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Years 7-11 Students

Politics

Curriculum Overview

Aims and Vison

In the Politics department our mission is to produce students who have inquisitive and an eagerness to embrace complex ideas and differing views of the world. Our Politics curriculum helps students to explain the world that they live in and decisions that are made by those with power by exploring current and historic thinking. Politics students are independent and resilient learners who engage readily in the process of exploring belief systems of different peoples in differing societies and draw parallels with the present while learning to respect the points of views of others. With a forever changing political horizon it is vital that our curriculum encourages students to understand themselves based on the world around them and to understand others in local, national, and global communities whatever their choices in the future and the responsibilities that we have as global citizens with the courage to voice opinions against perceived wrongs. The curriculum aims to give students the confidence to defend their beliefs and the ability to be open-minded and kind about the beliefs of others, approaching political ideas with a critical eye. We aim to enable every pupil to leave with an academic qualification with options leading to further education or employment and personal economic wellbeing.


Further info:

Politics

Components

 

What new knowledge/content do we introduce?

Year 12

Year 13

Autumn

UK Government  

Introduction to Politics:

 2. Parliament

2.1 The structure and nature of House of Commons and House of Lords

2.2 The comparative powers of House of Commons and House of Lords

2.3 The legislative process

2.4 The ways in which Parliament interacts with the executive

3. Prime Minister and executive

3.1 The structure role and powers of the executive

3.2 The concept of ministerial responsibility

3.3 The Prime Minister and Cabinet

3.3.1 The power of PM and Cabinet 

UK Politics

Democracy and participation

1)      Democracy and participation

1.1  Current systems of representative democracy and direct democracy

1.2  Debates over suffrage

1.3  Pressure groups and other influences

1.4  Rights in context

2)      Political parties

2.1The functions and features of political parties

Funding of political parties

2.2 Established political parties

2.3 Emerging and minor UK political parties

2.4 UK political parties in context

US Politics (Teacher 1)

The Constitution

Compromises of the Constitution

The Nature of the Constitution

Amending the Constitution

Key Principles of the Constitution

Comparing the US and UK Constitutions

The Supreme Court

Membership of the Supreme Court

Judicial philosophy

The appointment and confirmation process

The power of judicial review

Judicial activism and judicial restraint

(Teacher 2)

The Presidency

Formal powers of the President

The vice president

The Cabinet

EXOP

The relations with Congress

Direct authority

Theories of presidential power

The president and foreign policy

Limits on presidential power

Comparing president and Prime Minister

Elections

Presidential Elections

Congressional Elections

 

Spring

1.The Constitution

1.1 Nature and sources

1.2 How the Constitution has changed since 1997

1.3 Role and powers of devolved bodies in the UK and the impact of devolution in the UK

1.4 Debates on further reform

4. Relations between branches

4.1 The Supreme Court

4.2 The relationship between the Executive and Parliament

4.3 The aims, role and impact of the EU

4.4 The location of sovereignty in the UK political system

 

 

 

3        Electoral Systems

3.1 Different electoral systems

3.2 Referendums and how they are used

3.3 Electoral system analysis

4. Voting behaviour and the media

4.1 Case studies of three key general elections

4.2 The influence of the media

Supreme Court (Con’d)

SCOUS and Bill of Rights

SCOUS and public policy

Checks on the power of the Supreme Court

Comparing the US and UK Supreme Court

Civil Rights and Liberties

Congress

The structure and composition of Congress

The powers of Congress

Comparing the House and the Senate

Oversight

Legislation

Parties in Congress

Comparing Congress and UK Parliament

Parties and pressure Groups

Party organisation

Party ideology

Party policies

Coalitions of supporters

Polarisation of US politics

The two party system

Third parties

Current conflicts in the parties

Comparing US and UK parties

The theory of Pressure Groups

Functions of pressure groups

Methods used by pressure groups

Power of pressure groups

Impact of pg on government

Comparing US and UK pressure groups

Summer

Feminism option

1Feminism Ideas and Principles

2Different types of Feminism

3Feminist thinkers and their ideas

Revision and practice assessment

Core political ideas

Conservatism

Liberalism

Socialism

Revision and practice assessment

Practice comparison and comparison techniques  (Rational, cultural and structural)

Revision and final exams

Practice comparison and comparison techniques

Revision and final exams

Rationale for these specific components

This theme enables students to understand how political structures work in the UK and understand the historical context

Students will also have an awareness of the changing nature of politics and how the different branches of government are related.

Students should develop an interest in and become engaged with contemporary politics

This theme enables students to develop an understanding of how

people engage in the political process in

the UK.

Students will investigate in detail how people and politics interact.

This section allows students to understand the individual in the political process and their

relationship with the state and their fellow citizens.

Students should develop an interest in and become engaged with contemporary politics

This unit moves the focus from the UK to US politics and aims to give students an understanding of how political systems work in the US. A key aspect of the unit is comparison between US and UK political systems. Students should be able to make comparisons and identify similarities and differences between the two  

As for teacher 1

 

Composites

What do students do with this knowledge?

Students must investigate how the structure of the political system works in a modern day setting by applying their knowledge to current affairs and reading around the subject to broaden their knowledge

Students must investigate different political systems as found in the USA. They should use this to apply the theory to current affairs and reading around the subject to broaden knowledge and make sense of contemporary politics. They should make comparisons between US politics and UK politics.

Intent

Statement

By the end of year 12, an IGS politics student will:

·         Develop an enthusiasm for studying politics

·         Develop a critical understanding of political structures in the UK and how they work in modern Britain

·         Generate enterprising and creative approaches applying modern day examples to political theories

By the end of year 13, an IGS politics student will:

·         Gain a holistic understanding of politics in a range of contexts

·         Understand that politics can be studied from a range of perspectives and be able to develop a balanced viewpoint based on a range of sources

·         Be aware of the bias in the media and on line and be able to research from a range of sources

·         acquire a range of relevant political and generic skills, including decision making, problem solving, the challenging of assumptions and critical analysis

·         Be able to form own opinions and realise these may differ from others

 

Links to previous learning

Key Stage 4

Politics is not studied in KS4 but there are links to citizenship. A Level politics builds upon students' citizenship education by delving deeper into the rights and responsibilities of citizens which has been taught throughout students' citizenship journey at IGS. Through looking at this through the existing political systems, students will develop an understanding of how laws are created and how voting impacts the creation and direction of government. Through looking at discrimination in the work place in year 10 and worker's rights student will be able to tackle case studies in politics regarding turning points in legislation and pressure groups.

Year 12

Using the previous knowledge (Unit 1 and Unit 2) and use it to build on unit 3 and make comparisons between the US and UK political systems

Key vocabulary

UK Government

Constitution

Unentrenched

Entrenched

Uncodified

Codified

Parliamentary sovereignty

The rule of Law

Statute law

Common Law

Conventions

Authorative Works

Treaties

Devolution

Parliament

House of Commons

House of Lords

Confidence and supply

Salisbury convention

Parliamentary privilege

Legislative bills

Public Bills Committees

Backbenchers

Select committees

Opposition

Executive

Cabinet

Minister

Government department

Royal prerogative

Secondary legislation

Individual responsibility

Presidential government

Supreme Court

Judicial neutrality

Judicial independence

Judicial review

Elective dictatorship

European Union (EU)

Four freedoms (EU)

Legal sovereignty

Political sovereignty

Ultra vires

Otherness

Equality and difference feminism

Intersectionality

UK Politics

Legitimacy

Direct democracy

Representative

democracy

Pluralist democracy

Democratic deficit

Participation crisis

Franchise/suffrage

Think tanks

Lobbyists

Old Labour (social

democracy)

New Labour

(Third Way)

One Nation

New Right

Classical liberals

Modern liberals

Party systems

Left wing

Right wing

First-past-the-post

(FPTP)

Additional Member

System (AMS)

Single Transferable

Vote (STV)

Supplementary

Vote (SV)

Safe seat

Marginal seat

Minority government

Coalition governmentFirst-past-the-post

(FPTP)

Additional Member

System (AMS)

Single Transferable

Vote (STV)

Supplementary

Vote (SV)

Safe seat

Marginal seat

Minority government

Coalition government

Class dealignment

Partisan dealignment

Governing

competency

Disillusion and

apathy

Manifesto

Mandate

Hierarchy

Authority

Change to conserve

Atomism Hierarchy

Authority

Change to conserve

Atomism

Noblesse oblige

Anti-permissiveness

Radical

Human imperfection

Laissez-faire

Empiricism

Foundational equality

Formal equality

Equality of opportunity

Social contract

Meritocracy

Mechanistic theory

Tolerance

Limited government

Egoistical individualism

Developmental individualism

Negative freedom

Positive freedom

Laissez-faire capitalism

Keynesianism Egoistical individualism

Developmental individualism

Negative freedom

Positive freedom

Laissez-faire capitalism

Keynesianism

Harm principle

Minimal state

Enabling state

Fraternity

Cooperation

Capitalism

Common ownership

Communism

Evolutionary socialism

Marxism

Revisionism

Social justice

Class consciousness

Historical materialism

Dialectic

Keynesian economics

Unit 3

Bipartisanship

Checks and balances

Codification

Constitution

Entrenchment

Enumerated powers

Federalism

Limited government

‘Principle’

Separation of powers

Congressional

caucuses

Divided government

Filibuster

Gridlock

Incumbency

Mid-term elections

Oversight

Partisanship

Unanimous consent

Domestic politics

Electoral mandate

Executive branch

Executive orders

Imperial presidency

Imperilled presidency

Informal powers

Powers of persuasion

Unified Government

Conservative justice

Imperial judiciary

Judicial activism

Judicial restraint

Judicial review

Liberal justice

Living constitution

Originalism

Public policy

Stare decisis

Strict/loose

constructionist

Swing justice

Constitutional rights

Racial equality

Affirmative action

Campaign finance

Factions

Invisible primary

Political Action

Committees (PACs)

Party system

Policy group

Professional group

Single interest group

Soft/hard money

Super PACs

Religious right

 

How is challenge embedded in the Key Stage 5 curriculum

·         Powerpoints have challenge tasks

·         Each activity is differentiated

·         Each component has an assessment based on A-level exam style questions

·         Powerpoints have challenge tasks

·         Each activity is differentiated

·         Each component has an assessment based on A-level exam style questions

Cultural Capital

A number of websites and podcasts are used to allow students to experience the political world. A selection of the articles can be seen below

·        www.worldpoliticsreview.com

·        www.parliament.uk

·        www.bbc.co.uk/news/politics

·         www.totalpolitics

Westminster hour: a weekly podcast

The Economist podcast

Freakonomics Radio

The Panpsycast Philosophy Podcast

Philosophize This! 

WIDER READING

Books

Cameron at 10 - Anthony Seldon

Betting the House - The story of the 2017 Election

All our War – Tim Shipman (story of Brexit)

Becoming – Michelle Obama

Prisoners of Geography - Tim Marshall

This Boy – Alan Johnson

If only they didn’t speak English – Jon Sopel

How to lose a referendum _ Jason Farrell (why the UK voted Brexit)

Magazines and Periodicals

Political Review

Private Eye

The Economist

Newspapers such as the Guardian, The Observer, Times, and Telegraph all have good political sections

 

 

 

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