History - History pictures - History and Politics Blog

The Department

The History and Politics Department comprises five specialist teachers and a very well resourced departmental teaching area. All of the department's four dedicated teaching rooms have digital projectors with internet access and three of the rooms have interactive whiteboards. In addition there is a small reading room for the sole use of History and Politics sixth form students, which houses a wide range of appropriate reference material.

From the Battle of Hastings to the Renaissance in Year 7, from the Reformation to the Industrial Revolution in Year 8, from slavery and the struggle for civil rights to atomic power in Year 9, students follow the varieties of human experience - the good and the bad, the political, social, economic and cultural, in Britain and around the world. All students follow the National Curriculum in these years, and the majority opt to continue to GCSE (AQA), in which they learn about the Twentieth Century World. AS and A Level History (AQA) and Government and Politics (Edexcel) are both popular choices. The former focuses on 16th century Britain and the emergence of Liberal Democracies across the world at AS level, while at A2 students extend their knowledge of 16th century Britain and study aspects of 20th century Russian History. AS Level Government and Politics focuses on the British experience in Year 12, then introduces a study of the government and politics of the USA in Year 13.

The History and Politics Department have a blog which can be followed at:
www.nonsuchhp.blogspot.com RSS

Here is a recent entry

Strange Tudor Deaths

Stephen Gunn, the Tudor Historian, has compiled a list of strange ways that people during the Tudor period died after four years of extensive research of coroners reports from the period. These include being attacked by a bear, accidents involving maypoles and the danger of going near a cesspit whilst drunk. You can read about 10 of them in this BBC article. The deaths are clearly rather unfortunate for the individuals involved, but also give us a window into the lives of "ordinary people" during this period. For example, the accounts of people drowning whilst washing in the river show that cleanliness was important to Tudor people, despite the false stereotypes we have of Queen Elizabeth rarely taking a bath. The maypoles and bears show the variety of popular entertainment available to people. Other sport related deaths were connected to accidents from football, wrestling, bell-ringing and sledgehammer throwing. One particularly sad story is the death of Jane Shaxspere, aged 2 years old, who drowned after falling into a millpond whilst picking marigolds. She was the cousin of William Shakespeare, and it seems quite likely that this incident influenced him when writing about the death of Ophelia in Hamlet, who also drowned whilst picking flowers. Interestingly, the picture of Ophelia used to illustrate this post was painted by John Everett Millais very close to here, by the Hogsmill River near Old Malden

In addition to studying History in the classroom we aim to offer enrichment activities wherever possible. In the past two years these have included:

• Year 7 visit to Rochester in Kent to support study of Medieval life
• Year 9 visit to the National Army Museum to learn more about life in the First World War
• Year 12 trip to Parliament
• Year 13 visit to Washington DC