Curriculum intent
Tuxford’s history curriculum is meaningful. It provides children and young people with historical knowledge and ideas that are both relevant and enriching to their lives. Our curriculum encourages our students to be empathic, curious, and conscientious. The curriculum has developed our student’s ability to articulate their judgements based on evidence, whilst skeptically questioning the past.
Engaging in the process of historical enquiry and interrogating evidence is central to history at Tuxford. Every lesson is centered around an historical enquiry, within an overarching question for the scheme of work. Moreover, the students use historical sources constructively, and they are exposed to historical interpretations. Students therefore learn to value history as a dynamic subject of argument. As such, our curriculum is cumulative and reflective: students build knowledge; pursue historical enquiries; engage with evidence and interpretations; and then they communicate their learning in rigorous and creative ways. The skills of deploying evidence, explanation, critical thinking, argument and literacy are of great transferable value and benefit the students across the academy.
Within our curriculum, we have also included studies across time where a clear connection between the past and the present is forged and salient changes and continuities across time are noted. Student’s learning is positioned within a chronological context; a framework from which students can understand their world. Crucial to this rich curriculum is diversity. The histories that we explore have varied agencies, where different creations of the past are explored. Students are exposed to a range of periods, civilisations and cultures. They explore the local, the national and the international noting the various aspects of history itself, whether they be social, political, religious or economic. Hence, our students are exposed to a variety of histories that are more diverse than the catchment of the academy.
Most importantly, we are proud of our history curriculum and, as teachers, we believe that the history that we teach is relevant and engaging. Students at Tuxford gain social and cultural capital through their studies. The students we produce become citizens who can discuss and debate British values. Here the range of careers pursued by our students is a testament to the curriculum’s success. It also provides students with magic moments and life-enhancing experiences for all children. We hope students are inspired by their learning and choose to pursue history at GCSE level, and our key stage 3 curriculum is guided by a desire to maximise every student’s potential future achievement in GCSE history. As such, we have: competitions, extra guided learning, careers, speakers, artefact boxes, and trips: imbuing them with a lifelong love for history.
