16 replies to this topic

[NeilM]

Firstly think we will be sticking with current favourites

Unit 1 (compulsory)
Culture & Beliefs
Environmental Issues

- Opportunity to assess these units in Summer 2010 and again Summer 2011 (will hopefully boost pass rates)

Unit 2
Prejudice and Persecution
Global Inequality

Unit 3 (compulsory)
Written assessment - holds some fear for me at the current time.

What options are you considering?

NeilM

[john bassett]

what's the uptake like for this course Neil?

[m_cooper]

We currently do global inequality and prejudice and persecution as the optional units, but I'm disappointed to see conflict and co-operation dropped from the core units, so i'll probably swap either global inequality or prejudice and persecution for this. I'm also a little worried about the 'coursework' task!!

[Sarah V.]

I'm afraid I'm going to have to plead ignorance (and stupidity!) here as I haven't looked at the new spec yet- it's all a bit up in the air at the moment as we are teaching it for the first time this year (in a year) to post 16 students who are not quite ready for AS Levels but still want to stop on. The idea is that this extra year of level 2 courses will ensure they have the grades needed in Maths and English to take some AS courses the following year.
So, we're still making sure we are confident with this year's spec - not even sure if this whole initiative will continue nest year.

But...

It sounds as though there are some significant changes - are there only now two compulsary units for paper 1?

And is the coursework project quite differnt too?

I'm off to the AQA website !

Sarah

[Sarah V.]

hmm...

well, it looks better overall but yes, the cswk thing could be tricky!

has the list of controlled essay topics been relased yet?

It says it will be released 'well before September' -whatever that means?

[HRS]

My students always struggle with Global Inequality the most, so may give that a miss, although I do like them to have a history/geography type balance as our teaching is split between a historian and a geographer. They generally enjoy conflict and co opperation although they do find the key terms for this unit especially difficult to learn.

I like the idea of being abl to split the assessment over two years of teaching though! All our students are in the less able band and find remembering a lot of information/concepts challenging.

Also worried about the controlled assessment thing!

[sally j]

I am going to be teaching humanities GCSE for the first time this year- AQA and am quite worried about it!

[farrelk]

Just wanted to say thanks Neil for all the great resources you have posted. I am returning to teaching gcse Humanities after years off the option choices at my school. I remember when it was 100% cw. Fantastic to be teaching it again and great to find up to date reources.

[NeilM]

Just wanted to say thanks Neil for all the great resources you have posted. I am returning to teaching gcse Humanities after years off the option choices at my school. I remember when it was 100% cw. Fantastic to be teaching it again and great to find up to date reources.

Cheers, hope they're helpful.
NeilM

[Roy Huggins]

Hi Neil,

What made you decide to pick AQA GCSE Humanities? When I briefly looked at the Welsh board I noticed that they did 100% coursework. Please excuse my ignorance but I only started looking at it today.

Kind Regards

Roy

[NeilM]

Hi Neil,

What made you decide to pick AQA GCSE Humanities? When I briefly looked at the Welsh board I noticed that they did 100% coursework. Please excuse my ignorance but I only started looking at it today.

Kind Regards

Roy

Hi Roy,
We inherited AQA Hums (I'm not the the HOF, merely the lowly Head of HIst in a Humanities Faculty) to set some background we've offered this course for going on 20 years here in our special and snow-covered part of West Yorkshire. It suits a number of particular needs, our students are a massive range of ability in large year groups of approx 360. Humanities is a core subject and all students have to sit the GCSE.

It covers prejudice and persecution (We're regretably a BNP stomping ground, with lots of local issues, racism, a divided community, a poor immigrant community increasing steadily, white flight to far urban areas etc - ripe for the Right) and also lots of interesting moral dilemmas such as the abortion coursework (we also have a high-teenage pregnancy rate) - I appreciate the picture sounds bleak!! It's really not as bad as it might sound. In short it has, and continues to, suit our needs. In addition many students are not cut out for the study of GCSE Hist, and this allows us to teach them more valuable 'life' issues. They can also choose Hist / Geog / RS as an option in addition to Humanities.

AQA in particular, offer a better themed variety of topics. 100% coursework would be too much of a drag I fear, getting work out of students. OCR does a different base of study (more vocation focussed?). Somehow the AQA makes more sense to me!? I'm afraid that I'm not been too helpful. We're battling to keep Humanities as a core subject in the timetable as the results have taken a knock a year or two on the trot. SLT are sharpening their knives!!

I hated the thought of anything getting in the way of 'proper' history when I first started teaching here, now I would rather teach it instead of History. Love it.

If you need any resources / SoWs etc it would be good to be able to pay you back for the many you've given me...

NeilM

[Roy Huggins]

Hi Neil,

Many thanks, I really am at the start of my learning journey on this one. If you've got some SOW or coursework assignments that you can share so I can have a look at them, then I would really appreciate it.

My school is looking at the Humanities option as we are looking a significant drop in numbers and the boss want to move towards a faculty based system. He wants to use GCSE Humanities as a vehicle for delivering Citizenship and RE. What do you think> Can it be done?

I'm not 100% happy, but I don't know enough yet in order to decide either way.... he also wants a vocational aspect so again I'm unsure. All advice gratefully recieved.

Kind Regards

Roy

[NeilM]

Hi Neil,

Many thanks, I really am at the start of my learning journey on this one. If you've got some SOW or coursework assignments that you can share so I can have a look at them, then I would really appreciate it.

My school is looking at the Humanities option as we are looking a significant drop in numbers and the boss want to move towards a faculty based system. He wants to use GCSE Humanities as a vehicle for delivering Citizenship and RE. What do you think> Can it be done?

I'm not 100% happy, but I don't know enough yet in order to decide either way.... he also wants a vocational aspect so again I'm unsure. All advice gratefully recieved.

Kind Regards

Roy

Hi Roy,

Could you PM me your email address, and I'll let you have those.

NeilM

[Sarah V.]

Hi all...

Does anyone know when the pre-released booklets for AQA will be released?

Thanks

Sarah

[NeilM]

Hi all...

Does anyone know when the pre-released booklets for AQA will be released?

Thanks

Sarah

Hi Sarah,

We already have ours, it arrived about week past.

Is it worth checking with your exams officer in case they've filed it assuming it was an exam paper? They came in red plastic bags just like the exams do.

Otherwise I will be adding a copy to HUmanities revision section at pastmatters.org at the weekend.

NeilM