Thomas Hardye School
We are a department of ten highly dedicated teachers who strive continuously to make our history lessons relevant, exciting and rigorous for students throughout the school. Our love and enduring passion for our subject means that we are able to enthuse our students to study history at school and beyond. We believe that it is highly important that we, as teachers, keep our knowledge up-to-date.
We are committed to extending our students' learning beyond the classroom. AS students have had the opportunity to visit the Houses of Parliament and the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms. In the past ten years our department has also travelled further afield to Belgium, Germany, Poland and the USA. This year is no exception, with separate trips planned to two different European destinations.
Furthermore, we invite individuals and organisations in to school to enhance our students’ knowledge and understanding. We have close links with Bovington Tank Museum, use the National Archives for video conferencing and have had a Native American Family lead workshops about their history and culture.
Our Humanities Specialist College gave us the opportunity to invite Dr. David Starkey and Richard Holmes in to give community lectures and to work with A-level students. This year we look forward to visits from Linda Colley and Blair Warden.
A result of being part of the Schools Programme is that it has furthered our resolve to champion history within the school curriculum. We believe in teaching topics that give students access to history from different cultures and topics that maybe don’t find their way in to many school history departments. For A2 coursework we are studying 100 years of the British Empire, with a particular focus on Indian and African historical perspectives. In year 9, we teach Chinese history and, rather than focusing on European dictators, students will learn about dictatorships past and present from all around the globe. We are also challenging our students to read more by providing them with lists of historical fiction and non fiction, and giving books a much higher profile.
Thomas Hardye School is a school for pupils aged 13-18, based in Dorset.