Examination Boards: OCR A-Level H418 (Option A)
Law is one of three A-level courses offered by the Department of Classics and Political Sciences. The course culminates in three exam papers and there is no coursework component.
There are three large modules, each comprising 25% of the final marks. In Criminal Law, students learn about thirteen crimes and ten defences. In Tort Law, students learn the rules for deciding if one has a legal obligation to another and how this applies to both ordinary life and to employment if the other suffers a ‘wrong’. In Human Rights Law, students study the nature, protection and constitutional position of human rights within the English legal system, studying specific rights in detail, the restrictions upon them and the process of enforcement through the courts. In all three modules, students are tested through their ability to apply their legal knowledge to scenario-based situations and to critically evaluate the present state of the law.
There are also three small modules which together make up the final 25% of the A-level marks. The Legal System module focuses on the civil and criminal courts, the legal professions and access to justice. In the Law Making module, students learn how Parliament operates and how it creates law, how judges interpret that law when considering individual cases and how the system of precedent attempts to ensure consistency and certainty in legal judgments. The Nature of Law module involves students exploring the nature of law in a wider context and developing their understanding of how the law interacts with morality, justice and society.
Law is one of the most popular A-level subjects in the school, with two classes running in in both Year 12 and in Year 13. The teaching staff has a high level of expertise; the Head of Department has written for Law Review and has had over twenty A-level Law teaching resources published by ZigZag Education. Law was the school’s most successful A-level subject in 2024 with 26% of the cohort gaining Grade A or A* (compared with national average of 16%), and 15 students going on to study Law at University.