One for teachers of Nazi Germany. Been marking some Germany interpretations work - students have done a great job with this which has been nice. One thing though that comes through is one of the big challenges of this period for GCSE students which is...

They struggle with how Nazi Germany changes over time. This theme isn't well addressed by some of the core resources on this in my view. I think lots of students struggle to see how Nazi Germany is different in 1939 compared to 1933.

The way most specs are organised facilitate this - we discuss different features of the regime - terror state, propaganda, lives of women, economy, etc. But don't really provide a chronological narrative of how these things develop.

Would it be better, say for the Edexcel course, if KTs 3 and 4 were divided by time period - 1933-1936 and then 1936-1939. '36 to me is a key dividing line - it's when Himmler takes control of the entire police state apparatus and widens the terror net with the '36 Olympics...

...homing into view. '36 also a key dividing line economically as the Four-Year Plan is introduced and Schacht is forced out. Of course these specs also discard the foreign policy element of Nazi Germany (which is strange as Stresemann's foreign policy IS usually included).

1936 with the Remilitarisation of the Rhineland also a key dividing line and it makes sense to have some of this in as there are interesting parallels to be drawn between Stresemann and Hitler's foreign policy (basically, either talk about both or talk about neither!)

1936 also a key dividing line as it seems to me that this is when the 'honeymoon' period between the Nazis and the German people starts to wear off a little - the grumbling (Resistenz) type stuff picks up as the drive to war accelerates.

Anyway - next round of spec changes I'd really like us to have a think about whether the Nazi Germany element of courses could be re-thought and re-organised a bit to help students get a more sophisticated understanding of what's going on.