History GCSE

[morpurgoo]

At my DCs secondary schools they always do similar topics, no matter the exam board as it changes with each year/school.

But why do the Tudors/primarily Henry VIII and Elizabeth I always come up? DS would have loved to do the Cousins war/War of the roses or just the Plantagenets.

Aibu to ask if the GCSE courses are likely to change any time soon and why are they always so similar each year?

I didn’t have a huge variety in my gcse history. I remeber doing Russian revolution, ww1, ww2.l and A-level was the same plus early 1900s, Cold War and Italy. I really loved modern history but I would have loved to have done a unit in ancient history or medieval or victorians or basically something other than 1900 onwards. I guess it comes down to the interests of the teachers and what books are available.

At a-level we had a free unit where we could pick any topic to do an extended essay. It was quite hard to get the resources without spending a lot of money on books. I wasn’t near a university library and the school didn’t have any budget to help.

Its much easier for the teachers to do the same topics each year. They have a lot of work to do already without having to read up on new topics, learn the exam specification for new topics, produce new resources etc.

Also you cant please everyone. Let's say one year they change it and teach about War of the Rose's instead of Elizabeth I. Then theres some kid going "oh I'm not interested in this, I really wanted to do about Elizabeth I!"

It's not a joke say there was less History when I was young. DS1 studied Margaret Thatcher for A Level History.

@MillicentMartha - I'd say you were the lucky one - I did the same as you at O level and then repeated most of it at A level. I HATED it and would have given my eye teeth to do the Tudors and costume. Had to wait to get to university to study periods that actually interested me.