DO WE DEPEND ON TELEVISION FOR OUR HISTORY?

We have two tv channels dedicated to history; the BBC has a history web site; and just today on TV there are programmes as diverse as Horrible Histories and Chemistry: A Volatile History. But presenter David Dimbleby is arguing that television is having to make up for the fact that not enough time is dedicated in schools to the subject. Only 31% of students in England and Wales take history at GCSE, and we are one of the few countries in Europe where history is not compulsory beyond 14. Should it be? If so, what should be taught?

BERLIN WALL EXHIBITION

The picture is of Loreto history students visiting one of the remaining parts of the Berlin Wall on one of the department's foreign trips. Berlin was central to the Cold War - and is central to the Unit 3 exam. You still have time to catch the exhibition on the Wall at the Imperial War Museum North.