“A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.”
– Marcus Garvey

Powerful Knowledge in History

Defining ‘powerful knowledge’ in history is problematic and it is possible to argue endlessly over the relative merits of one topic or period or another. However, it is perhaps easier to agree upon some general principles:

  • Children have a right to know about the world in which they live.
  • They have a right to be taught about humans in the past, what those humans did and how we live today with the consequences of what happened before we were alive.
  • They have a right to be taught about the kinds of stories humans tell one another and how humans live in societies that are divided in different ways by wealth, class, gender and race.

The response to delivering on these rights, and of making sense of this complexity, is the academic discipline of history. Therefore, the powerful knowledge history curriculum at the Laurus Trust seeks to provide students with an induction into this great discipline.

Curriculum Features

The history curriculum aims to develop students’ substantive knowledge of transferable historical concepts, as well as period-specific knowledge, through rigorous enquiry into the following periods:

  • Ancient Rome
  • Anglo-Saxon England
  • The Norman Conquest
  • Islamic Golden Age
  • The Crusades
  • The Silk Roads
  • Medieval England
  • The Reformation
  • Witchcraft
  • The English Civil Wars
  • 18th century revolutions
  • The Industrial Revolution
  • The British Empire
  • Ireland
  • The First World War
  • Female Suffrage
  • 20th century dictatorships
  • The Second World War
  • The Holocaust
  • C20th British social change
  • Cold War
  • Decolonisation

Students will also acquire an understanding of the disciplinary knowledge required for authentic historical thinking. Over the course of the curriculum, students will study the following disciplinary strands:

  • Causation
  • Change and continuity
  • Interpretations
  • Historical evidence
  • Similarity and Difference

Co-curricular Enrichment

To further develop historical awareness and wider cultural capital, the History department offers students a range of experiences outside of the classroom environment. These include a GCSE History trip to Berlin, where students explore the rich and powerful history centred around this capital city, and a Key Stage 3 Battlefields trip to enrich students’ knowledge of the First World War.

In addition to out-of-school activities, the History department runs a variety of in-school enrichment. A range of electives are run at lunch time and after school, including a Latin and History film club.