Mayfield Grammar School, Gravesend
Politics
“Each generation is responsible to make the future of the next.”
Nancy Pelosi, Former Speaker of the US House of Representatives (2007-2011)
The Politics department delivers a knowledge rich curriculum that develops confident and articulate speakers that are able to engage in contemporary political debates. We want students to be able to unpack political information relation not only to the UK and US political systems but from alternatives around the world and discuss different perspectives using an array of political theory. Our goal is to create a well-informed citizenry capable of articulating multiple-perspectives to be able to evaluate those views and orient themselves in the local, national and global community.
Key Concepts
Democracy and Political Participation
Structures of Government and State
Electoral Systems
Rights and Responsibilities
The Media
Political Ideologies (Conservatism, Feminism, Liberalism and Socialism)
Comparative Political Theories (Cultural, Institutional and Rational)
Key Skills
Our ambitious Politics curriculum aims to provide students with:
- The ability to select the most relevant political theory from their repertoire to solve a given problem.
- The ability to analyse similarities and differences between political institutions and to evaluate how their work has changed over time.
- The ability to critically evaluate the strength of political arguments by unpacking the assumptions upon which they rest.
What is taught?
Academic Literacy in Politics
Students academic literacy is developed by:
• The explicit teaching of political terminology in our lessons.
• Guided engagement with the ‘Article of the Day’ feature where students analyse political information every school day.
• Curated reading for students, with seminar style discussions built into our curriculum.
Mayfield students are encouraged to extend their interest in Politics by…
- Engaging with the curated Politics reading library.
- Providing students with opportunities to present their independent learning in class and to the wider school community. For example students have previously designed form time discussions to be used around the school and led debates in school.
Enrichment Opportunities
- The ‘Annual Political Exercise’ where students engage the whole school community in a political debate.
- Guided debates and discussions across the school developed by our politics student leadership team.
- Weekly meetings of the newspaper review group (Thursdays from 8AM in the Dining Room).
- Debating Society (Wednesday lunchtimes).
Careers Guidance and Support for Politics:
https://www.prospects.ac.uk/careers-advice/what-can-i-do-with-my-degree/politics