AQA's own specification, option lists and the historic environment site rotation for 2026, 2027 and 2028 — set out for AQA GCSE History (8145).
Book a Free ConsultationAQA GCSE History (8145) is a linear GCSE assessed by two written papers, Paper 1: Understanding the Modern World and Paper 2: Shaping the Nation. Ten per cent of the course is the historic environment, a single named site studied inside Paper 2, and AQA changes that site every year while publishing the replacement three years ahead — so a resource written for one year's site can test the wrong building for a student sitting a different year's exam.
Our expert AQA GCSE History tutors build every lesson around the specification a student is actually entered for, including checking the correct historic environment site before setting any past-paper practice.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppAQA's own GCSE History (8145) specification, Version 1.3, dated 24 September 2019, is direct about how this works. It states that “students will be examined on a specific site in depth” and that “this site will be as specified and will be changed annually”, adding that “for all series the specified site will be published three years in advance at aqa.org.uk/history”. The same document sets the historic environment at “10% of the overall course, which equates to approximately 12 hours out of 120 guided learning hours”, sitting inside Paper 2 Section B, the British depth study.
| British depth study (AQA option) | Summer 2026 series | Summer 2027 series | Summer 2028 series |
|---|---|---|---|
| BA: Norman England, c1066-c1100 | Pevensey Castle | The Battle of Hastings | The White Tower |
| BB: Edward I, 1272-1307 | Caernarfon Castle | The Battle of Stirling Bridge | Acton Burnell Castle |
| BC: Elizabethan England, c1568-1603 | The Globe | The Spanish Armada | Kenilworth Castle |
| BD: Restoration England, 1660-1685 | Ham House | The Dutch Raid on the Medway, June 1667 | St Paul's Cathedral |
Source: AQA, “Historic environment sites 2026 to 2028”, published 4 September 2025, last updated 5 September 2025.
Each row is keyed to AQA's own option code, so there is no ambiguity about which site belongs to which cohort. A student entered under option BB, Edward I, 1272-1307, sits Caernarfon Castle in the June 2026 series, moves to the Battle of Stirling Bridge for June 2027, and moves again to Acton Burnell Castle for June 2028. A student entered under a different option follows a different row entirely, and a revision resource dated to one year's site is not evidence for a different year's candidate, even where the underlying depth study is the same.
A three-year publication window gives a school or tutor planning a Year 9 or Year 10 History programme visibility of which site a current Year 9 will sit when they reach their GCSE exams in the 2027 or 2028 series, well before any commercial resource pack for that year exists. AQA's specification-at-a-glance page does not carry this notice at all; it sits only on AQA's own news page, dated separately from the specification itself, which is one reason a general search for the AQA GCSE History specification will not surface it.
AQA structures GCSE History around four content elements, in the specification's own words: “one period study, one thematic study, one wider world depth study, one British depth study including the historic environment” The period study and the wider world depth study sit in Paper 1, Understanding the Modern World; the thematic study and the British depth study sit in Paper 2, Shaping the Nation. Both papers are linear, sat in the same exam series, two hours long and worth 50% of the GCSE. How the other GCSE History specifications divide the same territory — different paper counts, different mark totals, different assessment structures — is set out on our GCSE History overview; everything below is specific to what AQA itself asks of a student entered for 8145.
AQA's own specification-at-a-glance page lists a single assessment method for each paper — a written exam — with no coursework or non-exam assessment named for either one, so the whole grade rests on the two exam scripts. Within Paper 1, Section A carries six compulsory questions worth 40 marks and Section B carries four compulsory questions also worth 40 marks; within Paper 2, both Section A and Section B carry four compulsory questions worth 40 marks each. Every student answers every question set on their entered options — there is no further choice once the entry code is fixed, which is part of why getting that code right before planning lessons matters as much as it does.
Whichever of AQA's period, wider world, thematic or British depth studies a school has entered a student for, our AQA GCSE History tutors plan every lesson from that school's own entry code rather than a generic revision scheme.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppAQA names four option lists across its two papers. Paper 1 Section A offers period studies on America 1840-1895, Germany 1890-1945, Russia 1894-1945 and America 1920-1973. Paper 1 Section B offers wider world depth studies on conflict and tension, running from the First World War through to the Gulf and Afghanistan, 1990-2009. Paper 2 Section A offers thematic studies on Health and the People, Power and the People, and Migration, Empires and the People, each running from a fixed start date to the present day. Paper 2 Section B is the British depth study list already named in the table above: Norman England, Edward I, Elizabethan England and Restoration England. Full titles, part-by-part content and how each compares with the other GCSE History specifications are on our GCSE History overview; what matters here is that Section B is the list carrying the historic environment, and how AQA's entry code ties a student's choices together.
Each of the four lists is introduced in the specification with the identical, self-contained instruction “Options to be declared at point of entry”, repeated separately ahead of Paper 1 Section A, Paper 1 Section B, Paper 2 Section A and Paper 2 Section B, with no cross-reference from one list's instruction to another. AQA then explains how the entry code itself is built, in the specification's entries and codes section: the code is 8145 plus one letter for the Paper 1 pair and one letter for the Paper 2 pair. Neither that section nor the subject content section states a restriction on which Paper 1 pair may be combined with which Paper 2 pair. AQA's own entry-code lookup tool asks a school to choose one option from each of the four lists independently, which is consistent with free combination, though we have not tested every possible pairing through that tool ourselves. The specification's overlaps section states only that GCSE History “has no overlaps with any other AQA qualifications at this level” — a different question from whether its own four lists can be freely paired. If AQA restricts specific pairings anywhere else, such as an administration bulletin we have not reviewed, we have not found it.
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Yes. Every quote on this page comes from Version 1.3 of AQA's GCSE History (8145) specification, dated 24 September 2019, written for first teaching from September 2016 and first examined in 2018 — the same edition that fixes the historic environment rotation and the four option lists described above. AQA has not reissued the document since, so a family checking an older printout or a cached PDF is very likely looking at the same specification; the safest check is the version line printed in the document's own front matter and footer, both dated 24 September 2019.
The practical check is simple: open the specification directly rather than relying on a cached search result, and read the version line printed identically on both the specification-at-a-glance page and the downloadable PDF's own front matter and footer. A statement of entry or a school's own scheme of work referencing 8145 is referencing this same document, whatever year the surrounding material was written in, because the specification code itself has not changed since first teaching began in September 2016.
Need an AQA GCSE History tutor who tracks the annual site change for you? Our tutors update every historic environment resource as soon as AQA reissues the rotation, so lessons never target the wrong year's site.
Book a Free Consultation Message us on WhatsAppTwo consequences follow directly from the rotation above. First, a tutor cannot safely reuse a historic environment resource pack, past paper or revision guide without checking which year it targets: a genuinely well-made pack on Caernarfon Castle is the wrong resource for a student sitting the Battle of Stirling Bridge in the June 2027 series. Second, because AQA's entry code fixes exactly one period study, one wider world depth study, one thematic study and one British depth study per student, a tutor who has the school's entry code knows precisely which topics — and which historic environment site — apply, with nothing left to guess. Our expert AQA GCSE History tutors confirm the entry code and the current year's site before planning a single lesson, then build revision around the exact studies that code names, not a generic history syllabus that could belong to a different board's specification. In practice that means checking the entry code with the school's history department at the start of the course, cross-checking it against the correct year's row in the table above, and only then building resources for the specific site and depth study a student will actually sit, rather than a generic historic environment pack that quietly assumes last year's site.
Yes. AQA's GCSE History (8145) specification, Version 1.3, dated 24 September 2019, states that students are examined on a specific site in depth and that this site will be as specified and will be changed annually. The same document promises that for all series the specified site will be published three years in advance at aqa.org.uk/history, which is why the sites for the 2026, 2027 and 2028 exam series are already public. A resource written for one year's site is not automatically valid for a different year's exam.
For the June 2026 series, AQA confirms Pevensey Castle for the Norman England option, Caernarfon Castle for the Edward I option, The Globe for the Elizabethan England option, and Ham House for the Restoration England option. A student sits only the one site tied to the British depth study their school entered them for, not all four sites. A school's entry code, or simply the British depth study option it has declared, determines which row applies to a particular student, and this cannot be inferred from the subject name History alone.
For the June 2027 series, AQA's confirmed sites are the Battle of Hastings for Norman England, the Battle of Stirling Bridge for Edward I, the Spanish Armada for Elizabethan England, and the Dutch Raid on the Medway, June 1667, for Restoration England. For June 2028 the sites become the White Tower, Acton Burnell Castle, Kenilworth Castle and St Paul's Cathedral, in the same order. AQA published both sets in the same notice, dated 4 September 2025 and updated 5 September 2025.
AQA's specification states that the historic environment is 10% of the overall course, equivalent to approximately 12 of the 120 guided learning hours the course is built around. It is not a paper of its own: it sits inside Paper 2 Section B, the British depth study, so a student revises it as one strand of whichever depth study — Norman England, Edward I, Elizabethan England or Restoration England — their school has entered them for.
AQA's specification sets out the option lists and explains, in the entries and codes section, that the entry code is built from 8145 plus one letter for the Paper 1 pair and one letter for the Paper 2 pair. Neither that section nor the subject content section states a restriction on which pair a school may choose from each list, and AQA's own entry-code lookup tool lets a school pick one option from each list independently. The overlaps section states only that GCSE History has no overlap with other AQA qualifications at this level, which is a different question, and we have not reviewed every AQA administration document, so a restriction stated elsewhere cannot be ruled out.
The current AQA GCSE History (8145) specification is Version 1.3, dated 24 September 2019, written for first teaching from September 2016 and first examined in 2018. AQA has not reissued the document since, and it is the edition that fixes the historic environment rotation and the option lists discussed on this page. Because older blog posts and forum threads sometimes link to a cached copy, checking the version and date printed on the document's own cover page is the most reliable way to confirm a resource is current.
A tutor working from an old past paper, workbook or revision guide has to check which year it targets, because the fixed site changes every year and older material can test a different building or event entirely. Confirming the school's entry code first also tells a tutor exactly which period, depth and thematic studies apply, without spending time on options a student will never be examined on.
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