BAA Politics Curriculum Intent Statement
Our rich and diverse Politics curriculum builds increasingly resilient learners who believe in themselves as confident political analysts. Political values are developed as our students cultivate knowledge and an informed understanding of contemporary political structures and issues in their historical context, both within the United Kingdom (UK) and the US. This enables them to develop a critical awareness of the changing nature of politics and the relationships between political ideas, institutions and processes, which is underpinned through regular discussion of ideas alongside written explanations and a focus on literacy. Through the engagement with contemporary politics our pupils become resilient problem-solvers, who improve their cultural capital and who can meaningfully engage with the world around them.
Students will achieve their potential in politics through engaging lessons that stretch and challenge students at all levels. Lessons are planned to follow the key concepts of mastery; ideas are broken down into small, connected steps that gradually unfold the concept. Teachers will ensure students master each phase before moving through to the next, following a curriculum specifically sequenced to draw links between topics and target misconceptions head on. Modelling is used within lessons to develop and support understanding of the assessment objectives and the techniques required to develop essay writing, which meets these. The curriculum is knowledge rich with regular opportunities embedded for recall of facts and concepts. Underpinning this, the curriculum design builds from foundational knowledge through to complex material. Opportunity for support and challenge is found within lessons, but also in super-curricular activities. This aims to enhance the student’s knowledge learnt in their lessons and enthuse them to become an active citizen as they recognise the importance of engaging in political participation in their own lives and to society.
Expand each Key Stage to access the Curriculum Map and see an overview of what is covered in this subject:
At KS5 in Politics pupils have 5 hours a week. We follow the Pearson Edexcel specification for the qualifications:
The Year 1 content links to the KS5 curriculum as it is structured to enable students to develop an interest in, and engagement with, contemporary politics, with contemporary political knowledge used to substantiate analyse and evaluate political arguments. Democracy is the foundation of the course, therefore starting with this enables links to be made with the subsequent topics. Each subsequent topic builds on previous knowledge and so politics and the influences on politics can be considered before the structure of politics is studied. This allows links to be established between topic areas. The course has been structured to allow for appropriate lengths of time to be devoted to each topic. The course develops political understanding by moving on to investigate core political ideas, which builds upon the knowledge of political parties and considers how the ideologies that these parties may represent are formed and also the conflicts that exist within each ideology. This therefore hones the skills of synthesising information and making synoptic links between the topics covered in UK Politics.
Year 2 builds upon the knowledge and skills acquired in year 1 and starts with investigating feminism, which develops the skills required in the study of core-political idea but focusing on this non-core political idea, which remains contemporarily relevant. The course then furthers political inquiry into US Politics whilst allowing students to compare and contrast the processes and structures of US politics with UK politics, and draw substantiated conclusions. The emphasis on contemporary knowledge based within a historical framework remains with contemporary knowledge still required to substantiate political analysis and evaluation. The study of US Politics commences with the Constitution, which is the historical and contemporary cornerstone of US Politics. An understanding of this is vital so that links can be made to this and the other relevant topics covered. There are regular opportunities to practice US based questions as well as compare US Politics to UK politics as each topic is completed. This allows students many opportunities to practice the assessment skills that they will encounter and have to meet.
Over the two years, students will develop the ability to critically analyse, interpret and evaluate information to form arguments and thereby become better equipped with the skills required to study at Higher Education or in their chosen career.
