History Department
History is taught throughout the pre-prep and prep school with the aim of fostering a lifelong interest in the history both of this country and of the wider world. The course is designed to cover the History Study Units of the National Curriculum in their entirety throughout Key Stage1 and 2, as well as six of the units at Key Stage 3. An additional Medieval History Unit is taken in Year 5. Pupils are fully prepared for Common Entrance, Scholarship and other entrance exams. As far as possible, we have retained a chronological approach in determining the order in which the units are taught.
We are aware that a child's years of history as a compulsory subject are almost entirely spent at the prep school. We need to offer a broad general historical foundation for one year after they leave this school some of the pupils will not study any more History.
The syllabus is organised as follows:
Reception 2
Night and day - days of the week; Months of the year and the changes they bring; Growth and change; Guy Fawkes & Diwali celebrations; Oral tradition of nursery rhymes/nursery tales.
Year One (KS1)
Life in Victorian Times and significant Famous People: Guy Fawkes, Grace Darling, Louis Braille, Samuel Pepys, George Stephenson, Florence Nightingale Saints: St Francis, St David and St George.
Year Two (KS1)
Ancient Egypt and the life of Tutankhamen, Queen Boudicca, King Alfred, The Battle of Hastings and the Bayeux Tapestry, Castles, Knights in Medieval England/coats of arms, Queen Elizabeth 1 and life in Elizabethan times, The danger of travel in C18., The Pilgrim Fathers, Orphans in the 18th and 19th centuries, Princess Victoria and the period leading to Victorian times, Mary Seacole, The history of the Oratory Prep School - focus Cardinal Newman.
Year 3 (KS2)
'Ancient Greece'
'Ancient Egypt'
Year 4 (KS2)
'Romans, Anglo-Saxons and Vikings in Britain'
Year 5 (KS2)
'Castles' including a visit to Warwick Castle
'Britain since 1930'
'Local History' an aspect of the local community that illustrates developments taught in the study units e.g. local fortifications (nearby woods 'The RAF Maintenance Unit (M.U.), nearby Home Guard guard posts, Wallingford 'burh', Wittenham Clumps and Whitchurch Hill 'Iron Age Forts', 'pill boxes'), Wallingford Museum, Reading Museum, Basildon Park (US Airborne forces trained here for D-Day), Place names and settlements in Thames Valley and comparisons, local churches, battlefields (Chalgrove Field, Newbury)
Year 6 (KS2)
'Life in Tudor Times'
The Wars of the Roses and major events in Tudor times: Bosworth, Henry VIII and his children, 'The King's Great Matter', personalities and different levels of society. An in depth study of Mary, Queen of Scots or James I and VI
Year 7 (KS3)
'Medieval Realms: Britain 1066-1500' major features including the development of medieval monarchy and ways of life of peoples of the British Isles; the Norman Conquest and its results; Who killed William Rufus?; Henry II 'A great and busy King'?; Henry I / Stephen and Matilda's Civil War; King John 'Bad King John'?; The Hundred Years War; The Black Death and The Peasants Revolt; Who killed the Princes in the Tower?
Year 8 (KS3)
'Reformation and Counter-Reformation in the 16th Century'; religious changes in Britain in 16th century: The Reformation Parliament, Closure of the Monasteries, Pilgrimage of Grace, Cranmer, Somerset and Northumberland, Bloody Mary, The Middle Way, Mary Queen of Scots and the Armada 1588
'The Making of the United Kingdom: Crowns, Parliaments and Peoples 1500-1750'; political, social, religious changes and effects in England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales; Gunpowder Plot; Civil War 1642-51: including Bishops War and Rebellion in Ireland; 'The Glorious Revolution'
'Britain 1750-1900: Expansion, Trade and Industry'; main events, personalities and developments; effect of world-wide expansion, industrialisation and political developments; in-depth study: Abolition of Slavery and Slave Trade in the British empire.
Trips/Visits
Visitors come to the school and we take groups of pupils out on a regular basis. Many if not all school trips have a historical element and opportunities for cross curricular work are seized wherever possible e.g. the Y7 Geography Field Trip to Shropshire includes a visit to the Victorian village at Blists Hill and Ironbridge; Classic department trips to Rome include a guided tour of Pompeii; Yr 8 trips to Normandy include the Bayeux Tapestry and the Normandy Beaches: Art department trips include on to Stanley Spencer's WW1 murals at Sandham Memorial Chapel; The English department runs trips to the Somme Battlefields.
Click on the links: Warwick Castle, The Tower of London, Highclere Castle, The Imperial War Museum, and Reading Museum to mention just a few.
