history
Why study history?
To study history is to study change: historians are experts in examining and interpreting human identities and transformations of societies and civilizations over time. They use a range of methods and analytical tools to answer questions about the past and to reconstruct the diversity of past human experience: how profoundly people have differed in their ideas,
institutions, and cultural practices; how widely their experiences have varied by time and place, and the ways they have struggled while inhabiting a shared world. Historians use a wide range of sources to weave individual lives and collective actions into narratives that bring critical perspectives on both our past and our present. Studying history helps us understand and grapple with complex questions and dilemmas by examining how the past has shaped (and continues to shape) global, national, and local relationships between societies and people.
Everything we do, everything we use, everything else we study is the product of a complex set of causes, ideas, and practices. Even the material we learn in other courses has important historical elements – whether because our understanding of a topic has changed over time or because the discipline takes a historical perspective. There is nothing than can happen that cannot become history.
At LMI we study the AQA syllabus of GCSE and A Level History. Students have some choice as to what they study (as a group at GCSE, and individually at A Level). The themes covered offer a broad overview of specific periods. The GSCE specification includes:
• Paper 1 – Section A: Period Studies.
• Paper 1 – Section B: Wider World Depth Studies
• Paper 2 – Section A: Thematic Studies.
• Paper 2 – Section B: British Depth Studies Including the Historic Environment.
At A-Level, the choices become more suited to the students individual interests as they need to choose two topics to study over their two year course, as well as a Non-Examination Assessment (NEA) to study in their own time. Students also choose ONE topic from each
component:
• Component 1: Breadth Study.
• Component 2: Depth Study.
Further information on the specific topics for GCSE and A-Level can be found by using the following links:
o GCSE – https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/history/gcse/history-8145/specification-at-a-glance.
o A-Level – https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/history/as-and-a-level/history-7041-7042/specification-at-a-glance.
