Welcome to Year 11 GCSE History at Jumeirah College

(NB: This section refers to the current Year 11 GCSE History which comprises the last year of the ‘old’ Edexcel GCSE specification. For information on the ‘new’ specification please refer to the Year 10 page.)

Introduction
The course in Year 11 will be intellectually stretching and will provide the students with a deeper understanding of the nature of power and of government policy. We aim to enable all students improve their GCSE skills built up in Year 10 in order to achieve their target grade or above.

The course followed is provided by Edexcel specification 1334

Curriculum Organisation

* 3 lessons per week of 55 minutes each
* students are taught in mixed ability option groups
* the main class course books used by Year 11 students include:
- “Germany 1918-1945”
- “The USA 1929-1980”
- “GCSE Modern World History” by Walsh
- (all published by Hodder Murray)

Independent Study
Students will be set two History Homeworks a week according to the Homework Timetable. Each Homework will consist of on-going work on coursework, or specific written, research or reading tasks.
In addition, independent study is invaluable to achieving a good grade in History. This may take the form of reading around and ahead of the topics studied in class using the class text together with books from the library and websites (see below).

Students are encouraged at this stage to review, refine and revise their notes on a frequent basis, even when these tasks have not been set as specific Homework tasks. This way, they will avoid having to cram a mass of facts at the end just before their examinations.

Assessment and Reporting
GCSE graded assessments of differing kinds are used throughout the course to assess each student’s progress in their various skills. Some of these examination practice pieces will be closed book under timed conditions while others will be open book using notes and reference materials.

The second of the two GCSE coursework assignments will be completed in Year 11, which will again contribute 12.5% towards each student’s final grade.

Students’ progress is also monitored by a range of other methods including their end of Term 1 Mock Examination, on-going exercise-book evaluations and monitoring of Homework performance.

The historical skills this year consolidate the two main skill areas covered in year 10:  the collection of source skills, and the recall, selection and organisation of information in to structured answers.

Autumn Term
Areas of study:

First of all, the students undertake a study of the background to their Year 11 coursework which is entitled: “The Blitz of British cities, 1940-41”. They look at Hitler’s overall war strategy between 1938 and 1940, before focusing on why the Luftwaffe targeted particular places in Britain. They will then complete their coursework, which consists of three, non-source based mini-essays.

Then, they will study “Nazi Germany 1930-39”:
* the rise of the Nazis
* 1933-4 consolidation of power
* Nazi terror state
* youth and women
* Churches struggle
* propaganda
* economy and social classes
* treatment of Jews and “asocials”
* opposition

Spring Term
Areas of study:
Students will complete the “Nazi Germany” Unit, followed by the last of the examined units as follows:

Either:

The USA, a Divided Union? 1941-1980
* Impact of WWII on US economy and society
* McCarthyism and the “Red Scare”
* Civil Rights Movements and their impact on US society
* “New Frontier”, “Great Society”, roles of JFK and Johnson
* Protest Movements
* Watergate Scandal and impact

Or:
The Rise and Fall of the Communist State: 1928-1991
* Stalin’s Changes in industry and agriculture
* The nature of Stalin’s control: terror, propaganda, religion and education
* the impacts of Stalin’s regime on women and on living conditions
* De-Stalinisation under Khrushchev
*  Khrushchev’s agricultural and industrial reforms
* The decline and fall of the Communist state: the role of Gorbachev:
Perestroika and Glasnost
* End of Moscow’s control of Eastern Europe
* Gorbachev’s fall from power and break up of USSR

Summer Term
Areas of Study: this period, until the students go on Study Leave, is devoted to in-depth revision and examination question practice.

Learning objectives: the aims and expected outcomes of each lesson are made clear to the students, in terms of both historical content and skills. These aims often include differentiated outcomes for students of differing abilities in the particular skill(s) being focused on in the lesson.
Students are expected to be achieving between GCSE grades C and A* during Year 11.
Extension opportunities: each type of activity that the students engage in offers opportunities to achieve the highest levels and standards of historical analysis and investigation. As it becomes clear what grade each student is performing at in each source skill, they will be encouraged to set targets to improve that skill and accompanying strategies for themselves for their forthcoming pieces of work.

Useful websites: include
www.edexcel.org.uk

www.bbc.co.uk/history
www.historytoday.com
www.britannia.com/history/

www.historyonthenet.com
www.knockonthedoor.com
www.war_experience.org

www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk
www.schoolhistory.org.uk
www.historylearningsite.co.uk