History

History is a universally recognised academic arena of wide ranging topics and copious knowledge. It also helps students develop a broad range of skills useful for a wide variety of careers.

GCSE History aims to:

• actively engage students in the process of historical enquiry to develop them as effective and independent learners, and as critical and reflective thinkers with enquiring minds
• develop students’ knowledge and coherent understanding of selected periods, societies and aspects of history
• develop students’ awareness of how the past has been represented, interpreted and accorded,significance for different reasons and purposes
• develop students’ abilities to ask relevant questions about the past and to investigate them critically using a range of sources in their historical context
• enable students to organise and communicate their historical knowledge and understanding in creative and different ways and reach substantiated judgements
• recognise that students’ historical knowledge, understanding and skills help them to understand the present and provide them with a basis for their role as responsiblecitizens, as well as allowing further study of history.

At A Level, students are required to:

• Recall, select and deploy historical knowledge appropriately, and communicate knowledge and understanding of history in a clear and effective manner.
• Demonstrate their understanding of the past thoughexplanation, analysis and arriving at substantiated judgements of:
  • key concepts such as causation, consequence,continuity, change and significance within an historical context
  • the relationships between key features and characteristics of the periods studied.
• As part of a historical enquiry, analyse and evaluate a range of appropriate source material with discrimination.
• Analyse and evaluate, in relation to the historical context,
  how aspects of the past have been interpreted and
  represented in different ways.