What is history GCSE?

Course description

We follow the Pearson Edexcel History GCSE during which students explore a range of topics and time periods. We follow a broadly chronological course that builds on existing knowledge and understanding of historical concepts developed at Key Stage 3. We begin with the early part of Elizabeth I’s reign in Year 10, followed by Medicine Through Time, the Historical Environment where we investigate medicine in the trenches during WWI and starting with the Weimar and Nazi Germany course by the end of Year 10. In Year 11 we study the majority of the Germany course and finish with our final topic: the Cold War.

Students develop a number of vital skills whilst studying History, in particular:

• How to write authoritatively

• How to critique the ideas of others

• How to evaluate sources of evidence

• Excellent literacy

Course Structure

Paper 1

• • Paper 1 is split into two parts:

    • Section A: Case study on the British sector of the Western Front, 1914-18: injuries, treatment and the trenches. The case study is source-based. It prompts students to examine documents, images and artefacts left over from the Western Front of the First World War as evidence of the healthcare and experiences of soldiers living in the trenches.

    • Section B: Medicine in Britain, c1250-present. This is a thematic investigation into the history of medicine from the Medieval period through to the present day. We explore how human understanding of the causes of disease, treatment and prevention methods have changed over time. We go right up to the present day, enabling us to put the global pandemic into historical context.

• Paper 1 is assessed through an exam lasting 1 hour 15 minutes

• Paper 1 is worth 30% of the qualification

Paper 2

• Paper 2 is split into two parts:

  • • Section A: Superpower relations and the Cold War, 1941-91. This is a period study that investigates how the Cold War divided the World during the twentieth century. We look at how the USA and Soviet Union dominated the World in the aftermath of the Second World War, the flashpoints of the Cold War (such as the Cuban Missile Crisis) and consider how the Cold War came to an end in the late twentieth century. This paper provides a lot of context to ongoing international tensions in the World around us.

    • Section B: Early Elizabethan England, 1558-88. This is a depth study that explores the rule of Elizabeth I. We examine how Elizabeth was able to survive major insecurity early in her reign, how she established England as a rival to the Catholic European powers and how life for everyday people developed under her rule.

• Both parts of Paper 2 are assessed via a single exam lasting 1 hour 45 minutes

• Paper 2 is worth 40% of the qualification

Paper 3: Modern depth study

• Weimar and Nazi Germany, 1918-39. In this paper, we analyse the tragic rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany following the First World War. We explore how Germany went from being one of the most progressive democracies ever seen under the Weimar Republic, to a dictatorship of terror, control and ideology under Hitler and the Nazi Party.

• Paper 3 is assessed through an exam lasting 1 hour 20 minutes

• Paper 3 is worth 30% of the qualification.

Qualification: GCSE in History

Director of Learning:  Miss J Baldwin

jennifer.baldwin@riddlesdown.org