The purpose of History at BIST

The History curriculum at BIST is built upon the use of academically rigorous enquiry questions as the focal point of learning. Students will progress towards a true mastery of the subject, achieving a deep understanding of the past on both of its separate planes:

• History is an engagement with the past, a passing on of traditions from one generation to the next, the notion of setting at the feet of our grandparents and being connected to generations long gone.

• History as a discipline, the processes of historical thinking and understanding that result from use and expertise of the core historical concepts of causation, change & continuity, evidence, historical interpretations and significance.

Through the curriculum students will build up an incredibly deep and nuanced understanding of the important substantive concepts of monarchy, power and the church, empire and imperialism, conflict and warfare, revolution, everyday life and campaigns for rights and freedoms. Students will be challenged to operate within such concepts over long arcs of time in order to create thematic narratives of their own.

The curriculum will also equip students with the chronological understanding, subject knowledge and wide range of historical narratives that will enable them to see the present in the context of the past and appreciate their own place within a larger human story that goes beyond Georgia and the British Isles.

The curriculum in History offers students high quality opportunities to pursue areas of History and ideas which interest them, through books, competitions, lectures, documentaries, podcasts and trips helping them to make links to other social sciences and draw relevant and contemporary parallels. There is always something which will interest students in History because it involves the whole of human experience.

Explore the KS3 and KS4 History curriculum at BIST.