History
The History Department at Saint Felix School offers an exceptional learning experience that will ignite a passion for learning about the past and equip students with invaluable skills for the future. At each learning stage, trips and visits to relevant historical sites and museums supplement classroom-based learning, bringing the subject to life.
Key Stage One: History is a cross-curricular subject linked to art, geography, and English. Pupils learn about famous historical faces, chronology and timelines, castles, and historical events that have shaped the modern world. Teachers continually encourage children to research, question, and conclude each topic. Trips include the Southwold cliff-top canons, the Sailors Reading Room Museum, Framlingham and Orford Castles, and Southwold lighthouse.
Key Stage Two: pupils chronologically learn about ancient civilisations, such as the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. They also uncover the secrets of the Dark Ages, including the Vikings and Anglo-Saxons, before learning about life for a Victorian child and, similarly, a child during WWII. Our KS2 pupils always enjoy time drawing, painting and making relevant historical art. Trips include Norwich Castle, Southwold Museum, Sutton Hoo, Gressenhall, a Victorian workhouse and venue for a ‘Home Front Heroes’ experience and the chance to dress as an evacuee. The topics also provide many opportunities for literature, including Stig of the Dump, Greek Myths, Beowulf, and the Street Child.
Key Stage Three: the curriculum gives students the opportunity to investigate a murder mystery, explore medieval life during the time of the Black Death, and discover the hardships of life on a plantation in the USA during the time of slavery. All these topics, and many more, enable students to develop their historical analysis skills and to learn that evidence must not be accepted at face value. Trips include Orford and Framlingham Castles, the Wool Churches at Blythburgh, Southwold, and Wenhaston (to view the magnificent Doom painting), the ruined abbeys throughout East Anglia, historic Tudor houses, the Imperial War Museum, and the World War 1 battlefields.
Key Stage Four: the work undertaken for Key Stage 3 provides an excellent foundation for the OCR GCSE History examination. Students will study People’s Health c1250 to present, and the public health of Britain; the Norman Conquest and the interplay of political, military, religious, social and cultural forces in England between 1065 and 1087; History Around Us, including Norwich Castle and its impact on the local community and Britain in general; the Viking Expansion c750 – 1050, focusing on their homeland of Scandinavia and how they expanded east and west, focusing on warfare, trade and settlement; and Living Under Nazi Rule c1933 – 1945, looking at the impact of the Nazi dictatorship within Germany and across occupied Europe, looking at the political, economic, social, racial, and cultural forces at work in these societies.
History is a fun, exciting and popular subject at Saint Felix School, with a demonstrable track record of success.