With their first graduating class starting 12th grade next year, Bedford High School’s social studies department is making some needed upgrades to its curriculum.

Starting next fall, the social studies department will start a new European history course for ninth-grade students. The goal is for teachers to be able to teach new concepts and themes to students and re-organize some of the topics taught before.

The current curriculum has students taking American history classes in seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th grade. Starting a new European history class will not only break up the overlap but help students build on the historical themes they learned in lower grades.

“Some of it is reordering,” said Diane Babb, Dean of Humanities. “So it’s not as much new curriculum as it is reordering it.”

The major theme of the course will be roots of thought. Students will study the foundations of political, scientific, religious, economic and artistic ideas in Europe. They will look at events like the Reformation and the French Revolution and see how these events have shaped European culture.

“We’ve been working with (the current curriculum) the last few years,” said Babb. “At the end of the day, it amounted to too much overlap.”

Because Bedford uses a team-teaching technique in classes, the English department will also make some changes to coincide with social studies.

Babb says both English and social studies teachers are looking forward to the upcoming changes.

“The ninth-grade teachers are thrilled,” she said. “(The 10th- and 11th-grade teachers) are seeing the gap really hindering students.”

Babb and Assistant Superintendent Chip McGee presented the changes to the Bedford School Board on May 26. The changes are not expected to be expensive or have a negative effect on the budget for next year.

Though the change is only affecting ninth-grade students this year, 10th and 11th grade curriculum may change in the upcoming years, according to Babb.