Click here for the History Curriculum Map

The Key Stage 3 curriculum has been carefully curated with our departmental intent in mind. This curriculum is reviewed each year to ensure that it meets our goals and the needs of our students, and to keep up-to-date with the latest developments in the History education community. Our curriculum is based around enquiry questions which promote historical curiosity and develop students’ ability across all six of the second-order concepts:

• Chronological understanding
• Cause and consequence
• Change and continuity
• Significance
• Diversity
• Interpretations

In Year 7, students will study:

The Norman Conquest:

• What is History?
  • Enquiries: How we can talk about the past and whether life always improves over time.
• Why was England a battlefield in 1066?
  • Enquiries: The contenders to be King of England in 1066, why sources from the time disagree about the Battle of Hastings, how King William I conquered the rest of England and what the consequences of the Harrying of the North were.
• In 1066 was ‘one kind of England annihilated and another set up in its place’?
  • Enquiries: The impact the Normans had on ordinary people’s lives, to what extent the Norman Conquest was a change for the better for people living at the time and whether historian Marc Morris was right to call the Conquest ‘the single most important event in English history’.

Medieval England:

• What was life in the Middle Ages really like?
  • Enquiries: Whether Medieval village life was really ‘dirty, boring and treacherous’, whether the Medieval period was really an ‘age of faith’, how much ‘doom paintings’ reveal about Medieval attitudes to the afterlife and why historians disagree so much about the Crusades.
• How important were England’s Medieval Queens?
  • Enquiries: Why historians have labelled 1135-53 in England as ‘The Anarchy’ and what the life of Eleanor of Aquitaine reveals about the Medieval world.
• Why have historians disagreed about whether King John was a villain?
  • Enquiries: Whether John was really a bad King and whether he has always been seen as a villain.
• Was 1348 the end of the world?
  • Enquiries: Why people believed that 1348 was the end of the world, how the village of Walsham responded to the Black Death and why the consequences of the plague are a story of changing histories.
• Did revolting peasants in 1381 change anything?
  • Enquiries: Why the peasants were revolting in 1381 and whether the Peasants’ Revolt changed anything.
• How was power challenged in the Medieval period?
  • Enquiries: Why the authority of monarchs was challenged in the Medieval period and what the Wars of the Roses reveal about power and instability in 15^th century England.

The Reformation:

• Why did King Henry VIII ‘break with Rome’?
  • Enquiries: Why Martin Luther’s ideas went viral and whether historian Suzannah Lipscomb was right to call Henry VIII ‘a tyrant and a monster’.
• How far did religion change the lives of ordinary people in 16^th century England?
  • Enquiries: Why the inside of St. Winifred’s Church was vandalised in the 1500s, what changed in the village of Morebath between 1520 and 1574, what connected Elizabeth and Elizabethans to wider worlds and how far ordinary people were really impacted by the Reformation.
• What did it mean to live in Tudor England?
  • Enquiries: What a museum exhibition on the Elizabethan poor should show and what Black people were doing in Tudor England.

Changing Minds:

• Why was ‘the world turned upside down’ in the 1640s?
  • Enquiry: Why England went to war with itself in 1642.
• Why did it take 250 years for a statue of Oliver Cromwell to be placed outside Parliament?
  • Enquiries: Whether Oliver Cromwell was really a bloody murderer and why Cromwell has been remembered in different ways.
• Why were so many women accused of witchcraft?
  • Enquiries: Why Temperance Lloyd was executed in 1682 and why so many Scottish women were accused of witchcraft in the 17^th century.
• How did the location of power change in 18^th century Britain?
  • Enquiries: Whether Howard Nenner is right that the role of the monarchy in the 18^th century represented ‘a major shift in English political thought’ and whether Blackadder was right about 18^th century elections.

In Year 8, students will study:

The Industrial Revolution:

• How did the Industrial Revolution change Britain?
  • Enquiries: Why so many people were on the move between 1750 and 1900 and whether Richard Arkwright deserves his place in the National Portrait Gallery.
• What were the consequences of industrialisation on ordinary lives?
  • Enquiries: Whether E.P. Thompson is right to label Victorian child labour ‘one of the most shameful events in our history’ and why cities were so unhealthy.
• How far did life for ordinary Britons change for the better as a result of the Industrial Revolution?
  • Enquiries: How far public health in Britain had changed for the better by 1900, what the music hall can tell us about women in Victorian society and what Josephine Butler was fighting for.

Empire:

• Why did ‘the greatest experiment in human terror of the modern era’ begin?
  • Enquiries: How the Columbian Exchange reshaped the ‘old’ and ‘new’ worlds and why Barbadian historian Hilary Beckles described British colonisation in the Caribbean as ‘the greatest experiment in human terror of the modern era’.
• Why have different people told different stories about British rule in India?
  • Enquiries: How a British company began an Empire, whether John D. Clare got it right about the Indian Rebellion, why Mahatma Gandhi said ‘we shall either free India or die in the attempt’ and why historian Yasmin Khan said that the British government was ‘tragically unconcerned with human safety’ in 1947.
• Why is Ireland split in two?
  • Enquiries: Whether Tony Blair was right to apologise for Ireland’s ‘Great Hunger’ of 1845 and why Ireland is split in two.
• How should we tell the story of the British Empire?
  • Enquiries: How racism helps to explain the British colonisation of Africa, if the legacy of the British Empire is responsible for ‘much of the instability in the world’ and whether the British Museum should return the Benin Bronzes.

The Slave Trade:

• What took the Kingdom of Benin from ‘golden age’ to slave trade?
  • Enquiries: If it is true that Benin enjoyed a ‘golden age’ during the 15^th and 16^th centuries, whether the Obas of Benin really ruled through superstition and fear and why the Obas of Benin participated in the slave trade.
• How can we find out about people’s experiences of the slave trade?
  • Enquiries: How much we can learn from Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua’s slave trade narrative, how we can find out about the Middle Passage and how enslaved people resisted and rebelled.
• Why was the slave trade abolished?
  • Enquiries: Why the slave trade was abolished and why historians have disagreed about the reasons for abolition.
• Why did Martin Luther King still ‘have a dream’ one hundred years after slavery ended in the USA?
  • Enquiries: Why Martin Luther King still had a ‘dream’ one hundred years after slaver ended in the USA, whether life was any better in the Deep South following Emancipation and what the key turning points in the US Civil Rights Movement were.

Towards Democracy:

• What was the driving force for riots and reforms in the 1800s?
  • Enquiries: When Britain was closest to revolution between 1815 and 1832, whether the Chartists were revolutionaries and to what extent political change was caused by riots and rebels in the 19^th century.
• Is Dr Fern Riddell right to describe the Suffragettes as terrorists?
  • Enquiries: Why ‘votes for women: death in ten minutes’ was painted on the side of a bomb in 1913, why Kitty Marion was force-fed 232 times in a single day, how women got the vote and whether Dr Fern Riddell is right to describe the Suffragettes as terrorists.

World War One:

• How were two bullets responsible for twenty million deaths?
  • Enquiry: Whether the world went to war by accident or by choice in 1914.
• Were ‘lions’ really led by ‘donkeys’ on the Western Front?
  • Enquiries: How effective wartime propaganda was, why Europe was divided by four hundred miles of trenches by the end of 1914, what trench warfare was really like, why 306 British soldiers were executed for desertion and cowardice during World War One and whether ‘lions’ were really led by ‘donkeys’.
• How can we find out about different experiences of World War One?
  • Enquiries: What kinds of understanding letters and poems can give us about the Western Front and how the people of the British Empire experienced the First World War.

Revolutionary Russia:

• Why were there two revolutions in Russia in 1917?
  • Enquiries: Why Russia was so difficult to rule, how the Tsar survived the 1905 Revolution, whether historian Richard Pipes was right to say that the 1905 Revolution gave Russia ‘nothing more than a breathing spell, why historians disagree about the downfall of Tsarism in February 1917 and why the Bolsheviks were able to seize power in October 1917.
• Did Communism benefit the Russian people?
  • Enquiries: How we should judge Lenin and how far Stalinism transformed the lives of the Russian people.

The Rise of Nazism:

• How did Adolf Hitler gain control of Germany?
  • Enquiries: Whether a good peace was made in Paris, what impact the First World War had on Germany and how Adolf Hitler gained control.
• What was the most effective method used to control the people in Nazi Germany?
  • Enquiries: Why propaganda was so important to the Nazis, why terror was so important to the Nazis and why women and children were so important to the Nazis.

In Year 9, students will study:

World War Two:

• Why do historians disagree about the causes of World War Two?
  • Enquiries: Whether World War Two was ‘Hitler’s war’, how far the actions of Britain can help us explain the causes of World War Two and whether historian Richard J. Evans was right to say that ‘war had been the objective of the Third Reich and its leaders from the moment they came to power in 1933.’
• What was the key turning point for the Allies in World War Two?
  • Enquiries: What the key turning point for the Allies in World War Two was and whether the dropping of the atomic bombs in 1945 can be justified.
• Why is it so difficult to tell whether there was a ‘Blitz Spirit’?
  • Enquiries: What stories we should tell of the experiences of evacuated children and whether the British people really did ‘keep calm and carry on’.

The Holocaust:

• Who were the Jewish people of Europe before the Second World War?
  • Enquiries: How original artefacts can enrich our understanding of the Holocaust and who the Jewish people of Europe before the Second World War were.
• What was the Holocaust and why did it happen?
  • Enquiries: Unlocking antisemitism and what the Holocaust was.
• How did people respond to the Holocaust?
  • Enquiries: What story of ‘resistance’ we want to tell, how widespread responsibility for the Holocaust was, what the British response to the unfolding genocide in Europe during the Second World War was and what it meant to ‘survive’ the Holocaust.

British Social History, 1945 – Present:

• How successfully was women’s liberation achieved in the 20^th century?
  • Enquiries: What impact the welfare state had on people’s lives after World War Two and how successful the women’s liberation movement was.
• Why is the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights still ongoing?
  • Enquiries: Why the decriminalisation of homosexuality was not the end of the story for LGBTQ+ people and how the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights got fiercer in the 1980s and 1990s.
• How should we write the history of Black communities in Britain since 1948?
  • Enquiries: How important Black leadership was in the growth of a Black community in Bristol from 1960-80 and why Brixton was described as the ‘capital of Black Britain’ between 1948 and 1990.

Conflict in the Modern World:

• What was the legacy of the Second World War?
  • Enquiries: Why the end of World War Two did not bring an end to conflict and why the Cold War began.
• How did the Cold War turn hot in Asia?
  • Enquiries: Why Korea became a Cold War battlefield, how close the world came to ending in October 1962, why the USA got involved in Vietnam, why the Vietnam War was so controversial and who really won the Vietnam War.
• Why did the Soviet Union collapse in 1991?
  • Enquiries: Why Détente failed in the 1970s and 1980s and why the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991.

9/11:

• How can we explain the roots of the 9/11 terrorist attacks?
  • Enquiries: How early Christian and Muslim relations can help us to explain why 9/11 happened, what impact the First World War had on the Middle East, how Arab-Israeli conflicts and US-Arab tensions can help us to explain why 9/11 happened, how US foreign policy can help us to explain why 9/11 happened and how the growth of al-Qaeda can help us to explain why 9/11 happened.

GCSE Transition

• Medieval Medicine
  • Enquiries: Why there was continuity in ideas about the causes of disease in the Medieval period, how beliefs about the causes of disease in the Middle Ages influenced ideas about treatments and prevention of illness, how effective Medieval ‘medics’ were and how ideas influenced responses to the Black Death.
• Renaissance Medicine
  • Enquiries: Change and continuity in ideas about the causes of disease during the Medical Renaissance, continuity in approaches to prevention, treatment and care, the influence of William Harvey and approaches to prevention and treatment during the Great Plague of 1665.

Assessment, Marking and Feedback 

In each year of study, students in Key Stage 3 will sit five assessments. In Year 9 this will be four assessments, with a final assessed piece of work coming when students begin the GCSE transition in Term 6.

These assessments will not just test students on what they have learned recently, but also will interleave with previously-studied content, as in History content cannot be learnt in isolation but must be interwoven into students’ narratives of the past. Assessments will also provide students with the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding in a range of ways: factual knowledge checkers, Tier 3 vocabulary questions, chronological ordering, short-answer responses and extended essay questions. Assessments will be given a numerical mark, with grade boundaries shared with all students so that there is transparency and consistency between teachers. An example of a Key Stage 3 assessment template can be seen below, although assessments will vary:

The department takes an evidence-informed approach to teaching and learning, including in terms of how to provide feedback to our learners. The Education Endowment Foundation’s report into Teacher Feedback to Improve Pupil Learning includes the following principles as recommendations:

• Feedback should focus on moving learning forward, targeting the specific learning gaps that pupils exhibit. Specifically, high quality feedback may focus on the task, subject, and self-regulation strategies.
• Teachers should also provide opportunities for pupils to use feedback. Only then will the feedback loop be closed so that pupil learning can progress.

The primary method of assessment and feedback in History lessons is formative, taking place each and every lesson through strategies such as pair or group discussion, teacher questioning and circulation, starters and plenaries. It is vital to build a strong sense of the formative nature of feedback – whereby advice is offered to move students forwards – as a positive way to improve and develop the understanding and skills they command.

When students have completed assessed pieces of work, this will be returned to them within two weeks including feedback in line with the above principles. When reviewing this work in order to provide feedback, teachers will also review the work completed in exercise books. Exercise books are working documents and teachers will monitor them to ensure that our high expectations are being maintained, but are not required to mark them outside of assessments. When feedback on assessments is provided to students, work in exercise books will be reviewed to ascertain strengths, areas for development and common misconceptions. Students will then be expected to act on this in order to close the feedback loop and demonstrate an improvement in their knowledge and understanding – ensuring that all assessments serve as tools to enhance learning. This may be done in a number of ways, with teachers free to follow this departmental principle in whichever way best suits the needs of their class, but may include feedback sheets such as the below:

Useful External Links:

Anglo-Saxon England: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zp6xsbk/articles/zphysk7

The Norman Conquest: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zshtyrd

William’s control of England: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zvhjdp3

Medieval society, life and religion: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zbn7jsg

The Crusades: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zgs2qfr

Thomas Becket: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zrfm7yc/articles/zmc6m39

King John and Magna Carta: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zcyx2v4/articles/zcg66g8

Medieval Islamic civilisations: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z4v6m39/articles/zw8nhcw

The Black Death: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zqjwxnb/articles/zdkssk7

The Peasants’ Revolt: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z93txbk/articles/zyb77yc

The Wars of the Roses: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zndyrmn/articles/zyfr8p3

The Tudors: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zwcsp4j

The English Civil War: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zk4cwmn

The Great Plague of 1665: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z8gptrd/articles/zcwssk7

The Great Fire of London: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zswvcxs/articles/z7j6s82

Industrial Revolution: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zm7qtfr/articles/z6kg3j6

The Victorians: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zq9ysk7/articles/zhj9cmn

The British Empire: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z7kvf82

The transatlantic slave trade: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z2qj6sg

Science, progress and health: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zfj346f

The fight for female suffrage: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zxwg3j6

World War One: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z4crd2p

The Treaty of Versailles: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z94cwmn/articles/zwj9cmn

World War Two and the Holocaust: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zk94jxs

The end of Empire: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z8dfvwx

Post-war migration from Africa, the Caribbean and Asia: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zdwy3j6

The Cold War: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/z8k9q6f

The struggles against racism and for human rights: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zh74r2p

The civil rights movement in America: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zgb39j6

Content 

Students study the Edexcel GCSE (9-1) History specification. They complete the following units, examined with three papers at the end of Year 11:

Paper 1:

Thematic study and historic environment: Medicine in Britain, c1250-present and the British sector of the Western Front, 1914-18: injuries, treatment and the trenches (30% of the qualification).

• c1250-c1500: Medicine in Medieval England.
• c1500-c1700: The Medical Renaissance in England.
• c1700-c1900: Medicine in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain.
• c1900-present: Medicine in modern Britain.

Within each of these time periods students explore ideas about the cause of disease and illness, approaches to prevention and treatment, and case studies of key individuals and attempts to prevent the spread of epidemics.

• The British sector of the Western Front, 1914-18: injuries, treatment and the trenches.

Paper 2:

British depth study: Early Elizabethan England, 1558-88 (20% of the qualification).

• The situation on Elizabeth’s accession.
• The ‘settlement’ of religion.
• Challenge to the religious settlement.
• The problem of Mary, Queen of Scots.
• Plots and revolts at home.
• Relations with Spain.
• Outbreak of war with Spain, 1585-88.
• The Armada.
• Education and leisure.
• The ‘problem’ of the poor.
• Exploration and voyages of discovery.
• Raleigh and Virginia.

Period study: Superpower relations and the Cold War, 1941-91 (20% of the qualification).

• Early tension between East and West.
• The development of the Cold War.
• The Cold War intensifies.
• The Berlin Wall.
• The Cuban Missile Crisis.
• The Prague Spring.
• Attempts to reduce tension between East and West.
• The ‘Second Cold War’.
• The collapse of Soviet control of Eastern Europe.

Paper 3:

Modern depth study: Weimar and Nazi Germany, 1918-39 (30% of the qualification).

• The origins of the Weimar Republic, 1918-19.
• The early challenges to the Weimar Republic, 1919-23.
• The recovery of the Republic, 1924-29.
• Changes in society, 1924-29.
• The early development of the Nazi Party, 1920-22.
• The Munich Putsch and the lean years, 1923-29.
• The growth in support for the Nazis, 1929-32.
• How Hitler became Chancellor, 1932-33.
• The creation of a dictatorship, 1933-34.
• The police state.
• Controlling and influencing attitudes.
• Opposition, resistance and conformity.
• Nazi policies towards women.
• Nazi policies towards the young.
• Employment and living standards.
• The persecution of minorities.

Assessment, Marking and Feedback 

There are four assessment objectives for the Edexcel (9-1) GCSE:

AO1: Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the key features and characteristics of the periods studied (35%).

AO2: Explain and analyse historical events and periods studied using second-order historical concepts (35%).

AO3: Analyse, evaluate and use sources (contemporary to the period) to make substantiated judgements, in the context of historical events studied (15%).

AO4: Analyse, evaluate and make substantiated judgements about interpretations (including how and why interpretations may differ) in the context of historical events studied (15%).

The department takes an evidence-informed approach to teaching and learning, including in terms of how to provide feedback to our learners. The Education Endowment Foundation’s report into Teacher Feedback to Improve Pupil Learning includes the following principles as recommendations:

• Feedback should focus on moving learning forward, targeting the specific learning gaps that pupils exhibit. Specifically, high quality feedback may focus on the task, subject, and self-regulation strategies.
• Teachers should also provide opportunities for pupils to use feedback. Only then will the feedback loop be closed so that pupil learning can progress.

The primary method of assessment and feedback in History lessons is formative, taking place each and every lesson through strategies such as pair or group discussion, teacher questioning and circulation, starters and plenaries. It is vital to build a strong sense of the formative nature of feedback – whereby advice is offered to move students forwards – as a positive way to improve and develop the understanding and skills they command.

When students have completed assessed pieces of work, this will be returned to them within two weeks including feedback in line with the above principles. When reviewing this work in order to provide feedback, teachers will also review the work completed in exercise books. Exercise books are working documents and teachers will monitor them to ensure that our high expectations are being maintained, but are not required to mark them outside of assessments. When feedback on assessments is provided to students, work in exercise books will be reviewed to ascertain strengths, areas for development and common misconceptions. Students will then be expected to act on this in order to close the feedback loop and demonstrate an improvement in their knowledge and understanding – ensuring that all assessments serve as tools to enhance learning. This may be done in a number of ways, with teachers free to follow this departmental principle in whichever way best suits the needs of their class. Methods utilised may include feedback sheets such as the example in the Key Stage 3 History section of this website, or other methods at the discretion of the teacher. Students will be made aware of how their work lines up against the GCSE assessment criteria and what grade they are currently working at.

Specification

Please click here for the Edexcel GCSE History specification.

For ease of use, once you download the document, head to the following pages:

• Pages 15, 16 and 17 – Medicine
• Pages 32, 33 – Elizabeth I
• Pages 40, 41 – Superpower Relations and the Cold War

Pages 48, 49 – Germany

Content 

Students study the Edexcel A Level History specification. They complete the following units, examined with three papers at the end of Year 13:

Paper 1:

Breadth study with interpretations: Germany and West Germany, 1918-89 (30% of the qualification).

• Political and governmental change, 1918-89.
• Opposition, control and consent, 1918-89.
• Economic development and policies, 1918-89.
• Aspects of life in Germany and West Germany, 1918-89.
• Historical interpretations: How far was Hitler’s foreign policy responsible for the Second World War?

Paper 2:

Depth study: The rise and fall of fascism in Italy, c1911-46 (20% of the qualification).

• The liberal state, c1911-18.
• The rise of Mussolini and the creation of a Fascist dictatorship, 1919-26.
• The Fascist state, 1925-40.
• Challenges to, and the fall of, the Fascist state, c1935-46.

Paper 3:

Themes in breadth with aspects in depth: Rebellion and disorder under the Tudors, 1485-1603 (30% of the qualification).

• Chances in governance at the centre.
• Gaining the co-operation of the localities.
• Challenging the succession, 1485-1499.
• Challenging religious changes, 1533-1537.
• Agrarian discontent: Kett’s rebellion 1549.
• The revolt of the northern earls, 1569-1570.
• Tyrone’s rebellion, 1594-1603.

Coursework:

20% of the qualification.

Assessment, Marking and Feedback 

There are three assessment objectives for the Edexcel A Level:

AO1: Demonstrate, organise and communicate knowledge and understanding to analyse and evaluate the key features related to the periods studied, making substantiated judgements and exploring concepts, as relevant, of cause, consequence, change, continuity, similarity, difference and significance (55%).

AO2: Analyse and evaluate appropriate source material, primary and/or contemporary to the period, within its historical context (20%).

AO3: Analyse and evaluate, in relation to the historical context, different ways in which aspects of the past have been interpreted (25%).

The department takes an evidence-informed approach to teaching and learning, including in terms of how to provide feedback to our learners. The Education Endowment Foundation’s report into Teacher Feedback to Improve Pupil Learning includes the following principles as recommendations:

• Feedback should focus on moving learning forward, targeting the specific learning gaps that pupils exhibit. Specifically, high quality feedback may focus on the task, subject, and self-regulation strategies.
• Teachers should also provide opportunities for pupils to use feedback. Only then will the feedback loop be closed so that pupil learning can progress.

The primary method of assessment and feedback in History lessons is formative, taking place each and every lesson through strategies such as pair or group discussion, teacher questioning and circulation, starters and plenaries. It is vital to build a strong sense of the formative nature of feedback – whereby advice is offered to move students forwards – as a positive way to improve and develop the understanding and skills they command.

When students have completed assessed pieces of work, this will be returned to them within two weeks including feedback in line with the above principles. Students will then be expected to act on this in order to close the feedback loop and demonstrate an improvement in their knowledge and understanding – ensuring that all assessments serve as tools to enhance learning. Students will be made aware of how their work lines up against the A Level assessment criteria and what grade they are currently working at.

Specification 

Please click here for the Edexcel A Level History specification.

For ease of use, once you download the document, head to the following pages:

• Pages 64, 65 – Germany and West Germany, 1918-89
• Page 66 – The Rise and Fall of Fascism in Italy, c1911-46
• Page 82 – Rebellion and Disorder under the Tudors
• Pages 113 onwards – Coursework guidance

Advice

Students who are successful in GCSE and A Level History are willing to extend their knowledge and deepen their understanding through wider reading. It is particularly important that students independently revisit material covered in class so as to ensure they have a consummate command of all units by the end of the course. Students need to develop efficient note-making systems and to be well-organised. They also need to be ready to offer ideas and insights in class as the quality of discussions and debates make a significant contribution to the achievement of the class. Resilience will also be critical, as both GCSE and A Level History are challenging and students must recognise that progress will come from responding to setbacks and feedback with a positive mindset and determination to improve. Proactively seeking help is critical.

Past papers

Teachers will share GCSE and A Level past papers with students on Google Classroom.

Useful external links:

GCSE Medicine:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zx3jwnb/revision/1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zfkt6g8/revision/1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zktrg7h/revision/1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zxbqjsg/revision/1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z3qfsk7/revision/1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z8p4cmn/revision/1

GCSE Elizabeth:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zyr6bk7/revision/1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zy3x39q/revision/1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zg68tyc/revision/1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zqcn4j6/revision/1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z3nqsg8/revision/1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zphwp39/revision/1

GCSE Superpower Relations:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z8fwhv4/revision/1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z3h9mnb/revision/1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zyt42p3/revision/1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z89hg82/revision/1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zwp86fr/revision/1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zp9prdm/revision/1

GCSE Weimar and Nazi Germany:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zt9v7hv/revision/1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z9y64j6/revision/1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/z3bp82p/revision/1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zsvhk7h/revision/1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zqrfj6f/revision/1

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zxj4hv4/revision/1

Potential careers

Politics, journalism, archivist, curation, media, central and local government, civil service, international organisations, business, teaching.

For an excellent overview of graduate opportunities, see the following:

https://www.history.org.uk/student/resource/2914/careers-in-history

Clubs

There is a weekly Debate Club, open to students in Key Stage 3 and run by 6th Form subject prefects. This is a space where students can bring their research to form evidence-based arguments, developing their oracy and confidence.

There is also a weekly GCSE and A Level History Film Club for students in Years 10 and above.

Trips and visits 

The History and Politics department recognises the importance of out-of-school enrichment opportunities in extending learning. The trips calendar changes annually depending on what opportunities are available. Previous visits have included:

• The Ypres Salient (linked to a study of World War One).
• The Imperial War Museum (linked to a study of World War Two and the Holocaust).
• The Centre for Experimental Military Archaeology (linked to a GCSE study of medicine and surgery on the Western Front).
• Hampton Court (linked to an A Level study of Tudor rebellions).
• Berlin (linked to an A Level study of Germany and West Germany).