Diversifying our History Curriculum

Last October, in recognition of Black History Month, the History Department pledged to review our history curriculum so that it included more diverse content and stories. Helen Tatlock, Head of History, is pleased to be able to mark this year’s Black History Month with the news that, following input from parents, students, and colleagues, our new curriculum has made its way into the classroom.

Year 7 have begun their LP History journey by travelling along the Silk Roads, observing the crucial role these trade networks played in bringing societies and cultures closer together. Year 8 are on familiar ground, currently looking at industrialisation, but this will feed into a refreshed look at the impact of empire and the slave trade, in which those usually cast as victims will also be considered through the lens of resistance and rebellion.

Year 9 have begun with the global aftermath of World War One including the stories of African Americans and women on both sides of the Atlantic, and the erasure of the gains made through their labour, bravery and sacrifice during the conflict. Year 9 will move onto look at modern campaigns for greater civil rights for marginalised groups.

Our GCSE historians have always had the benefit of a global curriculum, importantly by investigating the history of international organisation and their work, but we have replaced the study of the USA 1920 – 1945 with a study of the Vietnam Conflict, building on the Year 8 themes of empire and struggles for independence, as well as the Year 9 theme of rights and protest and the global impact of superpower proxy war.

The new A Level syllabus covers the decline of the British Empire, Apartheid and Reconciliation, and civil rights in the USA, including campaigns by women, African Americans, workers, and Native Americans. Excitingly our Lower Sixth A Level historians have used their new course as a platform to lead this year’s celebration of Black History Month by introducing Fryer to some of the inspirational people they have met so far, whose names are not widely known, and by setting Fryer a challenge to uncover more inspirational figures who should be celebrated and known more widely.

“If we want to solve the problems we face today, we need to understand where they came from.” said the group to Fryer on Monday 18^th October, as they delivered their Collect on Black History Month.