History at Portland Place School

Head of History

Aaron Columbus

aaron.columbus@portland-place.co.uk

We aim to foster a fascination with history; challenging our historians to develop key skills such as deduction, source analysis and causation, as well as undertake project work. History is compulsory up to Year 9 and is always a popular choice up to A Level.

Year 7 study English history from 1066-1415, while the Year 8s cover Tudor-Stuart England, Black Peoples of the Americas, and Britain and the First World War. Year 9 focuses on the Twentieth Century World with topics on WWII, the Holocaust, and the US Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 60s.

At GCSE students cover Modern World History B (OCR). This encompasses International Relations 1919-39, Germany 1918-45 (Depth Study), Britain 1906-18, and the Arab-Israeli Conflict 1948-present (coursework). The department will move to the new OCR GCSE specification in September 2009 (History B Modern World). 

New specifications have been introduced at AS this year (OCR). Topics include England under Elizabeth, 1558-1603 and the USA and the Cold War in Asia, 1945-1975. A2 is currently following the legacy specification (OCR), but will move to the new specification in September 2009. The legacy A2 focuses on USA Race Relations, the Cold War in Europe and an independent investigation chosen by the student. US Race Relations will be retained next year, while the Cold War in Europe will be replaced with a controlled assessment unit based around Philip II of Spain (as a comparative study of Early Modern Leadership with Elizabeth I).

Please feel free to view the schemes of work for each year and exam group. If you have an questions please contact the Head of History, Aaron Columbus - aaron.columbus@portland-place.co.uk