Key Stage 3 History
A journey from the Iron Age to the twenty-first century – combining British history with the wider world, from the Kingdom of Mali and the Mughal Empire to the British Empire, two world wars and the struggle for equal rights.
Our curriculum interleaves period studies, which explore an age in depth, with thematic studies that trace big ideas – public health, empire, migration – across long arcs of time. Every unit builds both substantive knowledge (the what) and disciplinary knowledge (the how): using historical terms accurately, framing valid enquiries, analysing sources and interpretations, and writing evidentially supported accounts. Local history runs throughout, from the Domesday Book to Landguard Fort.
Year 7
| Term | unit knowledge & skills |
|---|---|
| Autumn 1 |
Water & Health Through Time The course opens with a sweep through British history — from Iron Age and Roman Britain to the modern day — asking how people obtained water and managed waste in each age. Students build a sense of period, order time chronologically, and learn to analyse change and continuity over a long arc of time. |
| Autumn 2 |
The Normans & the Kingdom of Mali How did the Normans conquer England — and how do historians know about the Kingdom of Mali? Students explore how the Conquest changed England and how relationships between monarchs, barons and ordinary people evolved, while asking why the history of Africa has so often been neglected and analysing sources about Mali. |
| Spring 1 |
London Through Time One city, two thousand years. Studying the shape and character of London in each age — Roman, medieval, early modern, industrial and post-war — students deepen their understanding of change and continuity and discover how different kinds of sources reveal each period. |
| Spring 2 |
Edward I & Mansa Musa Two rulers, two worlds. Students weigh up what King Edward I achieved and explore the power of religion in medieval life, then investigate Mansa Musa — his contribution to the Kingdom of Mali and his long-term impact — comparing leaders across two very different medieval cultures. |
| Summer 1 |
The Early Modern World What changed between 1450 and 1550? Students discover how the Renaissance, the Reformation and the age of exploration and colonisation transformed Europe and England — and, through a site study at Kentwell Hall, learn what a historical site can reveal about the past. |
| Summer 2 |
Henry VIII & Elizabeth I What mattered to Henry VIII — and how far was Elizabethan England a ‘golden age’? Students trace how Henry’s search for an heir and need for money led to the English Reformation and the dissolution of the monasteries, then weigh the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the Poor Law, privateers, explorers and the flowering of Elizabethan culture. |
Year 8
| Term | unit knowledge & skills |
|---|---|
| Autumn 1 |
Civil War & the Mughals How can we explain the English Civil War — and who was the greatest Mughal Emperor? Students investigate the causes and development of the war that turned Britain upside down, alongside the key features of the Mughal Empire between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries: a significant society beyond Europe. |
| Autumn 2 |
Sugar, Empire & Slavery The shocking history of sugar as a way into understanding empire. Students trace how sugar production and consumption changed the course of world history: how European empires colonised the New World, how the transatlantic slave trade began and grew, Britain’s role in it, and its impact on Africa, the Caribbean and England. |
| Spring 1 |
The Impact of Industry How did the Industrial Revolution change Britain — and how should we remember Peterloo? Students explore how working lives were transformed, how working people campaigned for changes to the political system, how the government responded, and the causes and significance of the Peterloo Massacre of 1819. |
| Spring 2 |
The British Empire By 1886 the map of the world was painted red. Students investigate how and why the British Empire grew through the nineteenth century, and take a closer look at Australia: how and why it became a British colony — and what the consequences were for its inhabitants. |
| Summer 1 |
Victorian Values & India What can paintings tell us about Victorian attitudes to family life? Students explore what the Victorians valued and how they showed it in their art and architecture, then examine what motivated the British rulers of India from 1750 to 1900 — through three stages of rule, from the East India Company to the Raj. |
| Summer 2 |
Migration Through Time Britain’s story is a story of migration. From Roman times to the modern day, students investigate what caused people to migrate to Britain in each period, how far they were welcomed, and the impact migration has had — analysing similarity, difference and diversity over a long arc of time. |
Year 9
| Term | unit knowledge & skills |
|---|---|
| Autumn 1 |
A Traumatic Century The twentieth century opens with two very different conflicts. Students discover the importance of women in Asante society and why Yaa Asantewaa, leader in the War of the Golden Stool, is remembered as a symbol of power — then investigate the causes and key features of the First World War and its impact on people’s lives. |
| Autumn 2 |
Churchill & the Home Front How should Winston Churchill be remembered? Students trace the phases of Churchill’s life and his part in British history from the First World War to the Second, examine the ‘Blitz spirit’ and wartime propaganda, and conduct a local history site study of Landguard Fort and its role in wartime. |
| Spring 1 |
Unfinished Business What stories lie behind photographs of the Holocaust? Students study the impact of Nazi anti-Semitism on Jewish people in Europe and the key events of the Holocaust, then turn to the campaigns for equal rights in Britain after 1960 — marked by the statue of Millicent Fawcett in Parliament Square. |
| Spring 2 |
9/11 & the Modern World Drawing conclusions about the century just past, students investigate the short- and long-term causes of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, and consider the invention of the World Wide Web — a technological revolution to set beside the industrial one. |
| Summer 1 |
Medieval Life Revisited What mattered to medieval people? Returning to the Middle Ages with three years of historical skill behind them, students explore the power of religion in everyday life and what life was like for ordinary people — strengthening the overview knowledge and site-study skills that GCSE History builds on. |
| Summer 2 |
The Black Death What should people understand about the Black Death? Students discover how religion shaped the way the plague was understood at the time, and how the catastrophe unleashed forces that changed England in the late Middle Ages — drawing final conclusions about the medieval world. |