The History and Politics Department at Newlands Girls’ School strives to equip our students with interesting and useful knowledge, accompanied by a set of transferable skills, that will allow them to become well-rounded individuals who are ready for the challenges that will come their way once they leave school.

To achieve this, the department has created a curriculum that is broad, interesting and challenging in places, taking in key developments in Britain’s relationship with Europe, America and the wider world from medieval times to the modern day.  Contemporary issues such as power and democracy, individual and group identity, inclusivity and persecution, religion and ideology, empire and independence, and science and superstition, are embedded in a variety of historical contexts.  This allows our students to have an awareness of history’s impact on and relevance to the modern day. 

The department also endeavours to promote the school’s core values through its curricula.  This is done by:

• supporting students to have the courage to experience new things and speak out when discussing potentially controversial topics.
• encouraging students to have a commitment to taking responsibility for their own learning through the use of homework menus, independent research projects and extra-curricular revision clinics.
• by displaying empathy and compassion for the lives of those in the past through the in-depth study of different societies, cultures and politics.

To supplement the learning that takes place within the classroom, the department recognises the value and importance of school trips as a way of getting students to see and experience history & politics in a different way.  The department has a strong history of running school trips and students have had the opportunity to visit the First World War battlefields of France & Belgium, the remnants of Cold War Berlin and the history of medicine exhibition at the Science Museum.