History

GCSE History (Edexcel) 

GCSE History is a qualification that will engage students with a broad and diverse study of the history of Britain and the wider world and give them skills that will support progression to further study of history and a wide range of other subjects.

Paper 1: 1 hour 15 minutes (30%) Crime and Punishment in Britain 1000 - present day with a focus on Whitechapel c.1870-1900: crime, policing and the inner city.

 A fascinating topic of how crime and punishment has changed from Medieval Britain to the modern day.  Students will carry out an in-depth study of the Whitechapel murders of ‘Jack the Ripper’ including an investigation into British society in the 1800s.  Following this, they will examine themes of continuity and change, such as police methods, crimes, laws and punishments over this time.  Within this, students will investigate the witch-hunts of 1645-47, the work of the Fielding Brothers, prison reformers such as Elizabeth Fry, the treatment of conscientious objectors during the First and Second World War as well as the development of modern policing methods such as Neighbourhood Watch.  

 Skills needed :

Students in this exam will be questioned on their accurate knowledge and understanding of the topics, analysing similarities and differences, continuity and change and being able to assess the significance of historical events using sources. 

Paper 2: 1 hour 45 minutes (40%).  This exam paper will be divided into two sections: Early Elizabethan England and The American West.  

Early Elizabethan England 

1. Queen Government and religion. Students will explore the threat from the Catholics and Puritan movements, the threat of Mary Queen of Scots and the significance of the plots against Elizabeth such as the Babington Plot. 

2. Challenges to Elizabeth from abroad. For example, the Spanish Armada, the actions of Francis Drake, the role of Robert Dudley and the significance of privateering in the so called ‘New World’. 

3. Elizabethan Society in the age of Exploration.  This will include a look into education and leisure, the problem of the poor, exploration and voyages of discovery and the significance of Walter Raleigh and the colonisation of Virginia.   

The American West

1. The early settlement of the Great Plains, Native American culture, what motivated further migration to the West and the problems they faced.

2. The development of settlement, problems with law and order, the impact of the American Civil War and the development of the cattle industry on the life of the Plains Indians.

3. Conflict and tension in the American West, the Battle of Little Bighorn, Wounded Knee Massacre, the significance of Billy the Kid and Wyatt Earp, the range wars and Plains Indian life on the reservations.

Skills needed:

Students will be assessed on their accurate knowledge and understanding of both topics, focusing on the skills of causation and significance, including the ability to sequence and link events together using historical terminology.

Paper 3: 1 hour 20 minutes (30%) Weimar and Nazi Germany, 1918-39 This has always been a popular and fascinating subject for our students.  The unit will be broken up into four sections. 

1. Weimar Germany. The consequences of the First World War and its impact on German society in the 1920s. 

2. Hitler’s Rise to power.  How an ex-World War One soldier managed to reach the power of Chancellor in Germany and why the Nazi Party gained so much support by 1933. 

3. Nazi Control and dictatorship.  How the Nazi Party succeeded in maintaining control of Germany until the outbreak of war.  This will focus on the role of the Gestapo, propaganda, the Enabling Act, control of the media and the weakness of opposition groups. 

4. Life in Nazi Germany.  Students will use a variety of sources to see how various groups of people changed under Nazi control.  For example, women and the family, the youth and education, workers and employment and Nazi treatment of minority groups. 

Skills needed :

As well as needing subject knowledge, students in this paper will be expected to analyse source evidence.  For example, students will be asked to evaluate the usefulness of sources, give reasons why interpretations of the past are different, and be able to show a clear understanding of what sources are proving to them.  This paper will finish with an essay question worth 16 marks where students will be expected to use a variety of sources to argue for or against a statement about the past.