History Department

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The history department at Branksome School is small in terms of staff (two permanent members of staff) but plays a significant role in the school’s drive to raise standards at Key Stages 3 and 4. Both members of staff are fully qualified and experienced History specialist ensuring the highest quality of content delivery. Each history teaching room is equipped with a data projector linked to a PC. This enables a range of interactive teaching/learning styles to be delivered as standard practise in the department, ensuring that the tasks set for pupils are challenging as well as enjoyable. The department is fully committed to the school’s ethos of “Achievement beyond expectation”, and seeks to play an integral part in the delivery of the school’s literacy, numeracy and IT programmes. At Key Stage Three the emphasis is on developing the skills necessary for success at GCSE. Whether a pupil opts for History at Key Stage 4 or not, this ensures a programme of high level thinking tasks to stretch all pupils, of all abilities to their potential. At Key Stage 4 the department delivers the OCR curriculum in Modern World Political History, with Germany 1919-45 as a study in depth. This enables the curriculum to be relevant to the Europe in which we live today. The History department has a long and successful record of extra curricular activities. Many pupils have benefited from tours of the First World War battlefields and tours of the area fought over in the Hundred Years War in the middles ages. The History department has also offered pupils the opportunity to participate in essay writing competitions and the National Mock Trial competition.