History KS3

On this page

• History KS3 Textbooks chosen
• Why did we choose these textbooks?

Having comprehensively explored pre 1066 history, we decided in September 2022 it was time to move onto the post-1066 era which is when the KS3 history national curriculum kicks in. Aggie especially was ready to move onto a more advanced resource and wanted to mark her transition into year 7 with a new style of textbook.

The girls are already aware of what is to come post-1066 thanks to hours of watching Horrible Histories, visiting lots of historical sites and reading books about it. They definitely lack knowledge of the detail though so this is where the textbooks will come in handy to fill in the gaps. They also provide us with a good structure to follow and pull us back to a chronological approach when we go off on our usual random tangents!

History KS3 Textbooks chosen

After what felt like hours of research, we have chosen the Aaron Wilkes series of KS3 history books published by Oxford University Press as our base. There are three main books in the series and we’re planning on spending roughly one academic year on each book:

• Invasion, Plague and Murder: Britain 1066-1558
• Revolution, Industry and Empire: Britain 1558-1901
• Technology, War and Independence: 1901 – Present Day

New for 2023 and 2024 are some additional depth studies which cover areas which are often neglected in history. I’ve just bought the African Kingdoms and The British Empire books so I’ll let you know what we think about these shortly.

• African Kingdoms: West Africa Student Book (KS3 History Depth Study)
• Migration Nation Student Book Second Edition (KS3 History Depth Study)
• Fight for Rights in Modern Britain Student Book (KS3 History Depth Study)
• The British Empire Student Book Second Edition (KS3 History Depth Study)

Why did we choose these textbooks?

The content

These books comprehensively cover 1066 to the present day. There is also a good section on the lead up to 1066 which served as good revision for us but would be a great introduction if you’ve not learned much British history before.

The books are broken down into clearly defined chapters and we particularly love the fact that they look at the impact of events and changes on all parts of society.

Layout and Looks

The pages are very colourful with plenty of pictures, cartoons and maps and the text is broken down into small paragraphs under headings. There is a lot of content on each double page. For some it may be too much but we love having so much to read and look at. These textbooks are anything but boring!

Questions

There are great questions on every page which make you really think about the content. We have spent a lot of time discussing our answers as a lot of the time there is no right or wrong answer; you just have to make sure you have the evidence to back up your argument.

At the end of each chapter there is a Quick Knowledge Quiz and a Literacy Focus section which look at the general writing skills you need in history eg note taking, correctly spelt vocab.

History Mystery

In each book there are a couple of History Mysteries which we’ve loved. These get you to investigate a controversial, challenging or intriguing aspect of history. In the first book, we’ve looked at how did King Harold really die at the Battle of Hastings and what really happened to the Princes in the tower?

The girls really enjoyed looking at these and it definitely opened their eyes to the different conclusions you can reach depending on which sources you use. This is proper history to us!

Depth Study

Each book has one depth study which is the chance to extend and deepen your understanding of key moments in history. These have been so interesting and have led us to look well beyond the textbook on areas that we’ve found particularly interesting.

History skills

This is the area which makes these books so special! These books teach the reader to be an active historian rather than just a fact-spouter. They work on history writing skills right from the beginning and the reader is introduced straight away to sources (created from the period) and interpretations (created after the event) and how to analyse and use these.

I know Aggie will definitely go on to do GCSE History (the jury is still out on Peggy) and these books will provide her with an excellent grounding in the skills she’ll need. These books will also support us parents in getting ready for the GCSE too!

Every chapter has a step-by-step guide to one of six particular history writing skills which are vital to the GCSE:

• Continuity and change
• Causation and consequences
• Narrative accounts
• Interpretation and source analysis
• Significance
• Similarities and differences

These guides are SUPERB! It’s worth buying these books just for these. We’ve not come across such accessible resources on this and they massively demystify the approach to long GSCE questions which can make self-study seem very daunting. By working on these skills from KS2/3 age, it makes them second-nature well before the time it really matters.

The guides take you through the process of how to approach the big questions and really get the reader to interpret and analyse what they’ve learned and read. You then have a go to produce your own answer to the question. I’ve been so impressed with the pieces of writing Aggie has produced at the end of these sections; the guides definitely work!

I also love the fact that these guides are repeated in each of the three textbooks, just using different historical content. Aggie has worked on these guides in the first book but I didn’t feel Peggy was quite ready for them. That’s not a problem though as she can work through the guides in the second book whilst her sister brushes up on the skills too.

So, these books are completely perfect….

Nope! No textbook ever is but these are as close to perfect for us as we could find.

These books lend themselves to discussion and plenty of it. We work through them together and discuss as we go. They make you think for yourself and encourage you to form your own opinions; these opinions then need to be explored and challenged. I can’t therefore imagine these books being used by a child independently with no parental input. There are answers for the more fact-based questions in the Planning Guide but this costs £96. This also won’t tell the child if their opinion has been well argued.

If you opt for this textbook, you’ll need to work with the child to get the most out of it. That’s how we approach history so for us this is perfect; but this won’t be the case for everyone.