What makes a starred A?

In the last edition of Teaching History (February 1999, Issue 94) Kate Hammond used her own planning and classroom practice to extract some principles for stretching the very able pupil at Key Stage 3. How should history teachers build on this at GCSE? One way of defining goals for such pupils is to analyse the attributes which candidates need to demonstrate in order to secure grade A*. Angela Leonard outlines the characteristics of such performance and the issues which teachers therefore need to emphasise in their GCSE planning and teaching. These recommendations will also benefit teachers of candidates who may not reach these heights. Angela Leonard identifies many fundamental principles which  teachers can use to shape and develop pupils' thinking throughout the GCSE course. The examples have been taken from the Edexcel syllabus 1328, but the comments have been designed to apply to a range of syllabuses.