KS3 History
Vision
The KS3 curriculum for Year 7 and 8 is structured around carefully sequenced enquiries that each seek to answer a historical question, connected by an overarching question for each year. These overarching questions shape what students learn and help them to develop a coherent mental picture of how the world was connected and transformed over time, while also preparing them for later enquiries in KS4 and KS5.
Each enquiry identifies two types of core knowledge.
Understanding history sets out the key substantive knowledge all students need to know and remember about the past: people, events, places, ideas, and connections. This knowledge is deliberately cumulative, with substantive concepts and themes revisited and developed across the key stage to build long-term understanding.
Understanding how history works sets out the disciplinary knowledge students need in order to make sense of the past: how historians use sources, construct interpretations, deal with gaps in evidence, and debate significance, causation, and change over time. This knowledge is also cumulative, with disciplinary ideas introduced in simple forms in Year 7 and deepened across KS3.
There are also History around us (HAU) lessons, which are standalone lessons on local history, usually based around a specific historic site. These are designed to build understanding of local history while also serving as chronological links between enquiries.
History curriculum overview for Year 7
Chronological focus: The Middle AgesOverarching question: How was the world connected during the Middle Ages?
| Enquiry Question | Understanding history | Understanding how history works |
| 1. Why was silk important in the Early Middle Ages? |
The history of silk can tell us about the relationship between humans and the natural world. Silk connected places including China, the Byzantine Empire and England in the Early Middle Ages. People used silk to show their power, their wealth and their religious faith. |
Historians use different types of sources to investigate the past. This can be difficult, especially when there are not many sources. |
| 2. What does the story of Geoffrey de Montbray reveal about the Norman Conquest? |
The Norman invasion of 1066 was a turning point in English history. There were significant changes in power, religion and land ownership. It created new connections between England and France. |
History is constructed. Evidence (documents or artefacts from the time) are pieced together to form interpretations. To complete their university training, many historians do a very long essay called a PhD where they have to explain how they have used evidence (and other interpretations) to create their own interpretation. |
| HAU: Matilda, the Anarchy and Bristol Castle | People fought over power in medieval England, and this was sometimes linked to gender roles. | History is all around us. Historic sites can help us to understand what life was like for people in the past. |
| 3. What can the story of Eleanor of Aquitaine reveal about power in the Middle Ages? |
Eleanor of Aquitaine was a powerful medieval woman, who connected England to other European countries. Her story can reveal how power was linked to gender roles in medieval Europe. |
Finding out about Eleanor’s life is a challenge for historians as most sources from her lifetime were written by and about men. |
| HAU: Owain ap Dafydd and Bristol Castle | England invaded Wales in 1277. This was an early step in the expansion of English power and the beginning of an English empire in the British Isles. | History is all around us. Historic sites can help us to understand what life was like for people in the past. |
| 4. Why was gold important in the Late Middle Ages? |
The gold trade connected the Mali Empire, Italy and England. Gold had religious, economic and political significance to different people in the Late Middle Ages. |
Different cultures around the world have different ways of remembering history. In West Africa there is a tradition of oral history. In Europe there are written sources, but artworks and artefacts such as coins can also help us understand the past. |
| 5. What can the Black Death reveal about connections in the 14th century? |
The Black Death arrived in England in 1348. It was spread through trade connections and war. People were connected by their religious responses to the disease. |
Historical knowledge changes when new evidence is discovered. Historians use sources to build interpretations of the past. Historians have to think about who the authors of these sources were, and what their purpose was. |
| Margaret Blanket and Ashton Court |
Ashton Court was rebuilt in the 14th century using money from the wool trade. This story can help us understand trade connections with Europe as well as medieval gender roles. |
History is all around us. Historic sites can help us to understand what life was like for people in the past. |
| 6. Why was there a Renaissance in Italy? |
The Renaissance was a turning point in art, culture and ideas. It moved people’s focus from religion to humanity. The causes of this change can be linked to Italian city states’ display of power and their connections to the Islamic world. |
Art historians use artworks as evidence to make interpretations about the past. |
| 7. How did the conquest of Constantinople transform the world? | When the Ottoman Empire took over Constantinople in 1453, it transformed trade connections between Europe and Asia, and caused changes to power and religion. | Some events in history are contested. People argue over what they mean and why they are important. |
History curriculum overview for Year 8
Chronological focus: 1492 to 1900
Overarching question: How were Britain and the world transformed between 1492 and 1900?
| Enquiry question | Understanding history | Understanding how history works |
| 1. Why was the Columbian Exchange such a significant transformation? | In 1492, Christopher Columbus sailed from Europe to the Americas. This started a huge exchange of germs, plants, animals, and people, which transformed who had wealth and power around the world. | Historians think about why some events were really important - this is called significance. Sometimes historians think of whole new ways of looking at the past, for example environmental history. |
| HAU: John Cabot and the Matthew | In 1497, John Cabot sailed from Bristol and reached North America, which he claimed for England’s empire. Much later, this led to the transformation of land already lived on by Indigenous Americans. | Visual interpretations like paintings can help us imagine the past. But historians need to ask questions about how accurate these are, especially when they are created long after the events. |
| 2. What were the consequences of Martin Luther’s ideas? | In 1517, Luther challenged the Catholic Church. This triggered the Reformation, a time of religious and political transformation in Europe. | Historians often disagree about which consequences of an event are the most significant. |
| 3. How did the Reformation matter to ordinary English people? | The Reformation brought religious and social changes to local communities in England. | History which tries to piece together the lives of ordinary people is called social history. Sometimes, historians can use sources about one small place to create a bigger interpretation about a time period. This is called microhistory. |
| 4. How can we explain what happened in East Anglia in the 1640s? | During the English Civil War, religion, power, environmental change and gender roles triggered events which transformed lives. | Sometimes the explanations people in the past had for things that happened to them show how different their way of thinking was to our own. Historians have to use these sources carefully to interpret events. |
| Dorothy Hazzard, Bristol and the Civil War | The Civil War of 1642-1649 was a time of change. Bristol was a place where people fought over religion, power and gender roles. | It is difficult for historians to piece together the lives of 17th century women, as most sources were written by and about men. |
| 5. How did Algonquian people react to English colonisation? | The English built colonies in North America. Indigenous Algonquian people reacted in different ways, but their world was transformed forever. | Popular memory is the history that most people remember. Some stories of colonisation are remembered in popular memory through films and celebrations. Others are often forgotten or left out. |
| HAU: The Huguenots and the Lord Mayor’s Chapel | Huguenot refugees fled religious persecution in France and settled in Bristol. Their skills in trade and industry helped to transform the city. | Historians can analyse statistics from sources to find patterns, helping to build a bigger picture of how people lived and worked in the past. |
| 6. What can three historic sites reveal about how transatlantic slavery transformed the world? | Transatlantic slavery transformed Africa, the Caribbean and Britain. Akan people were affected and involved, enslaved Africans were forced to work on Caribbean plantations, and people in cities like Bristol made money from the trade. | Historians use different sources to learn about transatlantic slavery, but some voices, especially enslaved people, are often missing. Historians have to think about how they work with these silences in the evidence. |
| HAU: Elizabeth Woolnough and Ashton Court | Ashton Court was rebuilt in the 18th century using money from the brass trade and sugar plantations. This story can help us understand the impact of transatlantic slavery as well as gender roles. | History is all around us. Historic sites can help us to understand what life was like for people in the past. |
| 7. What happened when a company took over India? | The East India Company began by trading with India but ended up ruling the country, transforming the Indian economy and society and leading to the Indian Rebellion of 1857. | Different interpretations from India and Britain show that the way events are remembered is affected by national perspectives. |
| 8. How did coal transform South Bristol? | The Industrial Revolution began in Britain in around 1750. This brought huge changes to industry and society in places like South Bristol. | Community historians work to uncover and share forgotten stories by using sources such as old maps, photos, records and memories, helping people today understand how their local area was shaped by the past. |
| 9. What can the War of the Golden Stool reveal about the Partition of Africa? | Following the Berlin Conference of 1884, Africa was partitioned by European countries. The War of the Golden Stool, fought between Britain and the Asante Empire, is one event that can help us to understand how this transformed Africa. | It is challenging for historians to investigate events like this, when British soldiers wrote the ‘official’ version of what happened. Historians have to carefully use a variety of sources - including oral history and traditional stories as well as colonial written sources - to create their own interpretations. |
Year 9 are currently following a legacy curriculum while the KS3 curriculum is in the process of being updated. This reflects a period of transition, as the department moves towards a revised and more coherently sequenced KS3 curriculum model.
The Year 9 curriculum outlined below therefore represents the existing provision for the 2025/26 Year 9 cohort and will be reviewed and updated as part of the wider KS3 curriculum redevelopment.
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Year 9 |
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