KS4 History

Curriculum Content

The course covers the following areas:
Year 10

1. World War One – causes & characteristics.
2. The Failure to Keep the Peace – Versailles, League of Nations, appeasement
3. Coursework – Britain in the Second World War - Evacuation
4. The Cold War to 1949

Year 11

1. Germany 1918 – 1939: post-war treatment, problems of the 1920s, the rise of Nazism, causes of World War Two.
2. Nazi Germany.
3. USA 1919 – 1939: Isolation, the Roaring Twenties, Prohibition, Gangsters and the Ku Klux Klan, the Wall Street Crash and Depression, Roosevelt and the New Deal
4. Coursework - Vietnam

Teaching Methods

Pupils experience a variety of methods including written work, oral discussion, group activities, simulation exercises and computer programmes.

Resources

Pupils work from basic textbooks, supplemented with teacher-designed worksheets, photographs, cartoons, contemporary sources, video programmes and computer software.

Skills and Knowledge

Pupils are encouraged to develop understanding in four key areas and to use the content studied to demonstrate this understanding:

1. To write a critical assessment in a clear, coherent form.
2. To use a wide variety of evidence and assess its usefulness and reliability for specific enquiries.
3. To appreciate different attitudes and ideas in different periods of time.
4. To explain why events have occurred and their consequences, how some things change over time and that change does not always bring improvement.

Assessment

Pupils are entered for the AQA Modern World paper. Assessment consists of two end-of-course examinations, carrying 75% of the marks for a GCSE grade and 2 coursework assignments each worth 12.5%. The two assignments will normally total 2500 – 3000 words.

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