Chelmsford County High School for Girls
A foundation grammar school and specialist college
Subjects
History
History is a very popular and extremely successful subject at CCHS. Our students relish the opportunity to grapple with some of the great themes of human history, and to use the knowledge they gain to help them understand the society in which they live. They learn to analyse evidence and to write in an informed and analytical way about the events of the past, as well as to question orthodoxies and to argue with clarity and rigour.
History is a subject which undergirds all the others that students study, and our Department is proud to be one that is deeply committed to our subject for its own sake, and to making our students aware of its fascination, its importance for human affairs, and its relevance to and resonance with life today. Studying history is, we are convinced, a humane and a humanising process, a sine qua non of any serious educational endeavour.
Key Stage 3
- Year 7: As with years 8 and 9 the syllabus is largely determined by the requirements of the National Curriculum, although full advantage is taken of the flexibility offered under the latest DfE guidance. Students spend much of the year studying Medieval England, and focus on the major events and turning points in the period 1066 to 1485. In the later part of the summer term they study a unit on the Indigenous Peoples of North America.
- Year 8: Year 8 history is again primarily concerned with British history. Students study the reformation in Britain, the Civil Wars of the seventeenth century, and the 'making of the United Kingdom' in the later seventeenth century. The focus is then switched to the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions of the eighteenth century, and the impact that these had on the people of Britain. In the later part of the summer a unit is studied on the French Revolution.
- Year 9: Year 9 History is entirely concerned with 'the twentieth century world'. Students study the history of the twentieth century from the so-called 'Golden Age' of Britain from 1890 to 1914, through the First World War, the 1920s, the Great Depression and the 'Dark Valley' of the 1930s to the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the continuing legacy of these events up until our own time.
GCSE
At GCSE, students study OCR Modern World History, Syllabus B. This involves a detailed study of international politics in the period 1919 to 1939, and a coursework unit on interwar Germany, with one assignment focussed on the reasons for Hitler's rise to power, and the other on the events of 'Kristallnacht' in November 1938. There is a further unit on the history of the United States of America from 1919 to 1941, and a final unit on Britain between 1906 and 1918, focussing on social reform and the struggle for women's suffrage. The GCSE course attracts high numbers; each year around 80% of students opt to study history, and the results are always high; in 2004 97% of students passed at A or A*, 61% reaching the top grade.
Sixth Form
The AS course, 'Race, Rights and Revolution' involves a coursework unit on the French Revolution, a unit on the campaigns for women's suffrage in Britain between 1880 and 1918, and a final unit on the struggle for Civil Rights in the United States of America between 1945 and 1968. AS history attracts around 60 students each year. In 2004 96% of students achieved grades A or B.
History in year 13 is entirely focussed on Europe and Britain in the Sixteenth Century. Students study a coursework unit on 'The Golden Age of Spain', assessing the rise and fall of that country and its influence on Europe and the Americas. There are then two units on British history, one focussing on the 'Mid Tudor Crisis', in the reigns of Edward VI and Mary I (1547-1558) and the other on the first thirty years of the reign of Elizabeth I. Approximately 50 students opt to continue their AS history to A2 in each year. In 2004 80% of students achieved grades A or B.