History A level with Nick Attwood

History A level with Nick Attwood

History Learning at A level

One of our partner history tutors Nick Attwood tuition provide us with a fantastic blog post on the joys of learning history A level. Tutors and Exams!

Sitting as far back in the classroom as possible, next to the very faded recruitment poster for the BEF to somehow try and avoid the attentions and flying chalk of my schoolmaster as he sat and dictated notes from the front on the class was how I tend to think of my A level History career as a student.

I was very fortunate to have one particularly charismatic teacher who was particularly enthusiastic about the crusades but also very busy as a games teacher and therefore slightly erratic in his attendance. Whatever happened back then I stuck with it all and followed it through to a degree and beyond to a career in teaching A level history. 

By comparison, a lifetime later, A level History is far more engaging now than it was then. I would certainly argue that it is undoubtedly a change for the better from both the student and the teacher’s point of view. A level History today is far more about looking for the reasons why anything happened and exploring interpretations rather than just learning about what happened and in what order. There is much more room for students to express and explore their own opinions and with coursework they can master the skills of framing their ideas in a genuine academic setting and the exams are still rigorous enough to allow those with a genuine flair for the subject to be recognised and rewarded. What I cannot comment on at all fairly was what was on offer to teachers all those years ago; now there is a remarkable range to choose from. From the Crusades to Apartheid and the Rainbow Nation and just about everything in between. The topics allowed within history a level study are fantastic in scope and range.

My most recent clutch of students have been a real mixture of Historians studying a suitably mixed bag of topics. What they have all had in common is the chance to engage with their studies on their terms. Gone is the slog and burden of the subject. In place is the chance to ask more questions and pursue different interpretations. There are undoubtedly some elements that are still seemingly more difficult for a student than others but it doesn’t smother the course anymore in the way that learning the precise details of the Concordat of Worms or the architectural dimensions of the monastery at Cluny used to.

History A level as a subject offers a lot more to our sixth formers now. It genuinely captures the imagination and encourages an active style of learning. Essays and discussions aren’t just regurgitations of the teachers dictations they are now a chance to illustrate the student’s understanding and knowledge; crafted with attention to detail and accuracy and rewarded for their own views when properly supported. History A level stretches and challenges the brain in a much more dynamic fashion than perhaps it once did and therefore as a subject I find it is much more appealing to students as there is much more room for exploring and investigation rather than being limited by the somewhat dusty and inflexible notes I once had to ‘learn.’  

You can talk to Nick directly.

http://www.nickattwoodtuition.com/