History

The aim of History at Paignton Academy is to give students a substantive and broad knowledge of world wide events, whilst also getting them to consider the historical concepts and develop an ability to understand how evidence for a claim can be constituted.

By the end of Key Stage 3 students will have developed an understanding of chronological history nationally and worldwide. They will have considered themes throughout history such as the fight for women’s rights and dictators throughout time. Students undertake a variety of breadth, depth and thematic studies to gain a broad understanding of history from a British, European and world perspective. They will be able to carry out investigations into the past, make use of sources and reach conclusions based on evidence.

By the end of Key Stage 4 students will have covered depth, breadth, thematic and worldwide modules. They will have looked across a vast period of years to understand change through time and will centralise a case study on a shorter amount of time. Students will understand what is useful to them as a historian and be able to analyse how interpretations differ.

Across their study, essentially, they will be developing knowledge and making connections along the way as to how history pieces together and how their place in the world came to be. They will ask questions, use evidence and make a judgement.

We aim for any historians who enter our classroom to have knowledge of the past but also a clear discipline on how the past is investigated and how historians construct their arguments. They will leave with a well-rounded understanding of the world and the impacts of people and events of the past.