Year 7 History

What will my child study in History during Year 7?

In Year 7 there are four main areas of study broken down into enquiries (with an overarching big question) :

• A Local Study

How important was the pottery trade to the local area?

• The development of church, state and society in Medieval Britain

  The Norman Conquest – was England Annihilated?

  The importance of the Medieval Church in Britain

  Role of women in medieval times

  Power of the medieval monarchs

  • The Silk Roads
  • The Islamic Empire– the spread of Islam and the centres of learning
  • The Kingdom of Mali
  • The development of church, state and society, 1509-1745 - The significance of the Reformation

How will my child be assessed and how will I know how well they are doing in History in Year 7?

• Work in this subject is assessed regularly as classwork and homework tasks.
• Formal assessments take place half-termly or at the end of a topic of study (not all enquiries have a formal assessment).
• Work is marked diagnostically with clear targets, time is given for feedback and improvement.
• Parent’s are informed of Progress through Progress Reviews home.

What homework will my child be expected to do in Year 7 in History?

• Homework is set fortnightly.

• Students are expected to spend around 30 minutes on their homework task, depending on what sort of task the teacher has set. Homeworks include spellings, Revision e.g. gap fill tasks, Topic Tool Boxes, research, questions and projects (some extended ones)

• The aim of setting fortnightly homework tasks is to facilitate students’ learning in lessons and to extend their literacy levels.

• Completing homework independently helps students to develop the skills which they will need to have mastered by the time they begin GCSE History, as they are required to be organised and punctual with their work.

• Some homework tasks will be set by their teacher on the school VLE.

How can I support my child to do well in History during Year 7?

• Check that homework is being done.

• Encourage the use of any additional resources for information, for example the library, the Internet, videos/ documentaries/ films

• Encourage students to develop their knowledge of historical events by reading around the subject.

Year 7 History Book List

What equipment may my child need in addition to the standard school equipment?

• In addition to standard equipment expected for all lessons, colouring pencils, pencils and a 30cm ruler will also be needed. Highlighters are recommended.

By the end of the year, what would an 'expert' be able to do in History?

• Increase depth of factual knowledge and understanding.
• Use this to describe and BEGIN to MAKE LINKS between features of past societies and periods.
• DESCRIBE and MAKE LINKS between RELEVANT reasons for and RESULTS of events and changes.
• Know that some events, people and changes have been interpreted in different ways and SUGGEST possible REASONS for this.
• Show awareness of how a historian works.
• Use their knowledge and understanding, they are BEGINNING to EVALUATE sources of information and IDENTIFY those that are USEFUL for particular tasks.
• Select and organise information to produce structured work, making appropriate use of dates and terms.
• Identifying and explaining links between causes; knowledge used to support judgements.
• Clear evaluation of sources; instinctively knows how history operates.

My child is struggling during the course, what additional help is available to help them keep up?

• Lessons and sequences of lessons are designed to build knowledge and skills – there are clear scaffolds
• Work is differentiated in lessons
• 1:1 support is given in lessons and LSA deployed where available in lessons
• Students are given the chance to practice writing skills before an assessment and get formative feedback
• Students may ask for word banks/ mats, keywords lists or pre-reading to use at home
• BBC Bitesize and SAM Learning can be very useful

Updated July 2024