We have amended the study of the historic environment component for GCSE History A to fix the sites studied from June 2019 (Castles) and June 2020 (Urban Environments).
Following consultation with and feedback from teachers, we are changing the way the study of the historic environment will be assessed for GCSE History A. At the moment, the site to be studied changes each year. However, from now on students will study either Kenilworth Castle or an urban environment (South Shields in 2019 and Spitalfields from 2020 onwards). This means teachers of the Castles option, who are already preparing students to be examined on Kenilworth Castle in 2019, can continue to prepare each cohort of students for an exam on Kenilworth Castle in all future series.
For teachers of the urban environments option, they should continue preparing students to be examined on South Shields in 2019. For the June 2020 examination, and in future series, teachers should prepare students for an examination on Spitalfields.
We hope these changes will make the historic environment component of the qualification more straightforward for teachers to plan and teach. The teachers’ guides for Kenilworth and South Shields are already available from the 'Planning and teaching' section of the qualification page and a site pack for Spitalfields will be available from spring 2019.
The set site will be reviewed after three years and may be subject to change. Each set site will remain on the specification for a minimum of three years, unless the review process identifies a necessary change. If a site is to be changed and replaced with a new one, centres will be notified in September, two years before the relevant examination series.
If you have queries about any aspect of these changes and how they affect your centre, please contact the History Subject Advisors.