Teacher guide

Edexcel GCSE History revision for teachers

These activities are mapped to Edexcel GCSE History 1HI0. Eleven of them, sixteen minutes each, and **all eleven sit on Paper 1**. Paper 1 is unusual because it holds two incompatible scales. The thematic study, Warfare and British society, runs from about 1250 to the present and asks what changed and why across seven centuries. The historic environment, London and the Second World War, asks for close detail about one city across six years, sources included. Those need different revision. One is chronology, turning points and comparison across periods. The other is specifics, and the discipline of weighing a source rather than describing it. Our eight thematic activities and three London ones follow that split. Papers 2 and 3 have nothing here yet, and that is said plainly below.

This page lists what we actually have for Edexcel GCSE History 1HI0. It is built from the live activities, so it is accurate on the day you read it.

One paper, two kinds of knowing

Most specifications ask for one kind of knowledge per paper. Edexcel's History Paper 1 asks for two, and they pull in opposite directions.

The thematic study is breadth. Warfare and British society from around 1250 to the present. What a student needs is the shape of change: what altered between the medieval period and the early modern one, what the industrial age did to it, what modern technology changed again, and crucially why. Detail matters less than being able to trace a line across centuries and explain the turns in it.

The historic environment is depth. London and the Second World War, six years, one city. Here detail is the point, and so is provenance: who produced a source, when, and why they produced it.

A student who has revised hard for one of these can walk into the other with almost nothing usable. That is worth naming for a class, because it is not obvious from a revision list that says "Paper 1".

How the eleven split

Eight on the thematic study, arranged as four periods each paired with named battles, so the sweep has anchors rather than being an abstract chronology:

Medieval warfare and society, then Falkirk and Agincourt.
Early modern warfare, then Naseby.
The industrial age, then Waterloo and Balaclava.
Modern warfare and technology, then the Somme and Iraq.

Three on London and the Second World War: the context, the civilian impact, and one entirely on evaluating sources.

That last one is the most useful single activity here for most classes. Source evaluation is where students describe when they are asked to weigh, and provenance is the specific thing they skip.

What is missing, and it is a lot

Papers 2 and 3 have no activities at all. For this specification that means the British depth study, the period study and the modern depth study: in our mapping, Henry VIII and his ministers, superpower relations and the Cold War, and Weimar and Nazi Germany.

That is two of your three papers. This is a Paper 1 resource, not a History resource, and it would be dishonest to present it otherwise. If your revision plan needs Nazi Germany in February, nothing here helps with it.

The eleven that do exist are worth using for what they are, and the gap is worth knowing before you build anything around them.

Using them

The lists below group by classroom use, worked out from what each activity contains. Everything is sixteen minutes, which makes placing them simple: one a week through a term covers the whole set.

Geography A faces a similar split between content that can be revised and assessment that cannot, and handles it differently: Edexcel GCSE Geography A. The activities themselves, with the recall goal spelled out, are described in ready-to-run revision activities, and for students working through them alone, see independent revision students actually keep doing.

To put several in front of one class in order, build a sprint. Everything else we have, by subject and board, is on the revision pages.

What this page does not do

It covers one paper of three. Nothing for the British depth study, the period study or the modern depth study.

It covers one option combination. History is chosen from lists, and these activities follow one thematic study and one historic environment. If your centre teaches a different thematic study, none of the eight applies.

Eleven activities across a two-year course is a supplement, not a scheme of work. It does not track anything, so there is no completion list to check.

Every live History activity for Edexcel

13 activities, all mapped to Edexcel/Pearson GCSE History (1HI0).

See all 13, by topic

Try it with your class

Edexcel History 16 minutes

Medieval Warfare and Society

14 steps, 10 interactive, 10 activity types.

Best used for

Homework Intervention Mock preparation

Homework: Set it as a link. It marks itself.
Intervention: Mostly questions, so it finds the gap quickly.
Mock preparation: Asks students to build an answer, not just recognise one.

Try one question

Why was the longbow such an important medieval weapon?

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Edexcel History 16 minutes

The Somme and Iraq 2003

14 steps, 10 interactive, 10 activity types.

Best used for

Homework Intervention Mock preparation

Homework: Set it as a link. It marks itself.
Intervention: Mostly questions, so it finds the gap quickly.
Mock preparation: Asks students to build an answer, not just recognise one.

Try one question

What made attacking across the open ground at the Somme so deadly? Choose the best answer.

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Edexcel History 16 minutes

Evaluating Blitz Sources

14 steps, 10 interactive, 10 activity types.

Best used for

Homework Intervention Mock preparation

Homework: Set it as a link. It marks itself.
Intervention: Mostly questions, so it finds the gap quickly.
Mock preparation: Asks students to build an answer, not just recognise one.

Try one question

What does the provenance of a source mean?

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Common questions

Which parts of the course do these cover?

Paper 1 only, and all eleven of them. Eight cover the thematic study, Warfare and British society from about 1250 to the present, and three cover the historic environment, London and the Second World War. There is nothing yet for Papers 2 or 3.

So nothing on Henry VIII, the Cold War or Nazi Germany?

Nothing at all. Those are the British depth study, the period study and the modern depth study, and they are two of your three papers. Treat this page as a Paper 1 resource rather than a History resource.

Why does Paper 1 need two kinds of revision?

Because it asks for two kinds of knowledge. The thematic study wants change across seven centuries: what altered, when, and why. The historic environment wants close detail about one city over six years, including the sources. A student can be strong at one and lost in the other.

Do the activities cover source work?

Yes, in the historic environment set. One is entirely about evaluating sources, including provenance, which is the part students most often handle by describing a source rather than weighing it.

How long are they?

All eleven are sixteen minutes, which makes them straightforward to place: one per lesson, or one a week through a term.

Will I see who has completed them?

No. Following a shared link records nothing about who followed it, which is a deliberate choice about children's data.

Put one in front of a class

Tell us the subject and how long you have. You get a link to hand out, and it marks itself.

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Related for teachers

Edexcel GCSE Geography A revision Every live Edexcel GCSE Geography A (1GA0) revision activity, mapped to the Geographical Themes specification, with a straight account of which parts of this course can be revised in advance and which cannot.
Independent revision students actually keep doing What keeps a student revising when nobody is watching, what DoRevision does about it, and where the limits of that are. Written for the teacher who has run out of ways to chase Year 11 in April.
Ready-to-run GCSE revision activities A working list of GCSE revision activities, each with the thing it makes students recall, the moment they find out whether they were right, and what they do about it. Some run on a screen and some need nothing but a board.