History

History Edexcel 1HI0

(COULD BE SUBJECT TO CHANGE DUE TO COVID RESTRICTIONS) History is a very popular subject at GCSE, and one in which many pupils do very well.

There are many good reasons for taking history. Some of the best are:

• you enjoy it • you can do well in it. Colleges, universities and employers are all interested in seeing the study of a range of subjects, and good grades in those subjects • it will help you understand the world you live in, the events of the last 100 years help to explain the problems and opportunities of the world today • you will develop very valuable skills. This could be the most important of all – in history you deal with real people, and you can work out why they did what they did. You will improve your ability to judge whether you are being told the truth, only part of the truth, or something completely untrue The aims and objectives of this qualification are to enable pupils to: • develop and extend their knowledge and understanding of specified key events, periods and societies in local, British, and wider world history; and of the wide diversity of human experience • engage in historical enquiry to develop as independent learners and as critical and reflective thinkers

• develop the ability to ask relevant questions about the past, to investigate issues critically and to make valid historical claims by using a range of sources in their historical context

• develop an awareness of why people, events and developments have been accorded historical significance and how and why different interpretations have been constructed about them • organise and communicate their historical knowledge and understanding in different ways and reach substantiated conclusions

What will I study?

Unit 1 Paper 1: Pupils study

• Crime and punishment in Britain, c1000–present and Whitechapel, c1870–c1900: crime, policing and the inner city. (Investigating why Jack the Ripper was

NEVER caught!) Unit 2 Paper 2: Pupils study the depth option: • B1: Anglo-Saxon and Norman England, c1060–88 (Compulsory British Unit)

AND

• Superpower relations and the Cold War, 1941–91 Unit 3 Paper 3: Pupils study a modern depth study on:

• Weimar and Nazi Germany, 1918–39 following the aftermath of WW1 and the rise of Hitler- including a in depth study on the treatment of minorities in

Nazi Germany)

How will I be assessed?

Paper 1

British Thematic Study with Historic Environment

30%

1 hr 15 mins

Paper 2

Period Study and British Depth Study

40%

1 hr 45 mins Key Stage 4 Guide

Paper 3

Modern Depth Study

30%

1 hr 20 mins

The History Department runs a trip once every two years to ensure all GCSE historians get the opportunity to visit Auschwitz. This trip is not included in the school fees and carries an extra charge.

History is one of the most versatile degrees you can take. It demands painstaking research and eloquent arguments. It will ask you to analyse and debate, consider and compose, and to tackle some of the broadest, most controversial topics humans have dealt with. It is good training, good enough for almost anything:

Media Law Politics Business & Finance Writers & Musicians

The BBC foreign affairs correspondent Jeremy Bowen studied History at University College London. Other famous graduates in the media include comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, aka Ali G, presenter Jonathan Ross and Louis Theroux and Melvyn Bragg, who graduated from Oxford. More “subjectspecific” professions such as law are keen to employ historians, the most prominent being QC Michael Briggs and QC Michael Mansfield, who has recently been involved in the Bloody Sunday inquiry in the UK. Elena Kagan, the first female dean of Harvard Law School and U.S. Supreme

Court Justice

graduated summa cum laude in History at Princeton. The Labour party is testament to the large number of successful historians in politics today. History graduates include: Gordon Brown, Alan Milburn, John Prescott and David Blunkett. On the other side of the house were Douglas Hurd, Sir Chris Patten and Kenneth Baker. In the USA Joe Biden and G W Bush both studied History at university. Historians have flourished in business, achieving high-level roles in successful enterprises. History graduate Sir Howard Stringer is chairman of Sony Corporation, for example, and the late Sir Roland Smith was director of the Bank of England. Anita Roddick founder of The Body Shop is also amongst the list of History graduates who made successful careers in Business. Esteemed novelist, essayist and selfproclaimed hard line atheist, Salman Rushdie read History at Cambridge. He has gone on to become a prolific author, winning the Booker Prize in 1981 with Midnight’s Children. He joins a long list of people in the industry who studied History at University Ayn Rand (Novelist) Art Garfunkel (Singer/ Songwriter) Lauryn Hill (Singer/ Actress) Jimmy Buffet (Singer/ Songwriter)