Topic title: Power to the People (Part 2): How did the people gain their democracy?
Year group: 8
When taught: January to February
What are we learning?
- What was wrong with elections and voting in the early part of the industrial revolution
- How groups such as the Peterloo protest, Chartists and Suffragettes challenged and eventually won the right to vote and how Trade Unions developed.
- Key turning points such as the Great Reform Act and Brexit Referendum
- Key historical skills such as significance, turning points and source evaluation
Why is this important to know?
- It will help us to understand how individuals and groups made significant contributions to the development of democracy and how our rights have been gained.
- It will help us to learn further how modern-day democracy works so we can participate in the future.
- We also get to see some local history and its role in the bigger events, such as Ascot Martyrs.
- It will help us to develop key skills in history such as evaluating significance, understanding change and continuity and evaluating historical sources..
Where does this link into our past and future learning?
- This follows on naturally to our previous topic looking at the development of the power of parliament over the monarchy. This now builds to help us understand how democracy and individual rights were gained.
- It also links nicely with our recent mini-topic on the Industrial Revolution where much of this topic is also set.
- In the future you will study about democracy in the 20th century which has its foundations in this topic. It also links very directly to learning in other subjects such Citizenship and Personal Development where we look at rights, democracy and liberties.
- This topic deepens skills such as analysing significance, thinking about change and continuity and evaluating historical which are used again in future topics in Key Stage 3 and beyond.
How will we be assessed on this topic?
- There will be an assessed task looking at the impact of the Suffragettes. You will be asked to reach a judgement using historical sources to support your points
What makes a strong piece of work in this topic? What are teachers hoping to see?
- Attention to detail and use of specific examples.
- Using correctly key terms such as franchsie (see below).
- Giving balanced answers that look at different viewpoints.
- At the highest level, pupils will begin to discuss how far democracy changed over time and to make real judgements on the extent of change/significance of key events.
- An enthusiasm to read beyond the subject to gain more depth about each key event studied.
What key words are there in this topic?
What can I try if I want to stretch and challenge myself on this topic?
- Read in more depth about some of the individual events and people in this topic, such as The Chartists or Suffragettes
- There are some excellent weblinks on your knowledge organiser.
Supporting document/links:
- You will be given a knowledge organiser at the start of the topic.