Humanities – History

Black History Month – October

During October, we ran a competition for Black History Month. The challenge was to present research on a significant person or group of colour from history. Congratulations to Mysha F in 8B on her winning project.

Battle of Stamford Bridge

As part of their studies, some of our year 7s became creative in representing the Battle of Stamford Bridge. They were able to recycle materials to represent some the equipment used.

The Trial & Execution of Charles I.

Fantastic work from Mysha F and Ayat W in 8B who, when making gingerbread men, remembered what they had learnt in history about Charles I fate at the end of the English Civil War. The similarities are uncanny.

Historical Association – Write your own historical fiction competition 2025

Next term, BISAK will be participating in the Historical Association’s Historical Fiction writing competition. You can take a look at some of last year’s winning entries here.

There will be prizes for the winning entries for each year group and for an overall winner for the school. The best five entries will be entered to the Historical Association’s competition, where even more prizes await.

We will accept entries until the 27^th of March.

What are the judges looking for?

Stories in each category are shortlisted by panels of student readers where possible. The shortlist is then judged by our primary and secondary expert panels. Judges are looking for:

- Historical accuracy – even down to the choice of names characters are given and any props additional to the historical setting. Research is key!
- A riveting read with a good plot!
- A convincing story – i.e. is it plausible that these events and/or this character could have existed at the time?
- Use of historical knowledge to feed the plot, context and character
- Effective use of historical vocabulary and literary conventions, including where dialogue is included in the story
- Creative and interesting perspectives of storytelling. In the past we have received an entry telling the story of a siege from the perspective of the castle!
- We recommend a minimum story length of 400 words and a maximum of 3500 words. We regret that entries that go over this word limit may not be considered.