Year 13 History

Introduction - why study History?

History aims to stimulate an interest in and an enthusiasm for learning about the past. We want to ensure that students' knowledge of contemporary society is grounded in an understanding of the past. In History, students read a range of source material, learning to interpret information with discrimination and insight.

Students develop their communication skills, learning to express themselves effectively for different purposes. Key historical concepts such as cause and consequence, change and continuity, and similarity and difference, as well as investigation, analysis and evaluation of source material, are developed.

History provides a broad foundation of knowledge and skills for a wide range of university courses and careers. History students become skilled at:

1. Analysing large amounts of information, extracting the most relevant information, prioritising, assessing and constructing arguments. These skills are essential in careers such as law, administration, politics and government, TV research and journalism.
2. Enquiring and searching for information, knowing where to look and what questions to ask. These skills are essential in careers such as law and policing, investigative reporting, market research.
3. Communicating ideas in an organised, structured and logical fashion. History requires extended, logical, reasoned debate in writing. These skills are essential in careers that require writing reports, including academia, the civil service, law, and journalism.
4. Understanding individuals and groups - their feelings, attitudes, prejudices and motivations. These skills are essential in careers such as personnel, law, teaching, and social work.
5. Understanding historical skills such as cause and consequence, change and continuity, which are essential in any career that requires analysis and strategy, such as the armed forces, teaching, advertising, medicine, banking and accountancy.
6. Developing skills of problem solving and evaluating solutions. The study of History teaches information handling, communicating ideas, flexibility and tolerance - skills that are essential in problem solving in industry and in research and development teams in science and engineering.