Brief Overview

Studying History gives students the opportunity to learn about extraordinary events and significant people. History students develop skills which can be applied to all sorts of situations:

• They understand what makes people tick, what motivates them and what they think and feel;
• They can gather different kinds of information and work out what it means;
• They can communicate in lots of different ways;

Students study a variety of different periods of History during their time at North Leamington School:

Y7-8 Curriculum and Assessment

In years 7 and 8 students will examine a variety of History topics, including:

• The nature of life and warfare in Roman Britain.
• The Norman Conquest and the Medieval World, including the Black Death, King John, Thomas Becket and Henry II and the War of the Roses.
• Henry VIII and the English Reformation, Elizabeth I, the English Civil war and the Reformation, including the witch craze and the scientific revolution.
• Social and political reform during the industrial revolution, including the workhouse, municipal reform and the position of women.

Y9-11 Curriculum and Assessment

The GCSE History course focuses on Modern World History and follows the Edxecel board:

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.

Written examination: 1 hour and 15 minutes - 30% of the qualification

Paper 2: Period study and British depth study

• Early Elizabethan England, 1558–88 and
• Superpower relations and the Cold War, 1941–91

Written examination: 1 hour and 45 minutes - 40% of the qualification

Paper 3: Modern depth study

• Weimar and Nazi Germany, 1918–39

Written examination: 1 hour and 20 minutes – 30% of the qualification

Y12-13 Curriculum and Assessment

A level History follows the Edexcel Board, Route H Democracies in Change:

There are 3 exams that you will sit at the end of Year 13:

Paper 1 Britain transformed, 1918-97 (30%) – 2 hours 15 minutes and is marked out of 60.

Section A comprises a choice of two essay questions that assess understanding of the period in breadth and target content specified in the Themes.

Section B comprises a choice of two essay questions that assess understanding of the period in breadth and target content specified in the Themes.

Section C comprises one compulsory question that assesses the ability to analyse and evaluate interpretations and target content specified in Historical interpretations.

Paper 2 USA, 1955-1992: conformity and challenge (20%) –1 hour 30 minutes and is marked out of 40.

Section A comprises a compulsory two-part question for the option studied that assesses the ability to analyse and evaluate source material that is primary and/or contemporary to the period.

Section B comprises a choice of two essay questions that assess understanding of the period in depth.

Paper 3 The British experience of warfare, 1790–1918 (30%) - 2 hours 15 minutes and is marked out of 60.

Section A comprises one compulsory question that assesses the ability to analyse and evaluate source material that is primary and/or contemporary to the period.

Section B comprises a choice of two essay questions that assess understanding of the period in depth.

Section C comprises a choice of two essay questions that assess understanding of the period in breadth. Questions will target change over periods of at least 100 years, focusing on:

● the process of change (factors bringing it about)

● the extent of change; or

● the impact of change; or

● patterns of change (turning points).

COURSEWORK (20%) - The assignment is marked out of 40.

Carry out an independently-researched enquiry analysing and evaluating historical interpretations The assignment is set internally on a question, problem or issue that has generated disagreement among historians. The topic will cover the causes of WWII.

Humanities Faculty Subjects