History
We strive to fire the girls’ imaginations and to actively involve them in some of the big questions relating to the past.
We encourage independence of thought from the start, helping the girls to ask discerning questions, evaluate evidence and using it to substantiate their arguments and judgements.
For A-Level students, this culminates in a personal project undertaken on a tutorial basis. The small teaching groups enjoyed at this level enable the girls to delve more deeply into their topics complexities and issues. The girls are encouraged to think and research in imaginative ways.
Staff work to maintain their national profile allowing the girls to benefit from their up to the minute knowledge and the added content new contacts can bring to their studies. Girls have been involved with the York Archaeological Trust, York St John University’s Film and TV archives, the Imperial War Museum, the Historical Association, the Schools History Project, the University of York and more.
We draw inspiration and interest from many sources – television programmes, the news, historical fiction, local exhibitions, theatre productions. We take trips to the Western Front, Berlin and Paris, visiting museums in the UK and hearing speakers more locally. In the process, our girls learn how to identify and challenge different interpretations of history and find out about significant ideas, events and people that have shaped our world.
Of course, history students at The Mount study a wide range of topics in their actual history lessons as they do in every school. We have chosen exam topics which aim to prepare girls for understanding the world in which they live. Every year there is something new going on and we have tried to give you a flavour of the activities outside the classroom on this webpage.
The Grünheide–York partnership
The Mount School has developed a successful partnership with Millthorpe School in York and the Phillip-Melancthon Gymnasium Schule in Grünheide, near Berlin, Germany. With the help of a grant from UK-German Connection, students are exploring what it means to be British and German, how these identities have been shaped and changed and also what they mean to us today. Our current project is called “Pride and Prejudice: in search of our national identities.” Each week we work on a different topic area, exchanging blogs and stories with each other online. There are so many opportunities in this for thinking, debating and practising our language skills! Please visit our work, comment and get involved by going to www.radiowaves.co.uk/yorkissp. At the end of this term, we have our second face-to-face meeting, this time in Berlin. We will be looking at the different faces of Berlin and meeting people who were eye-witnesses to recent historical events. We are all very excited about the possibilities the partnership brings for ‘much more than just an ordinary school trip’.
Podcasts for the Historical Association
As part of our project with Germany the historical association asked us to put some podcasts together in which students from all three partner schools discussed how a study of history has influenced their sense of national identity and their understanding of each others’ national identities. You can hear these at the Student Zone on www.history.org.uk.
Why does History matter to you?
We are very pleased to be hosting and competing once again, in the Historical Association’s Great Young Historians debate. Later this term, our students will present their case in a balloon debate format, against students from other schools in the first round of this nationwide competition.
Historical Fiction competition – Summer 2011
We were all very proud that Isobel Sygrove and Hannah Talbot were winners in this competition. They both wrote super stories set in Roman York and the judges were very impressed.
Investigating York
We live and work in such a beautiful and fascinating city and we think all our students should really engage with it. Year 7 have a lesson each week called Investigating York and we take the opportunity to get out and about in the city as much as possible. Not only do we investigate aspects of York’s past, we learn how it has shaped the way the city is today. We get involved with contemporary issues and debates in the city and find out how our city functions. As we make our investigations we get the chance to develop skills which help us achieve in school, through independent thinking, good team-work and actively learning how to perform research.
Conflict resolution education
We have worked with the Imperial War Museum and www.radiowaves.co.uk several times over the last few years. Recently Year 11 spent some time thinking about how conflict can be resolved and what makes it possible. They heard from an eye-witness to the Bosnian conflict and then researched specific aspects of the conflict and reported their findings to camera.