Curriculum Intent and Rationale

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The intent of the Politics course is to engage students with the key issues that shape the present day and equip them with the knowledge to become scholars within the subject. Students will learn about how the decisions that affect them are made and study the external factors that affect these, allowing them to use this evidence to frame opinions and judgements around these key examples of policies and political actions. Students will study the political systems of the UK and the USA through their Legislatures, Executives and Judiciaries and use this knowledge to compare and contrast the two systems analysing strengths and weaknesses. Students will gain knowledge of how they can get involved in the political process through elections, parties, pressure groups and petitions. They will analyse the strength of weaknesses to make judgement regarding the best method. By creating active scholars, we hope to enable students to infer, analyse and evaluate knowledge of past events in a sensitive and informed manner. By developing their opinions, students will gain the knowledge and understanding of how they and others can shape their political futures.

The Politics course intends to prepare students for beyond the school environment. Students will learn to critically assess and evaluate evidence, both primary and secondary, combining with their knowledge to make judgement on their value to scholars and reliability. Students will look to use evidence to scaffold and develop opinions on a wide range of issues, as well as growing their explanations, both verbally and in written form. Looking at the bigger picture, they will look to compare and contrast different political ideologies and beliefs.

Politics is widely respected and is often seen as a key indicator in regards to university courses and future career prospects. This can be seen in not just Politics-related courses but also History, Law, the Civil Service, the Media, Business and Administration, Finance, Computing, Education and Medicine.

Implementing our curriculum