History

Course summary

History helps the student to understand the world that they are growing up in. Rather than being asked what happened (students will never be asked to describe events), candidates will be asked to think critically about sources and historical questions. Candidates will learn to question, compare and justify their ideas. As a result classwork will regularly include discussion and debate. Beyond this, students will learn how to analyse historical sources and then to structure their arguments in well-organised and clearly explained analytical essays. There are three examined units and one piece of coursework in the OCR specification that we follow. In Year 12, students study eighteenth century America (The American Revolution and the establishment of the United States of America), along with a study of Britain 1900-1951. In Y13, students study how civil rights for African Americans, Native Americans, trade unions and labo(u)r organisations and women changed over the period of 1865-1992 and also complete a c.3500 word piece of coursework on an aspect of the Y12 American Revolution unit that is of particular interest to students, that they want to research further.