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A Level Lecture

A Level lectures are between 15 and 30 minutes long and are based on an over-arching enquiry question. Each lecture provides both core knowledge and reasoned analysis of an important theme. This then facilitates students to construct an essay response and develop their own line of argument. The sample above follows the enquiry, 'To what extent was Mary Queen of Scots a threat to Elizabeth I?' This is a classical enquiry question on the Tudor dynasty, which is a popular A Level History topic.

A Level Seminar

A Level seminars are skill-based rather than knowledge-based, but do require students to recap core knowledge they have learnt from the lectures. They break down exam-style questions and then talk through how to both plan and write a response. This example provides an extract evaluation - in other words, students need to read and analyse the opinion of a historian and cross-examine this with their understanding in order to evaluate the validity of the argument presented. In this case, the seminar provides a close analysis of an extract on Elizabethan foreign policy, guidance on the construction of a response and an exemplar model answer.