History

Course summary

We seek to do all we can to ensure that all pupils studying History are routinely stretched appropriately, that they take increasing responsibility for their learning and that, by these means, we empower them to discern and appreciate the benefits of studying the past in a fast-changing world. In the History Department, we seek to nourish and develop all the attributes of the academic historian, ranging from the ability to narrate detailed and complex chronologies, such as events in Russia in 1917 and the actions of the House of Commons 1640 – 1642, to demonstrating the capacity to interrogate a source. After all, if a scholar cannot think of a question to ask a source then that source forever remains silent in the same way that a suspect in a murder trial does not have to describe his whereabouts if not asked ‘So, where were you on the night of the murder?’ We aim to equip pupils to engage with the past and to develop the wherewithal to ask questions about the material they encounter, and by so doing to deepen and extend their intellectual curiosity.