GCSE History - Teaching from 2025

The GCSE History qualification will support the Curriculum for Wales by:

Supporting the statements of what matters by giving learners the opportunity to:

• gain a deeper understanding of the concepts underpinning humanities, and their application in local, national and global contexts
• gather, justify, present, analyse, and evaluate a range of evidence
• draw informed conclusions, but also understand that some conclusions can only be partial or inconclusive and open to different interpretations
• critically review the ways events and experiences are perceived, interpreted and represented
• learn how various worldviews and factors can influence their own and others’ perceptions and interpretations, exploring how and why interpretations may differ
• develop an appreciation of identity, heritage and cynefin, including the history of Wales and the World
• develop an understanding of the complex, pluralistic and diverse nature of societies, past and present, in particular the stories of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people
• build an understanding of the causes, consequences and significance of the changes and interrelationships that have shaped societies at different levels of development
• understand how societies are and have been organised, structured and led, in learners’ own locality and in Wales, as well as in the wider world
• explore the connections and interdependence between such societies in the past and present, in the context of a globalised world
• understand the interconnected nature of economic, environmental and social sustainability; justice and authority; and the need to live in and contribute to a fair and inclusive society that confronts and addresses racism
• critically reflect on their own and others’ beliefs, values and attitudes
• consider the impact of their actions when making choices and exercising their democratic rights and responsibilities
• justify their decisions.

Supporting the principles of progression by encouraging learners to:

• ask increasingly sophisticated enquiry questions
• find suitable information, making informed predictions and hypotheses, and making judgments about reliability and utility
• engage with an increasing breadth and depth of knowledge and underlying concepts to build an increasingly clear and coherent understanding of the world around them
• work with an increasing number and sophistication of sources of information, and a growing understanding of how to resolve contradictory or conflicting accounts
• transfer existing skills and knowledge into new, and increasingly unfamiliar contexts, making links within and between periods and places, identifying similarities and differences, changes and continuities
• identify connections between new and previous learning. With greater understanding of the world, of other people and their values, in different times, places and circumstances.

The construct of GCSE History qualification is based on the Welsh Government subject specific considerations for History.  The qualification will:

• provide opportunities to understand different periods, events, people and cultures in history, exploring these at a local, national and global scale 
• provide opportunities to understand the significance of people, events and developments in history and how these can be interpreted in different ways: in different places and at different times
• equip learners with the skills to understand, interpret and evaluate historical evidence in order to make informed judgements
• equip learners with the skills to make sense of their place and the place of others within the framework of human experience 
• provide opportunities to develop curiosity and empathy as well as the ability to filter and critically analyse the breadth of information available to us, to make informed and balanced judgements that foster a sense of cynefin and one's place in the world.

The GCSE History qualification will also be based on the following historical concepts listed within the Approval Criteria:

• continuity and change
• similarity and difference
• significance and impact
• cause and consequence

Each of these concepts support the Welsh Government’s ‘Designing your curriculum’ guidance as well as those within the statements of what matters and progression steps for Humanities.