Government & Politics

The intention of A-Level Politics is to produce well-rounded, informed and active citizens who have an understanding of local, national and global political issues with a desire to participate in and contribute to the democratic processes of this country. It is to instill in students an appreciation of British values including democracy, individual liberty, tolerance of others and the rule of law. Finally, the aim is to produce students who engage with, and are passionate about, current affairs and will remain so beyond their A-Level studies.

Students will gain a solid understanding of UK and US politics and well engage with major ideas and ideals centred upon core ideologies including liberalism, socialism, and conservatism. The Politics course is designed to engage students in the nature of politics, and enable students to construct and communicate arguments clearly and coherently using appropriate political vocabulary. There is a large emphasis on higher-order analysis and evaluation skills, as well as critical persuasive writing and argument skills. Students also need to be able to identify similarities, differences, parallels and connections between aspects of the areas of the politics studied ensuring a high level of synopticity. Ultimately they will need to critically assess different perspectives and formulate their own substantiated judgements.

Paper 1 is studied first which examines UK Politics. This is a good starting point to first inform students of the political system and processes which they are subject to. This is followed by studying US Politics (Paper 2) which is done in a comparative fashion thereby enabling students to compare and contrast the US political system/ institutions/ parties/ electorate/ processes etc to the UK. Finally, once students have a clear understanding of the core themes, institutions and concepts they can grapple with tougher theoretical arguments and ideals which underpin the study of Politics and thus engage with the key ideas of political thinkers both past and present (Political Ideas – Paper 3). This final unit gives a good insight into more difficult concepts and higher level understanding which would be more typical of university study making sense to study this unit last.

Half Term 1

UK Constitution/ Devolution
Democracy/ Participation

Half Term 2

Parliament
Elections/Referendums

Half Term 3

PM and Cabinet
EU/ Political Parties

Half Term 4

UK Judiciary
Political Parties/ Pressure groups

Half Term 5

US Constitution Human
US Elections

Half Term 6

US Supreme Court
US Referendums/ US Political Parties

Half Term 1

US Supreme Court/ Congress US
Political Parties

Half Term 2

US Presidency (executive)
US Civil Rights

Half Term 3

Socialism
Liberalism

Half Term 4

Nationalism
Conservatism