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??

I am on the Facebook group. 👋 I know there are teachers on there who are a bit behind but nowhere near as far behind as this. This teacher seems to have got it badly wrong and it's worrying that she doesn't even seem to realise that she will not finish the course. It's a shocking failure of basic numeracy and planning.

I’m teaching edexcel. We have done Anglo-Saxons/Normans and Medicine, and are about 2/3 through Weimar. Will finish mid November, leaving us the second half of term 2, and term 3 to do Cold War. That feels very tight as we’re used to finishing all content by Christmas. I can’t imagine how they’re going to get everything done in time.

I can’t believe how dismissive the HoD has been! We would be hauled in front of SLT if we were like that, and I’m in a good school that backs it’s staff. You definitely need to get in touch with SLT, do you know who is responsible for History? I would actually be tempted to just go straight to the Head, tbh. And I never say that!!

Also teaching the edexcel, I just have paper3 to teach and I am stressing about timing...recommend the official Pearson books/revision guides and maybe a tutor, but please speak to slt at school, they NEED to know this. Good luck.

karriecreamer any update please?

Hi all, I'm finding my position in a very similar position. I've been banging my head against trying to get answers out of a less than helpful school....

Eldest sibling now turns to History GCSE, all notes in an unstructured, incoherent mess, teachers unhelpful and still quite a way to go before finishing paper 3... with final assessment just really around the corner. As the history grad in the family, it fell to me to pick this up, so....:

Do you have any recommendations of how to structure revision for GCSE if you are lagging behind? How have parents other tutoring learnt to help answering the new 1-9 GCSE format questions - what turns a 5 into a 9? Have read through specifications and markschemes, but if anyone with example answers and grades from own DDs could you please send them over?

This is for the Pearson Edexcel board - anyone on the same board - any help would be super appreciated!

Do you know which options they're studying? There are some good revision guides available, both from Pearson and Hodder. If you ask to join the Edexcel GCSE History Teachers group on Facebook you'll get lots of helpful advice.

@Sakura - thank you an incredibly helpful tip-off! Heartfelt thank you - will head to FB now.
Yes, papers are 1. medicine from 1250 with focus on WW1, 2. Elizabethan England, Cold War 4. US / Civil Rights.

My son is doing OCR so slightly different topics but they are currently doing the last topic and finished in January.

We have found useful, the revision guide for his course but his teacher is fantastic and so my son's own notes are great.

Also YouTube videos, I can highly recommend Gerard O'Toole who is clearly a history teacher, he not only puts across the topic well but also gives you questions that you may get asked.

For us on OCR we have just watched Elizabethans but he covers Western Front, Medicine and the Cold War. Link to him here

My son has made flashcards but also typed up extensive notes. He is very organised so they are in topic order. The main focus for him is the second order concepts so he doesn't just know what happened but why it happened, what came next etc.

Good luck.