Our government and politics curriculum aims enhance students’ political literacy. By equipping students with the ability to engage with politics in a holistic and balanced way, they develop political agency. In the long term, this gives students the ability to navigate and find their own political affiliations and beliefs. Ultimately, this provides students with both an understanding of the ever-evolving world of politics, as well as fostering a genuine interest and passion in how government and politics works, how it is influenced and the power we have as citizens to initiate change. This will lead to students seeing the value of studying politics and what it means for their understanding of their place in the world and in society.
We are ambitious for all our politics students. We have sequenced our curriculum carefully to ensure students are supported in the early weeks, as students are starting a brand-new subject, whilst also offering significant stretch and challenge throughout to ensure all students can achieve highly in politics. We believe that every student at Paddington, regardless of prior or current attainment, has the right to learn more about the world of politics and gain a genuine political voice through outstanding teaching.
In politics, students develop a series of important skills and characteristics that help them progress as young people and ensure they are well-equipped for the world of work. Students develop essay writing skills that will result in the ability to organise an argument with balance, analyse challenging material, as well as evaluating and draw conclusions on complex political issues. Alongside this, the nature of politics means that students’ reading ability and research skills are enhanced significantly by a deep study of the various mechanical and conceptual knowledges required to understand government and politics. One of the wonderful aspects of politics is the inherent requirement to debate. As a result of this, students’ malleability and flexibility of thought is probed and pushed at across the years to ensure that they are capable debaters by the end of their time studying politics at Paddington Academy.
Politics as a subject is one that could not be more relevant in the dynamic, fast-changing, globalised nature of the 21st Century. The political field is one today that has never been more closely analysed and is constantly changing. We firmly believe that politics is a subject that all students should study to help understand more about the nature of the world we live in.
Year 12
In Year 12, students study two key components: UK politics and UK government.
In UK politics, students learn about how people participate in democracy in the UK, the role and history of political parties, the different electoral systems, as well as the role of the media in UK politics.
In UK government students will study the nature of Britain’s constitution, the role of parliament, the power and purpose of the Prime Minister and the executive, before finally looking at the relationships between these different branches of government.
Year 13
Towards the end of Year 12 and at the start of Year 13 students study political ideologies. This is a fascinating look at political ideas that have developed over long periods of time. Students will study the three core political ideologies – conservatism, liberalism and socialism – before studying our non-core ideology of nationalism as their fourth ideology.
For the remainder of Year 13 students study US government and politics. This involves studying the nature of the US constitution, the role of Congress, the power of the President, the role of the Supreme Court, before finally concluding with a look at democracy and participation in the USA. Students then compare their knowledge of American government and politics with the British content studied in Year 12. This ensures that the course tightly links together and students master the ability to compare political systems.