Edexcel History GCSE 2018

[karriecreamer]

Any history teachers who can help please?

DD will be doing her GCSEs next Summer. All is going well except for History. Apparently there are 4 "sections" over 3 papers. They spent the entire year 10 on paper 1 "Thematic study" and are now doing half of paper 2 "British depth study" which the teacher has told them she'll finish by Christmas.

Now, I might not be the brightest button, but that leaves the second half of paper 2 and all paper 3 to do between Christmas and Easter. Looking at the mark scheme, that's half the total which she expects to cover in a single term, when she's taken a full year and the full Autumn term to do the first half!

Does anyone know if the other half of paper 2 (Period study) and paper 3 (Modern depth study) are a lot simpler/quicker?

I just can't see how she hopes to cover, basically, half the syllabus in a single term when it took her 4 terms to cover the first half?

Unfortunately, teacher is HOD and completely unapproachable. DD has had her for 3 out of the 5 years and she's only turned up at one parent's evening, and even then, she was very flippant and dismissive. In the past, I've emailed her and she either doesn't reply or just a curt "ask your daughter to see me after a lesson" - she just won't engage at all.

Help??

[Badbadbunny]

Sorry, can't help, not a teacher, but I feel for you as my son is doing Edexcel History GCSE too and his teacher isn't really coping well either. They started to be taught King John as the British depth study last year and had spent a few months doing it, and then suddenly the teacher dropped the bombshell that he'd been teaching the wrong module and that they were doing Anglo Saxon and Norman England instead so had to start again and has since bombarded them with homework, etc., trying to catch up and are now only just onto the period study which he's also rushing them through. Stupid thing is, that the sheet they handed out on the first day clearly showed it was Anglo Saxon and Norman England they were doing, so heaven knows how the teacher managed to ignore that and teach something completely different instead!!

[mmzz]

DS is doing AQA so not the same but broadly similar. They have just started their 4th section. Of the test books, it's the thinnest. I think they are expecting to do nothing but revision from mid Feb onwards.

I didn't write that to make you feel bad, just to add a voice where you can stop doubting what your senses are telling you.
Personally, the teachers attempts to rebuff me combined with these very valid concerns you have would make me escalate things.
It's email her and ask for a phone call add you have concerns. Give her until Wednesday morning, then if no adequate response, email again giving her a deadline of next Friday. The following Monday, contact the head of year about your concerns that your DD's history GCSE is in danger and the teacher will not engage with you to discuss the issues.

[traviata]

OP my DD is also doing Edexcel and they have just started the 4th section.

In depth (Crime & Punishment) plus Elizabethan England and Weimar Republic were all done last year, and they have just started Cold War. I can't remember which of these corresponds to the different papers.

[charlmum60]

My DD is also doing AQA and sounds like she is broadly inline with Mmzz all elements of paper one covered and some elements of paper 2. They are have lunchtime clinics where they are going through questions again from paper 1 so trying to keep everything fresh still...I would definitely contact her she surely cannot avoid communication at this stage in your daughter's education - just to put your mind at rest.

[mmzz]

Some teachers aren't people-persons, but making people intimidated to ask you about things is a classic way to defend yourself when deep-down you know you are doing badly.
She probably justifies her unwillingness to engage by telling herself that rather than hand holding parents, her time is better spent preparing lessons.

I know that feeling because I've done it myself (not a teacher). You can feel sympathy with her, but don't let her away with it.
It never works out. Early intervention from SLT is the only chance of rescuing the situation, if that's what is going on.

[Verbena37]

I would ask for a meeting with head of year, the history teacher and maybe your DDs form tutor.
Before you go, write everything down you want to discuss and ask how they’re going to achieve it. They might have a plan....doesn’t sound like it but you never know.

In the mean time, if you can afford a history tutor, I’d get one once a week or every two weeks from now on and get them to teach the last two sections they’ve not yet covered, rather than going over the stuff already learnt.

[Allthebestnamesareused]

Some schools cover some of the syllabus in year 9. It might be worth checking with your DC whether this is in fact the case.

[DumbledoresApprentice]

I'm a history HOD teaching this spec and the impression I am getting is that an awful lot of history departments have got the timings badly wrong on the new gcse. Some people posting on the teacher groups I'm in on social media seem to be completely in denial about just how behind they are too. IMO paper 3 can't be done in the time between Christmas and Easter and thinking that you can also do half of paper 2 is complete insanity. I will just have half of paper 2 to do after Christmas and I will finish just after Easter (I have a week by week plan). I would buy a set of the textbooks and encourage her to self-study as much as possible.

[karriecreamer]

Some schools cover some of the syllabus in year 9. It might be worth checking with your DC whether this is in fact the case.

No, I know what they've done in the past, and they've not been taught anything about them. It's all been UK history in years 7-9. The modules not yet started are Wiemar and Middle East!

[DumbledoresApprentice]

I'm teaching Middle East. It will take us from Christmas until after Easter on its own. We do USA not Weimar but we started that in late May/early June last year and won't finish until Christmas.

[doghairinmytea]

Hmm, I teach Edexcel GCSE History and we covered Crime and Punishment and American West last year, will be finished with Elizabethan England by November, leaving just Weimar to teach before starting revision. Do you know how many lessons a week your DD has? We have 3 lessons a week. Will you have a parents' evening any time soon that you could discuss this at if there's an issue with communication with this member of staff? Alternatively there might be a head of humanities or similar? It does seem like your daughter's teacher is going to struggle to complete the course with enough time for focused revision.

[Mmzz]

What have you decided to do, OP?
You've had a few options and no one saying that it's probably ok and your DD is where she should be
You could choose:
a tutor and / or a big Amazon order for all the text books and revision guides etc.
A chance for the teacher to meet with you to allay your concerns?
An appeal to the school to look at what's going on in the history dept?
Nothing until parents night?
Nothing at all.

[charlmum60]

I spoke to my DD today about History - I was totally wrong in saying she was doing AQA...she is also doing Edexcel....they are working on Weimar at the moment. She also said that her lunchtime clinics were really beneficial because they are going through questions that are similar but require a totally different answer - where some children misinterpret the questions. If I was in your situation i would get your DD to look at some past papers and read the answers to the questions and practice them for the topics she has not yet covered ....My DD did some Computer Science questions for area's they had not covered in May before her MOCKS and she was able to answer some questions she was not expected too..although I am not sure whether this would work with history.

[mmzz]

Are the past papers similar enough to the 2018 exams to be worth doing?
I thought that the exams had all changed completely. I'd be glad to be told I'm wrong

[CauliflowerSqueeze]

Don’t bother asking for a meeting with the head of year or form tutor. You need the member of SLT who line leads humanities. Phone the school and ask the secretary who that is and for their email address and set out your concerns to that person.

[DumbledoresApprentice]

The exams are new so there are no past papers. There will be practise questions in the textbooks though. I agree that you should contact the SLT line manager. The Head of Year or form tutor won't be able to tackle this, they'll refer it on to the teacher herself which will probably not get you anywhere.

[charlmum60]

Computer Science is a new exam but my DD found that she still was able to use past papers from previous exams to assist her (she just went through papers answering what she could and just reading and absorbing some of the other information - which did help) I think the same will apply on History because some of the topics are the same so its still work practising questions....although working through the revision guide is probably easier.

[karriecreamer]

So, an update. Aargh!! Finally got the expected stroppy/curt email from her saying she knows what she's doing, doesn't appreciate being questioned, etc., and confirming that the current section will be finished by Christmas, i.e. half way through the syllabus. That leaves about 10 teaching weeks before the exams start, whereas her "plan" shows 30 weeks of teaching for the second half of the syllabus, i.e. modules 3 and 4. That makes things so much worse, as I thought she may have been close to finishing module 2, but, no, several more weeks of it. So, by her own planning and comments, she thinks she can fit 30 teaching weeks into 10 and it's not a problem!

Email to SLT on it's way!!!

[mmzz]

I hope you are going to forward her email in its entirety as an attachment to your's to the SLT, and yours will be respectful, considered, polite but dripping with deep concern...!
Leave the SLT with no option but to address what is going on in their school.

[charlmum60]

Hope you manage to get a result from the SLT....I was looking at exam timetables and it does look like History is 5th/14th and 20th June so at least its not in May....sorry to butt in on your thread but can anyone explain the timetable for History - I don't understand all the different units ?

[mmzz]

you are looking at edexcel history GCSE 2018?
If so, then you could ask your DC which options they are taking, but you don't need to know that to know the times and dates:

Paper 1 is in the morning of 4/6/18 and last 1hr 15
Paper 2 is in the morning of 8/6/18 and last 1hr 45
Paper 3 is in the afternoon of 12/6/18 and last 1hr 20


Not everyone does Weimar Republic for example. There are other options, but whatever options your DC's school decided upon, the 3 papers your DC will sit are listed above.

(At least that's my guess)

[charlmum60]

Thank you - how thick am I...was looking at 2017 timetable !

[DumbledoresApprentice]

The teacher is delusional. She's never going to finish the course in time and tbh it's now too late for her to rectify the problem properly. Her class are going to be doing a lot of self teaching under stressful conditions. I think a lot of schools have struggled with timing on this syllabus but your DD's school is an extreme example. They will have covered just 50% of the course by the time my class will have done 80% and I am only just going to finish on time. Her teacher will have two and a half times more content to get through than I will and will have the most difficult exam technique (paper 3) to teach.
I'd kick up a big fuss as this is completely insane.

[charlmum60]

Well I completely got my facts wrong and my DD is doing IGCSE so the syllabus has not changed and she is just sitting two papers .... on the 4th and the 8th ....Its just a pity that this peer group is going into these exams under different pressures - some like my DD will have an much easier task ... hopefully the grade boundaries will be lower karriecreamer - it seems so unfair.

[BlessYourCottonSocks]

I'm with Dumbledore. She's got something like 'American West' and 'Weimer and the Nazis' to do yet, depending on the topics chosen.

Her second half of Paper 2 should take 12 weeks (ie Christmas to Easter). Paper 3 is the big one and it was made very clear to us on an Edexcel training day that staff MUST leave 18 weeks to teach it.

In addition, these timings are frankly wildly delusional (from the exam board) as to what is needed. All teachers are tearing their hair out (Dumbledore - are you on Edexcel FB group? - waves frantically) over the HUGE amount of content we are supposed to cover and the fact that we are really, really struggling to get skills in too.

I have taught (at the speed of light; far too fast for kids) British Depth Study Sept-Dec Y10, Period Study, Jan - Easter Y10, Thematic Study Easter - July. Just finishing Depth Study bit of Crime and Punishment. And will be starting Paper 3 after half term - until Easter. That will be me finished and then frankly having to go back over skills etc for revision.

Your DDs HoD has failed miserably in my opinion.