Unit One

Britain and the Empire (Britain 1750 – 1900)

The development of Empire is studied in this unit with the impact on both India and Africa examined.  Students are encouraged to question whether these areas benefited from being part of the Empire.  We examine interpretations of Empire with a focus on the film Zulu studying recent articles on this battle and how it was seen both by contemporaries and by subsequent generations.

Assessment:  How accurate are the scenes in the film Zulu as evidence of what the battle was really like?  Historical interpretations 3a & 3b

Unit Two

The struggle for political power in the 19th Century?  (Britain 1750 – 1900)

This unit seeks to explain the process of protest and political reform over the 19th Century.  Students will examine the key political events of this period from the Peterloo Massacre, the Chartists and the Reform Acts of 1832, 1867 and 1884.  We explore the use of radical poetry and song in the struggle for democratic change.

Unit Three

The First World War  (A world study after 1900)

This focuses on the causes of WW1 and builds to a structured essay on this topic.  Students debate the role of Filed Marshall Haig and whether he deserves to be seen as the ‘Butcher of the Somme’.  Finally the relative importance of women to the allied victory in the Great War is examined.

Assessment:  How important were women to the allied victory in WW1?  Historical enquiry 4a (sources)

Unit Four:  Understanding the Middle East  (A world Study before and after 1900)

This Unit seeks to help students understand the current situation in the Middle East through an understanding of the History of the region with a primary focus on Iraq.  Students begin by studying the Ottoman Empire and how its collapse destabilised the region.  We focus on the role of Churchill in the creation of Iraq and, given the subsequent problems, whether this was ‘his greatest folly’.  Finally students examine whether individuals drive History and the rationale behind US foreign policy from the 1970s.

Unit Five:  Conflict in the 20th Century  (A world study after 1900)

Students study the build up to the Second World War, weighing up the causes of this.  British policy of Appeasement is assessed and the role of Hitler is examined.  Students also study the origins of anti-Semitism and how this developed in the Final Solution.

Assessment:  To what extent was Hitler responsible for the Second World War?  2c Causation.

Unit Five:  The impact of the Cold War.

To finish the student’s compulsory study of History we examine the city of Berlin and what this can tell us about the 20th Century.  Finally we examine the popular view of the 1960s as an era of Hippies, Love and Peace with the question, ‘was the whole world swinging in the 1960s?  To challenge this we examine events such as Vietnam and the Prague Spring Days.