History A-Level at The Swan
The study of history at The Swan prepares you for every possible future. You will gain a highly respected and flexible qualification for your progression into higher education, but also you will gain an understanding of the world as it is. The A-Level course intentionally focuses on the periods of intense upheaval, persecution and revolution which gave birth to the modern world.
Students who study history at The Swan will benefit from a curriculum planned and resourced by a team of experienced history specialists. Your teachers are widely read and committed to excellent evidence based lessons. A-Level history students will be encouraged to take advantage of the varied enrichment opportunities that Oxford has to offer, for example: lectures, debates and essay writing competitions. A student who wishes to study history at the Swan should have an insatiable appetite for knowledge, which they will want to share and develop, and a curiosity that motivates them to ask incisive questions.
The study of history at The Swan is your world, explained.
6 in History GCSE or 6 in English Language or Literature GCSE
AQA A-Level History (7042)
Component 1: Breadth study (30% of A Level, 2h 30m exam)
1D Stuart Britain and the Crisis of Monarchy, 1603–1702
This unit covers:
The challenges to the absolutist monarchy of the early Stuart monarchs in religious, political and social terms
The revolution and upheaval of the First and Second Civil Wars
The challenges to, and failure of, the post war political settlement
The restoration of the monarchy after 1660
The growth of parties and ministers in the British political system
The Act of Settlement and the solidification of the modern political dynamics between the monarch, parliament and government
Component 2: Depth study (30% of A Level, 2h 30m exam)
2H France in Revolution, 1774–1815
This unit covers:
The origins of the French Revolution under the Ancien Régime in the 1770s
The experiments with a constitutional monarchy in an attempt to avert revolution in the 1790s
The execution of the king, rise of Robespierre and the Terror
The reaction to the Terror and the rise of Napoleon
The Coup of Brumaire and the establishment of the French Empire
The impact of Napoleon on the wider world up to 1815
Component 3: Historical investigation Non-Exam Assessment (20% 3500-4500 word essay written in Yr 13)
Interpretations of the causes of the Witch Hunts in Early Modern Europe 1540-1660
This unit covers the many and varied explanations for the period of intense witch hunting that took place in Europe in the Early Modern Period.
This unit covers:
The various historical interpretations which attempt to explain the hysterical hunt for witches
Contemporary beliefs and maleficia, the devil and women
The sources produced at the time concerning the ideas around witchcraft
A range of historians who have discussed and argued about the causes of the witch hunts