Preparatory work

This period is an exciting opportunity to start developing/furthering your political interest and knowledge.  Any queries, please email: fpryor@swbgs.com

Task one:

Create a news journal of UK and US news. Make at least one entry per week from a range of news sources; keep a note of the source. Journal to last until exam 2028! 

Start to select some X accounts (a vital source of immediate news) to follow eg.

@ whoever becomes the new PM!

@POTUS (the president of the USA)

Follow political journalists such as Laura Kuenssberg, Chris Mason

Further resources:

AppleNews App-highly recommended, providing access to a cross-section of UK newspapers

BBC NewsApp-free and educational (useful explanatory links and politically impartial)  

Magazines/periodicals:

The Economist

The Week

Prospect

The Spectator

Task Two:

Who’s Who in Politics

Create a collage of political figures seen regularly on the news. 

Task Three:

What is Politics?

Write a 200 word definition

Task Four:

Produce an A3 British Political History timeline including at least 15 features such as dates major political parties (Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrats) founded, signing of the Magna Carta, opening of the House of Commons.

Task Five:

Read Chapters 1 (Democracy and Suffrage),  & 7 (The Constitution) from the core textbook in preparation for the first topics to be covered in class.

Final task:

Use the summer time to watch from/listen to the following:

Podcasts:

TLDR Independet News

The Rest is Politics

The News Agents

AmeriCast

Series: 

The Battle for Power (BBC2): The lives of politicians during tumultuous times.

State of Chaos (BBC2) Brexit and Boris

Blair and Brown:The New Labour Revolution

The Rise and Fall of Tony Blair (YouTube) and also The Rise and Fall of Boris Johnson

Thatcher:A Very British Revolution

The Cameron Years

The Secret World of Whitehall(YouTube)

The West Wing

Inside Obama’s White House

Films: 

Brexit:The Uncivil War

The Iron Lady (Thatcher)

The Queen

Eye in the Sky

Official Secret

Malcolm X

BlackKKlansmen

Vice

Useful resources

Politics Review - quarterly publication published by Hodder Education-school subscription from September

Pre-Chewed Politics - an excellent online learning resource with multiple short videos; access:

email:fpryor@swbgs.com

Password:governmentandpolitics2021

Core textbook:Essentials of UK Politics and Government for Edexcel A Level Politics, 6th edition

Authors:Kathy Schindler &  Andrew Heywood  Bloomsbury Publishing   ISBN: 9781350540118

Available from 9 July 2026 & including recent local elections.

YOU WILL BE REQUIRED TO BUY A FURTHER YEAR 2 TEXTBOOK ON US GOVERNMENT & POLITICS, WHICH WILL BE UPDATED POST THE US MIDTERM ELECTIONS NOV.2026.

In addition, we also subscrible to a PoliticsOnline textbook which is constantly updated. Students may need to pay a small fee towards this in September, TBC.

The Politics Dept has a well-stocked library of books available to students

Recommended (optional) books:

The Politics Book-Big Ideas Simply Explained

ISBN:9780241209363, 0241209366

How to Think Politically-G.Garrard & JG Murphy

ISBN:978-1-4729-6178-5

How Westminster Works...and Why It Doesn't-Ian Dunt

ISBN978-1-3996-0273-0

How Britain Really Works-Understanding the Ideas and Institutions of a Nation-Stig Abell

ISBN 978-1-473-65842-4