A-Level Politics

Exam Board: Edexcel Edexcel AS & A level Politics (2017) | Pearson qualifications

A Week Is A Long Time In Politics goes the saying – but right now it seems every day brings some new issue. Elections. Political scandals. Wars in Ukraine and Gaza. The cost of living crisis. Refugees and deportations. Insurrections and assassinations. Surging Nationalism. Rogue states. Online disinformation. Six Prime Ministers in eight years.

This is a course that will help you to understand how our politics works. We look at how governments work, and how they become the government. Who influences governments, and how. How we vote, and whether we’re just doing what the media tells us. Where political parties have come from, and how people’s ideas from hundreds of years ago are still impacting how we live. How our lives are impacted by the decisions of a handful of people. 

It’s a tough course with an often overwhelming amount of information – but the ideas that we’ll consider are at the heart of everything going on right now.

Course Structure: Year 12

Year 12	Mr Cottingham	Mr Smith
Term 1	Paper 1: Democracy and Participation	Paper 2: The Constitution
Term 2	Paper 1: Political Parties	Paper 2: Parliament
Term 3	Paper 1: Electoral Systems	Paper 2: The Prime Minister and the Executive
Term 4	Paper 1: Voting Behaviour and the Media	Paper 2: Relations Between the Branches
Term 5	Political Ideas: Liberalism	Political Ideas: Socialism
Term 6	Political Ideas: Conservatism	Political Ideas: Nationalism

Course Structure: Year 13

Year 13	Mr Cottingham	Mr Smith
Term 1	Political Ideas: Conservatism Intro to Global Politics/Realism and Liberalism	Political Ideas: Nationalism The State and Globalisation
Term 2	Global Governance: Political	Global Governance: Human Rights
Term 3	Global Governance: Economics	Global Governance: Environmental
Term 4	Power and Developments	Regionalism and the EU
Term 5	Revision and Exam Consolidation	Revision and Exam Consolidation