The main focus of the syllabus in Year 8 is British History 1483-1746 and the French Revolution 1788-1794
The main subject areas are as follows:
- The mystery of the Princes in the Tower 1483 – A historical whodunit?
- The Battle of Bosworth and the end of the Wars of the Roses 1485
- The Reign of Henry VII 1485-1509
- Life in Tudor England for the rich and the poor
- The Reign of Henry VIII 1509-1547
- What kind of a man was Henry VIII?
- The six wives of Henry VIII
- Henry VIII and the English Reformation
- The dissolution of the monasteries and the Pilgrimage of Grace
- The Reigns of Edward VI and Mary I 1547-1558
- The Reign of Elizabeth I 1558-1603
- Elizabethan portraits
- Mary Queen of Scots
- The Spanish Armada 1588
- James I and the Gunpowder Plot 1605
- Charles I and the causes of the Civil Wars
- Life during the Civil Wars 1642-1649
- The trial and execution of Charles I 1649
All boys in Year 8 will also undertake a curriculum visit to the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds. This provides the basis for a mini-project on the weapons and soldiers of the Civil Wars.
Boys should develop and consolidate the following skills over the year:
- Develop debating skills within a controlled environment
- Produce developed essays with a definite structure, yet allowing students’ independence to explore their own lines of argument.
- Developing the sense of balance within arguments to incorporate multi-faceted arguments.
