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History “Historians are dangerous people” Nikita Khrushchev Apart from being an interesting, fun and dynamic conversation with the past, History is vital in a world full of opinions. People who see that you have a GCSE in History know certain things about you. They will know that you have taken on skills which, learned through History, can be applied to all sorts of situations. They know that you can understand how people tick, what motivates them, what they think and feel: you are able to gather and read different kinds of information; you are able to look carefully at this information and evaluate it; you can read maps, graphs and other diagrams; you are able to communicate clearly and have learned to express yourself verbally and on paper. History teaches you to read through lies and propaganda - the mountains of information we face on a day to day basis - and search for the truth. History is a useful, and often necessary, subject for a lot of careers and not just the obvious ones. "With a history degree you can aspire to be Prime Minister, press baron and media mogul, overlord of the BBC, 'the most famous lawyer in the land', Archbishop of Canterbury, top spook, leading diplomat, police chief, Oxbridge chancellor and vice-chancellor, England footballer and football manager, or chairman of the richest football club in the world, famous comedian or celebrated pop musician, best-selling novelist, trade union boss, business millionaire and perhaps even one day monarch of the realm." Professor David Nicholls, Manchester Metropolitan University. We will be studying the Edexcel 9 – 1 GCSE specification which gives students a fascinating range of topics to study. In addition to this it is likely to give them an excellent platform for going on to study the subject at A Level. At the same time, it should be seen as a subject which is accessible to all students but potentially challenging and stimulating for those pursuing the top grades. There is no coursework or controlled assessment and all assessment is made by three papers at the end of the two-year course. Topics being studied might include: Paper 1 Warfare and British society, c1250–present and London and the Second World War, 1939– 45 This paper examines how warfare has shaped life in Britain as well as studying the changing nature of warfare
