History Yearly Overviews

GCSE History

Course Title: History 
Exam Board: AQA
Qualification: GCSE

About the Course

“Those who do not learn History are doomed to repeat it”. George Santayana

History teaches us lessons about past, present and the future, allowing us to understand the world we live in. History also teaches us valuable skills including:

• To be critical of the world we live in.
• Building strong arguments.
• Understand views of the world.
• How to communicate effectively.
   

History is a well-respected subject and studying it opens the doors to further study and many future professions and careers, not just history!

Assessment Overview

The GCSE course covers a wide range of content that will challenge and engage students that choose History at GCSE. The GCSE History content comprises the following elements:

• one period study
• one thematic study
• one wider world depth study
• one British depth study including the historic environment.

It will be assessed through two written examinations which will each be two areas in length.

Paper 1: In Paper One students will undertake their Period study: Germany, 1890–1945: Democracy and dictatorship and their Wider World Depth Study Conflict and tension: The First World War, 1894–1918.

Germany, 1890–1945: Democracy and dictatorship:
This period study focuses on the development of Germany during a turbulent half century of change. It was a period of democracy and dictatorship – the development and collapse of democracy and the rise and fall of Nazism.

Students will study the political, economic, social and cultural aspects of these two developments and the role ideas played in influencing change. They will also look at the role of key individuals and groups in shaping change and the impact the developments had on them.

The First World War, 1894–1918:
This wider world depth study enables students to understand the complex and diverse interests of the Great Powers and other states. It focuses on the causes, nature and conclusion of the First World War and seeks to show how and why conflict occurred, and why it proved difficult to bring the war to a conclusion. This study also considers the role of key individuals and groups in shaping change and how they were affected by and influenced international relations.

Paper 2: In Paper Two students will undertake their Thematic Study: Health and the people: c1000 to the present day and their British depth study (including the historic environment): Elizabethan England, c1568–1603.

Health and the People c1000 to the present day: This thematic study will enable students to gain an understanding of how medicine and public health developed in Britain over a long period of time. It considers the causes, scale, nature and consequences of short- and long-term developments, their impact on British society and how they were related to the key features and characteristics of the periods during which they took place. Although the focus of this study is the development of medicine and public health in Britain, it will draw on wider world developments that impacted on the core themes. Students will have the opportunity to see how some ideas and events in the wider world affected Britain and will promote the idea that key themes did not develop in isolation, but these ideas and events should be referenced in terms of their effects on the core theme for Britain and British people.

Elizabethan England, c1568–1603: This option allows students to study in depth a specified period, the last 35 years of Elizabeth I's reign. The study will focus on major events of Elizabeth I’s reign considered from economic, religious, political, social and cultural standpoints, and arising contemporary and historical controversies.

Please click on the below links to view our KS4 History Curriculum Overviews for 2022/23: