KS5 Curriculum Overview A-Level History

1. KS5 Curriculum OverviewA-Level History Exam Board - Edexcel

2. The Key Stage Five History Curriculum at Canons is a vitally important and challenging phase of students’ learning. It was chosen as it is ambitious, enjoyable and each lesson seeks to impart powerful knowledge, spark students’ curiosity and passion for learning about the past. The overarching intention is that students become articulate and deeply knowledgeable subject specialists. Students are expected to write, speak and adopt the habits of historians, for example making substantiated judgements, having a deep respect for evidence and using academic vocabulary confidently. The choice of the Edecxel course: Democracies in Change and Britain Losing and Gaining an Empire was made for its relevance to our students in order for them to better understand the diverse country they live in today and how it came to be the way it is now. Indeed,at the beginning of the twenty-first century, Britain’s welfare system provides health care and education for all its citizens and the USA has voted into power a mixed-race president. In 1918, both of these things would have been unimaginable to most of those living at the time. Through this course students learn how the two leading western democracies responded and adapted to the challenges brought about by the greater political, social and economic expectations of ordinary people in the twentieth century. The unit on interpretations of Margaret Thatcher and her political legacy builds upon interpretations work at Key Stage 3 and 4. The choice of Britain and the USA in the 20th century also allow students to study Britain’s impact on the wider world and the controversial history of the British Empire which also builds on knowledge and skills gleaned at KS3. The History Curriculum is designed to ensure students develop the crucial subject-specific knowledge and disciplinary understanding. The Key Stage Five Curriculum builds upon a solid foundation laid at KS3 and 4 where critical knowledge and skills were routinely embedded. Throughout the course lessons provide opportunities for students to problematise the discipline’s second-order concepts: change and continuity, causation, significance, interpretations, evidence and diversity. By the end of Key Stage Five we expect students to understand the significance of studying history, its relevance for understanding the world today and its importance in key areas such as developing tolerance, respect and understanding towards othersas well as the cultural capital enhanced through the acquisition of powerful knowledge and the ability to communicate and argue effectively.

7. Social change: the changing status of ethnic minorities; the impact of black American success in politics, business, sport and popular culture; the extent of racial tolerance and integration by 1992; the impact of women in politics and the workplace; the changing status of women by 1992.