Specification/Exam Board

AQA GCSE History (8145)

Paper 1 Examination (2 hours) 50%

Paper 2 Examination (2 hours) 50%

For Paper 1 (Understanding the Modern World) we study the following two options:

  • Section A (Period Study): Germany 1890-1945 (Studied in Year 9/10)
  • Section B (Wider World Depth Study) Conflict and tension between East and West, 1945–1972 (Studied in Year 10)

For Paper 2 (Shaping the Nation) we study the following two options:

  • Section A (Thematic Study): Britain: Health and the People c1000 to the present day (Studied in Year 11)
  • Section B (British Depth Study): Elizabethan England 1568-1603 (Studied in Year 9)

The exams will measure how students have achieved the following assessment objectives:

AO1: demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the key features and characteristics of the period studied.

AO2: explain and analyse historical events and periods studied using second-order historical concepts.

AO3: analyse, evaluate and use sources (contemporary to the period) to make substantiated judgements, in the context of historical events studied.

AO4: analyse, evaluate and make substantiated judgements about interpretations (including how and why interpretations may differ) in the context of historical events studied.

Curriculum Allocation

History is taught for 3 100 minute lessons per fortnight.

Curriculum Period 1:

Curriculum content

In Year 9 pupils studied the Elizabethan England topic and began the Germany Depth Study, completing Part 1 of this unit. They will begin Year 10 with completing the Germany Depth Study. 

Part 2: Germany and the Depression (6 lessons)

In this part of the topic we will study:

  • The impact of the Depression: growth in support for the Nazis and other extremist parties (1928–1932), including the role of the SA; Hitler’s appeal.
  • The failure of Weimar democracy: election results; the role of Papen and Hindenburg and Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor.
  • The establishment of Hitler’s dictatorship: the Reichstag Fire; the Enabling Act; elimination of political opposition; trade unions; Rohm and the Night of the Long Knives; Hitler becomes Führer.

Part 3: The experiences of Germans under the Nazis (9 lessons)

In this part of the topic we will study:

  • Economic changes: benefits and drawbacks; employment; public works programmes; rearmament; self-sufficiency
  • Nazi social policies and practice: reasons for policies, practices and their impact on women, young people and youth groups; education; control of churches and religion; Aryan ideas, racial policy and persecution; the Final Solution.
  • Control of Nazi Germany: Goebbels, the use of propaganda and censorship; Nazi culture; repression and the police state and the roles of Himmler, the SS and Gestapo; opposition and resistance, including White Rose group, Swing Youth, Edelweiss Pirates and July 1944 bomb plot
  • the impact of war on the economy and the German people, including bombing, rationing, labour shortages, refugees

Assessment

The first assessment will test pupils understanding of the content of the lessons taught in Curriculum period 1. 

Curriculum Period 2:

Curriculum content

We will begin this curriculum period by finishing off the Germany Depth Study and using some lessons to look at the style of exam questions. 

We will then begin the next unit of work - Conflict and tension between East and West, 1945-1972. This topic follows on chronologically from the Germany topic. This topic has 3 parts to it and will be delivered in the following way:

Part 1: The origins of the Cold War (7 lessons)

In this part of the topic we will study:

  • the contrasting ideologies of the USA and the USSR
  • The end of the Second World War: Yalta and Potsdam Conferences; the division of Germany; including the aims of Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt, Attlee and Truman
  • the effect of the dropping of the atom bomb on post-war superpower relations.
  • the Iron Curtain and the evolution of East-West rivalry: Soviet expansion in East Europe; US policies; the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan, their purpose and Stalin’s reaction; Cominform; Comecon; Yugoslavia
  • the Berlin Blockade and Airlift.

Assessment

Pupils will be assessed on the content of the Germany Depth Study and the first part of the Cold War unit. 

Curriculum Period 3:

Curriculum content

Part 2: The development of the Cold War (7 lessons)

In this part of the topic we will study:

  • The significance of events in Asia for superpower relations: USSR's support for Mao Tse-tung and Communist revolution in China, and the military campaigns waged by North Korea against the UN and by the Vietcong against France and the USA.
  • Military rivalries: the arms race; membership and purposes of NATO and the Warsaw Pact
  • the space race, including Sputnik, ICBMs, Polaris, Gagarin, Apollo.
  • The ‘Thaw’: Hungary, the protest movement and the reforms of Nagy; Soviet fears, how they reacted and the effects on the Cold War
  • the U2 Crisis and its effects on the Paris Peace Summit and the peace process.

Part 3: The transformation of the Cold War (8 lessons)

In this part of the topic we will study:

  • Berlin Wall: reasons for its construction and Kennedy’s response.
  • Tensions over Cuba: Castro’s revolution, the Bay of Pigs and the missile crisis: the roles of Castro, Khrushchev, Kennedy; fears of the USA and reaction to missiles on Cuba; dangers and results of crisis.
  • Czechoslovakia: Dubeck and the Prague Spring movement; USSR’s response to the reforms; the effects the Prague Spring had on East-West relations, including the Warsaw Pact; the Brezhnev Doctrine.
  • Easing of tensions: sources of tension, including the Soviets' record on human rights; the reasons for Détente and for SALT 1; the part played by key individuals Brezhnev and Nixon.

In the final few weeks of this curriculum period we will return to the Elizabethan England unit of work and conduct the Historic Environment element of this topic. 

The Historic Environment unit of work asks us to study a site of interest from the time. The site of interest changes each curriculum year; for example in the past it has been Hardwick Hall, the Globe Theatre, Lord Burghley's Alms-houses, Kenilworth Castle. The site for GCSE 2023 is "Sheffield Manor Lodge". This was the place where Mary, Queen of Scots was imprisoned for 14 of her 19 years in captivity. More information about the site can be found here:

sheffieldmanorlodge.org/

We will spend a minimum of 3 lessons studying the site. If appropriate we may also organise a visit to the site of interest although this is not compulsory from the exam board.

Assessment

Pupils will be assessed on the Conflict and Tension between East and West unit of work. Approx 70% of the assessment will be on Parts 2 and 3 and approx 30% on Part 1. 

Revision resources

We provide booklets of knowledge organisers for all the units covered through Year 10. Pupils should use these to revise for recall tests throughout the year and for the three formal assessments.

Pupils will also be directed to specific firefly pages with revision resources and past papers at appropriate times during the course.

The best revision guide available to purchase is: My Revision Notes: AQA GCSE (9-1) History

Subject advice and guidance

If you need any further guidance then please contact your child’s teacher via email:

j.townend@endon.shaw-education.org.uk

r.eastwood@endon.shaw-education.org.uk

j.barlow@endon.shaw-education.org.uk