Government and Politics

Overall Government and Politics Intent: 

• Students of Politics at HGS have an eagerness to embrace complex ideas and differing views of the world. 
• Students are encouraged to understand themselves based on the diverse world around them and to understand others in their local, national and global communities.  
• To give students the confidence to defend their beliefs and the ability to be open-minded about the beliefs of others, approaching political ideas with a critical eye. 

Key strengths of the curriculum

Government and Politics at HGS follows the Edexcel specification. 

• Students are introduced to the course using broad themes such as democracy – a large part of the course is focused around key debates in UK and US Politics, for example extent of pluralism and elitism in political systems. 
• Students are exposed to ideological ideas towards the end of Year 12 – this is more complex and therefore comes after students have already studied the ideas and core beliefs of UK political parties, providing a foundation for the more complex ideological ideas encountered and a springboard for the study of US politics. 
• The sequencing of curriculum across the A Level is designed to reinforce core knowledge and broaden understanding of substantive concepts to create a web of knowledge that students can draw on. 

Golden thread themes include – democracy, elitism, ideological coherence, the nature and extent of political power and influence. 

Key strengths within Government and Politics  

• Teacher subject knowledge – particularly the UK aspect of the course.  
• Questioning – targeted for access and challenge. 
• Provision of challenge reading and opportunities to enrich understanding of current affairs 
• Careful modelling  
• Production of targeted resources to meet the needs of all students 
• Presence of strategies to promote depth of long-term knowledge retention 

Curriculum overviews