar were the early Islamic and Christian empires? (5 lessons)

Pupils learn about the intellectual achievements of Baghdad and Cordoba – and compare these to Charlemagne’s Frankish Empire and the Byzantine Empire.

 *At the end of this enquiry, students will sit Knowledge Test 1

This enquiry builds upon what pupils learnt about Constantinople and Charlemagne's Frankish Empire (EQ2). It builds towards learning about the Crusades (EQ5).

EQ4. How disruptive were the Normans? (7 lessons)

Pupils learn about how the Norman Conquest of 1066 disrupted politics, religion and daily life in Anglo-Saxon England.

*This enquiry is assessed with an essay.

This enquiry builds upon what pupils learnt about how medieval kings controlled their kingdoms (EQ2). It builds towards learning about how the Black Death disrupted the feudal social structures introduced by the Normans (EQ7).

EQ5. Why did Crusaders ‘take the cross’? (4 lessons)

Pupils learn about the different religious, political and financial motives of the Crusaders.

This enquiry builds upon what pupils learnt about early Christianity and Islam (EQ2, EQ3, and EQ4). It builds towards learning about Mansa Musa’s Islamic empire and pilgrimage to Mecca (EQ6).

EQ6. What can Mansa Musa reveal about medieval Africa? (4 lessons)

Pupils learn about Mansa Musa and his prosperous Malian Empire – and decide what he can reveal about medieval Africa.

 *At the end of this enquiry, students will sit Knowledge Test 2

This enquiry builds upon what pupils learnt about medieval Islamic civilisations (EQ3 and EQ5). It builds towards learning about the Transatlantic Slave Trade and colonisation in Year 8, ensuring that all pupils know about the richness and diversity of ‘pre-colonial’ Africa.

EQ7. What was the impact of the Black Death? (7 lessons)

Pupils learn about how fourteenth-century England responded to a disastrous disease, using John Hatcher’s study of one English village (Walsham le Willows). They will then analyse the wider impacts (long and short term) of the Black Death.

*This enquiry is assessed with an essay.

This enquiry builds upon what pupils learnt about the Feudal System (EQ4). It builds towards learning about the Renaissance (EQ8), as the Black Death created new opportunities for people in states like Florence and Rome.

EQ8. What fuelled the Renaissance? (4 lessons)

Pupils learn about what made the Renaissance possible: artistic geniuses; kings and popes showing off; and gold from the Americas after 1492.

This enquiry builds upon what pupils learnt about the Roman Empire (EQ1 and EQ2). It builds towards learning about the Reformation (EQ9), as Martin Luther was critical of the Pope’s expensive and extravagant re-building of St. Peter’s.

EQ9. Was the Reformation a reform or a revolution? (5 lessons)

Pupils learn about Martin Luther’s criticisms of indulgences and Henry VIII’s Break with Rome – and decide how ‘revolutionary’   were these changes.

*At the end of this enquiry, students will sit Knowledge Test 3

This enquiry builds upon what pupils learnt about the power of the medieval popes (EQ2, EQ5, and EQ8). It builds towards learning about the English Civil War and conflicts between Catholics, Protestants, and Puritans in Year 8.

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What pupils will learn

How it builds on learning

EQ1. Why did people think their world was ‘upside down’ by 1649? (5 lessons

Pupils learn about the Gunpowder Plot, the English Civil War, and the Execution of Charles I – events which turned seventeenth-century England ‘upside down’.

This enquiry builds upon what pupils learnt about the monarchy and the church in Year 7. It builds towards learning about other political revolutions (EQ6) and the impact of the Industrial Revolution (EQ7 and EQ8).

EQ2. Why did some people believe in witches? (4 lessons)

Pupils learn about why a ‘witch craze’ swept across seventeenth-century England and America. We read extracts from historian Malcolm Gaskill’s books Witchfinders and The Ruin of All Witches.

*At the end of this enquiry, students will sit Knowledge Test 1

This enquiry builds upon what pupils learnt about the ways Britian was turned ‘upside down’ in the seventeenth century (EQ1). It builds towards learning about attitudes towards ‘outsiders’ (EQ8) and gender discrimination (Year 9).

EQ3. How much can we know about the lives of enslaved people?  (6 lessons)

Pupils learn about how historians have used different sources (autobiographies, paintings, oral histories) to try and recover the voices and experiences of enslaved Africans.

*This enquiry is assessed with a selection of source-analysis questions

This enquiry builds upon what pupils learnt about pre-colonial Africa in Year 7. It builds towards learning about the rise of British Empire (EQ5 and Year 9).

EQ4. What can Empress Nur Jahan reveal about Mughal India? (4 lessons)

Pupils learn about Nur Jahan (using the work of historian Ruby Lal) and use her life as a lens to study the Mughal Empire.

This enquiry builds upon what pupils learnt about non-European empires (Year 7). It builds towards learning about the East India Company and the British Raj (EQ5).

EQ5. What was the British Empire? (6 lessons)

Pupils learn about the features of the British Empire in India, Australia, and South Africa. 

*This enquiry is assessed with an essay.

This enquiry builds upon what pupils learnt about ancient and medieval empires (Year 7) and the Mughal Empire (EQ4). It builds towards learning about the First World War and decolonisation (Year 9)

EQ6. Did new ideas lead to revolutions in America, France, and Haiti? (5 lessons)

Pupils learn about the American (1776), French (1789), and Haitian (1791) revolutions – and decide whether they were caused by Enlightenment ideas or something else.

 *At the end of this enquiry, students will sit Knowledge Test 2

This enquiry builds upon what pupils learnt about the English Revolution (EQ1). It builds towards learning about the demands that the Chartists (EQ7) and the Suffragettes (Year 9) made for voting rights.

EQ7. How successful were the Chartists? (6 lessons)

Pupils learn about the millions of working-class men and women who fought for the right to vote and improved living conditions in the 1840s.

*This enquiry is assessed with an essay.

This enquiry builds upon what pupils learnt about how ordinary people challenged those who held power (EQ1 and EQ6). It builds towards learning about why middle-class reformers became interested in the ‘condition of England question’ (EQ8).

EQ8. What can different sources tell us about the ‘condition of England question’? (3 lessons)

Pupils learn about how reforms like Elizabeth Fry and the Earl of Shaftsbury tried to improve working and living conditions in Victorian England.

This enquiry builds upon what pupils learnt about conditions in industrial Britain (EQ7). It builds towards learning about the campaign for votes for women (Year 9).

EQ9. How ‘free’ were Black Americans between 1863 and 1963? (7 lessons)

Pupils learn about the coexistence of Black resistance and racist oppression in the USA from the Civil War to the Civil Rights Movement.

 *At the end of this enquiry, students will sit Knowledge Test 1

This enquiry builds upon what pupils learnt about enslaved people (EQ3). It builds towards learning about the USA as a superpower in the twentieth century (Year 9).

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What pupils will learn

How it builds on learning

EQ1. How did two bullets lead to twenty million deaths?

EQ2. What can the ‘often forgotten armies’ reveal about the First World War? (5 lessons)

Pupils learn about the contributions that Indian, Algerian, a Chinese soldiers made to the First World War – drawing on the work of historian David Olusoga.

*At the end of this enquiry, students will sit Knowledge Test 1

This enquiry builds on what pupils have learnt about the British Empire in Year 8 and lays the foundation EQ2

This enquiry builds upon what pupils learnt about the British Empire in Year 8. It builds towards learning about the end of the British Empire (EQ8).

EQ3. Did words or deeds secure votes for women? (4 lessons)

Pupils learn about the actions of the Suffragists, the Suffragettes, and the women who worked in factories during WW1 – and decide which group secured women the vote in 1918.

 *This enquiry is assessed with an essay.

This enquiry builds upon what pupils learnt about how working-class Chartists campaigned for the right to vote (Year 8). It builds towards learning about other freedom fighters in the twentieth century (EQ8).

EQ4. How did Hitler come to power in Germany? (6 lessons)

Pupils learn about how the Treaty of Versailles, hyperinflation, and antisemitic propaganda created the conditions for Hitler and the Nazi party to be voted into power in 1933.

This enquiry builds upon what pupils learnt about the First World War (EQ1). It builds towards learning about the Second World War (EQ5) and the Holocaust (EQ6).

EQ5. How did Stalin control the USSR? (4 lessons)

Pupils learn about how Stalin used terror and propaganda to control the Soviet Union by analysing posters and statues.

This enquiry builds upon what pupils learnt about the French Revolution (Year 8). It builds towards learning about the Second World War (EQ5) and the Cold War (EQ7).

EQ6. What was the most significant turning point in the Second World War? (5 lessons)

Pupils learn about the most significant battles of WW2: the Battle of Britain; Moscow and Stalingrad; Pearl Harbour; D Day; and the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

 *At the end of this enquiry, students will sit Knowledge Test 2

This enquiry builds upon what pupils learnt about WW1 (EQ1), Hitler (EQ3) and Stalin (EQ4). It builds towards learning about the Cold War (EQ7).

EQ7. Who or what was responsible for the Holocaust? (6 lessons)

Pupils learn about origins, events and key questions around the Holocaust. The enquiry culminates in a discussion of who holds most responsibility.

*This enquiry is assessed with an essay.

This enquiry builds upon what pupils learnt about Hitler (EQ3) and the Second World War (EQ5). It builds towards learning about the modern world at GCSE.

EQ8. Why is it challenging to tell the story of the Cold War? (6 lessons)

Pupils learn about the tensest moments of the Cold War, such as the construction of the Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile Crisis and come to a decision as to which event holds must significance.

 *This enquiry is assessed with a selection of source-analysis questions

This enquiry builds upon what pupils learnt about the Stalin (EQ4) Second World War (EQ5). It builds towards learning about the modern world at GCSE.

EQ9. Why do people disagree about Thatcher’s Britain?

Pupils learn about the state of Britain in the 1970s and 1980s and investigate how and why Margaret Thatcher has been interpreted in such different lights.