HISTORY
Far from being an optional and not particularly important subject, history deserves a prominent place in any Catholic curriculum. Classical educational guru Susan Wise Bauer, over at The Well Trained Mind website, argues that history should in fact be at the centre of any 'classical' (i.e. non-modern) curriculum since it is the subject best suited to helping a child develop essential intellectual skills. "The beauty of the classical curriculum is that it dwells on one problem, one author, or one epoch long enough to allow even the youngest student a chance to exercise his mind in a scholarly way: to make connections and to trace developments, lines of reasoning, patterns of action, recurring symbolisms, plots, and motifs. History "is simply the account of everything humanity has done, thought, invented, and dreamed about since the beginning of time," and as such encompasses all other subjects: "The literature of the past, science and its progressive discoveries, the music of the masters — all of these are historical in nature." History is certainly not some boring, optional subject with little meaning in our modern world.
Teaching history
There are many ways to approach the teaching of history. We aim to divide our study into 12 main sections: after an initial study of Ancient Greece and Rome to give some background, we focus on British History from the Celts and Romans through to the First World War. All twelve sections can be covered in a basic way from ages 7-11 (about three per year). Since the level of detail at this age is going to be limited (and vary greatly between 7 and 11), from 11-13, a selection of these areas might be revisited in more detail. Finally, from 14-16 the focus would be on modern (19th and 20th century) history in preparation for the IGCSE exam.
British History from a Catholic perspective
As far as I am aware, there is no standard textbook which treats British History (including the history of the reformation era) from any sort of Catholic perspective. At best you will find a text which is relatively neutral (this seems to be truer of more modern than older texts), in which the faith is examined in a couple of pages along with food and clothing as if it were just some curious medieval pastime. School textbooks are a filtering and summarising of higher levels of academic thought and as such reflect the most deeply entrenched and widely accepted academic orthodoxies. With regard to British History, this can generally be characterised as 'Protestant Establishment', beginning with the supposition that only once the British people threw of the shackles of medieval Catholicism could they really began to find their national identity (as a Protestant nation), i.e. from Elizabeth onwards. The Catholic faith has, since the late 1500s, been viewed as something quite alien to the British spirit, and this is perhaps unconsciously projected back even before that era by authors of school textbooks. Glancing through a few of the old 'Ladybird' style books we have, it is remarkable that whilst each one tells of the 'burnings' of Bloody Mary, not one refers to the innumerable martyrdoms under Elizabeth!
Parents simply have to educate themselves, be aware, correct errors (or balance unbalanced material), and supplement specific information as they go along. This doesn't only apply to the Tudors; it goes on right through the Stuarts an up to our present day. If you are following a study course in Christian Culture you will be providing plenty of material which balances out the peculiar British approach to the Catholic Faith as some kind of minor historical curiosity...
If you want to read for yourself an account of the reformation era, so that you can balance out the bias of the textbooks, you could do worse than to read Hilaire Belloc's 'How the Reformation Happened' or his 'Characters of the Reformation'. If you want something specifically on Britain, try William Cobbet's ' A History of the Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland'. Written by a non-Catholic, this book is generally regarded as giving a very balanced view of the Reformation era.
GCSE: There are IGCSE options available from both Edexcel and CIE. Both focus on 19th and 20th century history. Both require a deeper study of one chosen topic, and both require the interpretation of source material. Since the reforms, GCSE history is now also an option for home-educators. These exams offer a broader range of historical eras for study, with compulsory papers in British and non-British history. There are 5 exams available and the syllabus content can be a bit overwhelming to plough through if you are unaccustomed to exam syllabi!. As ever, the home ed exams wiki is very helpful.
We have put four sons in for the CIE exam (although GCSEs are now available, we have several years experience in this exam so have stuck with it thus far). The syllabus covers 19th and 20th century history and one option is examined; we cover both eras but take the exam in the 20th century paper. We only prepare half of the syllabus for the actual exam (run up to WW1, the War itself, then the collapse of peace up to 1939). This might seem very little to study, but outside of exam prep, our children study a great deal of history covering all eras. For an exam, the smaller and more contained the areas covered the better, as you can cover them really well. This exam is very predictable too; there have been no surprises in the past 8 years! The outline below is based on the CIE syllabus; obviously if you opt for a different syllabus you'll need to adjust it accordingly.
GCSE Ancient History is now available for home-educators (it used to contain a controlled assessment element). This is offered by OCR and is a straightforward exam and an excellent choice for a child who has an interest in classics. In terms of qualifications, it seems to make little difference if your child has a GCSE in Ancient or Modern history.
Overview by age
(click on the relevant section to find teaching suggestions)
PRIMARY LEVEL
Age 7- 8 c2,500BC to 500AD
(1) Ancient Greece (c 2,500 BC to 30AD)
(2) Ancient Rome (753BC to 476AD)
(3) Celtic Britain and Roman Britain (55BC to c450AD)
Age 8- 9 c500AD to 1485 (British History)
(1) Saxons and Vikings The Dark Ages c500 – 1066 AD)
(2) The Early Middle Ages 1066 -1399
(3) The Later Middle Ages 1399-1485
Age 9-10 c1485 - 1815
(1) Tudors 1485 – 1603 (Henry, Edward VI – Elizabeth: Reformation)
(2) The Stuarts (1603 – 1746) (Civil War; Restoration, Revolution; rebellion. Industrial Revolution)
(3) The early Empire (1746 - 1815) (Seven Years War; American War of Ind; French Revolution, Napoleonic wars)
Age 10-11 c1815 – 1918
(1) Britain and Ireland under Victoria: Chartists; Abolition of slavery, railways; Irish potato famine 1845; repeal of corn laws 1846; Gladstone and Disraeli; Home Rule and the Irish question. Victoria (1837 -1901)
(2) The empire under Victoria: 1854 Crimean War; 1857 Indian Mutiny leads to direct British rule; 1880-1881 First Boer War; 1899-1902 Second Boer War; Zulu War, Afghan War.
(3) WW1 What caused the War? Trench warfare; the war at sea; other fronts; the armistice
MIDDLE LEVEL
Age 11-12
Choice of three in depth studies from Roman Britain, Saxons and Vikings; Normans and Tudors (Ancient Greece and Rome will be covered in Classics)
Age 12-13
Choice of three in depth studies from the Stuarts; the early British Empire; the empire under Victoria; Victorian Britain (The First World War will be covered next year for exam prep).
SECONDARY LEVEL
Age 13-14
(Corresponds to IGCSE 19th century core content and World War 1 depth study).
(1) Background to the 1948 revolutions. Were the Revolutions of 1848 important? How was Italy unified? How was Germany unified?
(2) Why, and with what effects, did Europeans expand their overseas empires in the 19th century? What caused the First World War?
(3) Progress of World War 1. Why was the war not over by December 1914? Why was there stalemate on the Western Front? How important were other fronts? Why did Germany ask for an armistice in 1918?
Age 14-15
(Corresponds to IGCSE 20th century core content and Germany 1918-45 Depth Study)
(1) Were the peace treaties of 1919–23 fair? To what extent was the League of Nations a success? Why had international peace collapsed by 1939?
(2) Focus on Germany 1918–45: Was the Weimar Republic doomed from the start? Why was Hitler able to dominate Germany by 1934? The Nazi regime.
(3) (optional) Who was to blame for the Cold War? How effectively did the USA contain the spread of Communism? How secure was the USSR’s control over Eastern Europe, 1948– c.1989?
Age 15-16
(Revision and exam)
(1) Depth study of choice (World War I, Germany 1918-45 or other) and choose to revise either 19th or 20th century core content
(2) Exam revision (past paper practice). Click here for exam technique tips for CIE
(3) Examinations
Far from being an optional and not particularly important subject, history deserves a prominent place in any Catholic curriculum. Classical educational guru Susan Wise Bauer, over at The Well Trained Mind website, argues that history should in fact be at the centre of any 'classical' (i.e. non-modern) curriculum since it is the subject best suited to helping a child develop essential intellectual skills. "The beauty of the classical curriculum is that it dwells on one problem, one author, or one epoch long enough to allow even the youngest student a chance to exercise his mind in a scholarly way: to make connections and to trace developments, lines of reasoning, patterns of action, recurring symbolisms, plots, and motifs. History "is simply the account of everything humanity has done, thought, invented, and dreamed about since the beginning of time," and as such encompasses all other subjects: "The literature of the past, science and its progressive discoveries, the music of the masters — all of these are historical in nature." History is certainly not some boring, optional subject with little meaning in our modern world.
Teaching history
There are many ways to approach the teaching of history. We aim to divide our study into 12 main sections: after an initial study of Ancient Greece and Rome to give some background, we focus on British History from the Celts and Romans through to the First World War. All twelve sections can be covered in a basic way from ages 7-11 (about three per year). Since the level of detail at this age is going to be limited (and vary greatly between 7 and 11), from 11-13, a selection of these areas might be revisited in more detail. Finally, from 14-16 the focus would be on modern (19th and 20th century) history in preparation for the IGCSE exam.
British History from a Catholic perspective
As far as I am aware, there is no standard textbook which treats British History (including the history of the reformation era) from any sort of Catholic perspective. At best you will find a text which is relatively neutral (this seems to be truer of more modern than older texts), in which the faith is examined in a couple of pages along with food and clothing as if it were just some curious medieval pastime. School textbooks are a filtering and summarising of higher levels of academic thought and as such reflect the most deeply entrenched and widely accepted academic orthodoxies. With regard to British History, this can generally be characterised as 'Protestant Establishment', beginning with the supposition that only once the British people threw of the shackles of medieval Catholicism could they really began to find their national identity (as a Protestant nation), i.e. from Elizabeth onwards. The Catholic faith has, since the late 1500s, been viewed as something quite alien to the British spirit, and this is perhaps unconsciously projected back even before that era by authors of school textbooks. Glancing through a few of the old 'Ladybird' style books we have, it is remarkable that whilst each one tells of the 'burnings' of Bloody Mary, not one refers to the innumerable martyrdoms under Elizabeth!
Parents simply have to educate themselves, be aware, correct errors (or balance unbalanced material), and supplement specific information as they go along. This doesn't only apply to the Tudors; it goes on right through the Stuarts an up to our present day. If you are following a study course in Christian Culture you will be providing plenty of material which balances out the peculiar British approach to the Catholic Faith as some kind of minor historical curiosity...
If you want to read for yourself an account of the reformation era, so that you can balance out the bias of the textbooks, you could do worse than to read Hilaire Belloc's 'How the Reformation Happened' or his 'Characters of the Reformation'. If you want something specifically on Britain, try William Cobbet's ' A History of the Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland'. Written by a non-Catholic, this book is generally regarded as giving a very balanced view of the Reformation era.
GCSE: There are IGCSE options available from both Edexcel and CIE. Both focus on 19th and 20th century history. Both require a deeper study of one chosen topic, and both require the interpretation of source material. Since the reforms, GCSE history is now also an option for home-educators. These exams offer a broader range of historical eras for study, with compulsory papers in British and non-British history. There are 5 exams available and the syllabus content can be a bit overwhelming to plough through if you are unaccustomed to exam syllabi!. As ever, the home ed exams wiki is very helpful.
We have put four sons in for the CIE exam (although GCSEs are now available, we have several years experience in this exam so have stuck with it thus far). The syllabus covers 19th and 20th century history and one option is examined; we cover both eras but take the exam in the 20th century paper. We only prepare half of the syllabus for the actual exam (run up to WW1, the War itself, then the collapse of peace up to 1939). This might seem very little to study, but outside of exam prep, our children study a great deal of history covering all eras. For an exam, the smaller and more contained the areas covered the better, as you can cover them really well. This exam is very predictable too; there have been no surprises in the past 8 years! The outline below is based on the CIE syllabus; obviously if you opt for a different syllabus you'll need to adjust it accordingly.
GCSE Ancient History is now available for home-educators (it used to contain a controlled assessment element). This is offered by OCR and is a straightforward exam and an excellent choice for a child who has an interest in classics. In terms of qualifications, it seems to make little difference if your child has a GCSE in Ancient or Modern history.
Overview by age
(click on the relevant section to find teaching suggestions)
PRIMARY LEVEL
Age 7- 8 c2,500BC to 500AD
(1) Ancient Greece (c 2,500 BC to 30AD)
(2) Ancient Rome (753BC to 476AD)
(3) Celtic Britain and Roman Britain (55BC to c450AD)
Age 8- 9 c500AD to 1485 (British History)
(1) Saxons and Vikings The Dark Ages c500 – 1066 AD)
(2) The Early Middle Ages 1066 -1399
(3) The Later Middle Ages 1399-1485
Age 9-10 c1485 - 1815
(1) Tudors 1485 – 1603 (Henry, Edward VI – Elizabeth: Reformation)
(2) The Stuarts (1603 – 1746) (Civil War; Restoration, Revolution; rebellion. Industrial Revolution)
(3) The early Empire (1746 - 1815) (Seven Years War; American War of Ind; French Revolution, Napoleonic wars)
Age 10-11 c1815 – 1918
(1) Britain and Ireland under Victoria: Chartists; Abolition of slavery, railways; Irish potato famine 1845; repeal of corn laws 1846; Gladstone and Disraeli; Home Rule and the Irish question. Victoria (1837 -1901)
(2) The empire under Victoria: 1854 Crimean War; 1857 Indian Mutiny leads to direct British rule; 1880-1881 First Boer War; 1899-1902 Second Boer War; Zulu War, Afghan War.
(3) WW1 What caused the War? Trench warfare; the war at sea; other fronts; the armistice
MIDDLE LEVEL
Age 11-12
Choice of three in depth studies from Roman Britain, Saxons and Vikings; Normans and Tudors (Ancient Greece and Rome will be covered in Classics)
Age 12-13
Choice of three in depth studies from the Stuarts; the early British Empire; the empire under Victoria; Victorian Britain (The First World War will be covered next year for exam prep).
SECONDARY LEVEL
Age 13-14
(Corresponds to IGCSE 19th century core content and World War 1 depth study).
(1) Background to the 1948 revolutions. Were the Revolutions of 1848 important? How was Italy unified? How was Germany unified?
(2) Why, and with what effects, did Europeans expand their overseas empires in the 19th century? What caused the First World War?
(3) Progress of World War 1. Why was the war not over by December 1914? Why was there stalemate on the Western Front? How important were other fronts? Why did Germany ask for an armistice in 1918?
Age 14-15
(Corresponds to IGCSE 20th century core content and Germany 1918-45 Depth Study)
(1) Were the peace treaties of 1919–23 fair? To what extent was the League of Nations a success? Why had international peace collapsed by 1939?
(2) Focus on Germany 1918–45: Was the Weimar Republic doomed from the start? Why was Hitler able to dominate Germany by 1934? The Nazi regime.
(3) (optional) Who was to blame for the Cold War? How effectively did the USA contain the spread of Communism? How secure was the USSR’s control over Eastern Europe, 1948– c.1989?
Age 15-16
(Revision and exam)
(1) Depth study of choice (World War I, Germany 1918-45 or other) and choose to revise either 19th or 20th century core content
(2) Exam revision (past paper practice). Click here for exam technique tips for CIE
(3) Examinations