History
At The Forum Centre, we have opted to follow the AQA GCSE History syllabus. This provides flexibility with a number of optional areas of study across two examination-based assessments.
The areas of study we have chosen are;
Paper 1 – Section A (Option D) Opportunity and Inequality: America 1920 – 1973
Paper 1 – Section B (Option A) Conflict and Tension: The First World War 1894 -1918
Paper 2 – Section A (Option A ) Health and the People: c1000 – present day
Paper 2 – Section B (Option C) Elizabethan England 1568 - 1603
Some of the key areas that are developed through the study of these options.
The programme is designed to test students not only on shorter specific periods of History (such as the Elizabethan period) but also test students’ understanding of change across a longer period of time (such as with Health and the People).
Students are expected to be able to put forward arguments and ideas to support their own opinions about why certain events happened in the way that they did. A good example would be in the study of Power and Conflict where students should be able to put forward a variety of different factors to explain how conflict occurred and why it eventually ended.
The study of History is aimed at students with a genuine interest in the subject and encourages students to think beyond simple descriptions of past events. There is ample opportunity in the History classroom for students to put forward their own explanations and to justify these through the use of research and argument.
Examination: At the end of Year 11, Students will sit for two examinations (as described above). All sections carried equal weighting and students are advised to spend one hour on each section.
The total examination time is therefore 2 hours for Paper 1 and 2 hours for Paper 2.
Note: For students who have studied History at their previous school, every effort will be made to adapt the programme to what has already been studied. For example, if a student has studied Power and Conflict in Asia at their previous school, they would be allowed to continue this as one of their four options and would be tested on this area accordingly.