Politics

Welcome

Politics at Edgbarrow School is a popular subject with some of the most enthusiastic and engaged students in the Sixth Form.

In politics we want all students to:

enjoy and become fascinated by politics
develop as independent thinkers
explore and experience the politics of the world around them
achieve the highest standards of academic excellence.

Our pedagogy is based on the belief that politics should be taught in an exciting and yet academically rigorous way with a generous mix of debate and discussion and rigorous research modelled on an undergraduate university politics course.

Politics at Edgbarrow is academically successful and we are proud to consistently teach students who achieve outstanding results. The course is taught by a politics specialist who is committed to sharing their passion for all things political. This fascination with the subject rubs off on students. While many take Politics as a third or fourth subject, a significant number come to love it so much that they go on to read Politics or International Relations at university.

Key Staff

Mr Birch - Head of Department

CURRICULUM INTENt

To encourage students to become passionate, informed and successful students of politics.

Key Stage 5

A-Level

Unit 1 – Government and politics of the UK. This includes studying the political institutions of the UK, the nature of British democracy and participation, including voting and pressure groups. (33% of A-Level)
Unit 2 – Government and politics of the USA and comparative politics. This involves studying the American constitution, institutions, parties and elections, as well as comparing the UK and USA politics. (33% of A-Level)
Unit 3 – Political Ideas. This includes studying the key ideologies of history, which underpin political discourse: conservatism, liberalism, socialism and nationalism. (33% of A-Level)

Summary Curriculum Plan

Homework Intent

To reinforce learning within the classroom and to provide students with the opportunity to read and think more broadly about politics.

Inclusion

It is our intent that pupils with special educational needs/disabilities (SEND) follow the same curriculum, learn alongside their peers and achieve similar outcomes. In addition, they may benefit from additional opportunities in the lessons and in the co-curricular activities that are arranged especially for them.

SEND Implementation and Impact

Pupil Premium Intent

Literacy

Reading Aims:

To ensure students are equipped to understand command words in questions.
To ensure students are equipped with a range of independent reading strategies to aid comprehension when reading and answering exam questions.
To ensure students are equipped with a range of independent reading strategies when interpreting source material.
To support students in understanding complex vocabulary that they encounter in their reading.
To encourage students to read for pleasure outside of the lessons.
To encourage students to engage with current political news.

Writing Aims:

To ensure students are equipped with strategies to construct their answers.
To ensure students are equipped with a range of independent strategies to enable them to plan their answers carefully.
To equip students with strategies to reflect on and redraft their writing.
To explicitly teach spelling to enable students to write fluently.
To support students in writing creatively, through teaching them to use ambitious vocabulary, language devices and structural techniques.

Literacy Strategies

Co-Curricular

Debate club - Politics students are encouraged to participate in the debate club held at lunchtime weekly in the Sixth Form. This will help hone the debating skills that will be useful through their politics study, as well as give them the chance to have fun debating some of the topics that aren’t covered in the politics course.

Independent Study

Students that start the course will be given a detailed revision guide and links to revision materials, which will also be posted on the politics Google Classroom.

Politics Reading List

For further information regarding our Politics Curriculum please contact:

Mr Birch (Head of Department)