‘The Key Cases’ Activities for AS and A Level OCR Law

Content updated for the new 2020 specification!

Boost exam recall with this bank of stimulating, easy-to-use, topic-by-topic activities. Ensure they know the key Acts of Parliament and cases that will help them to achieve the highest possible grades for the new 2020 OCR A Level specification.

Clearly enhances student learning in Law

P Emerton, Teacher and Peer Reviewer

Every topic includes a variety of activities designed to reinforce different skills.

  1. Learn: Learning Grids help students to recognise the outcomes and significance of each case and increases understanding – a great, easy-to-set homework task!
  2. Reinforce: ‘Match-up’ and ‘Dominoes’ provide a useful bank of starter and plenary tasks to help reinforce knowledge of key cases.
  3. Revise: ‘Flash cards’ and ‘make your own glossary’ are ready-made for revision and ensure students retain the key information.

This is something that students have been requesting, especially the exhaustive list of cases for each topic

S Harwood, Subject Coordinator and Peer Reviewer
Revision CD includes ‘Match-up’ Dominoes and Flash Card PDFs
  • A ready-made reference list for OCR Law
  • Clear ‘at a glance’ summaries, making cases easier to recall in an exam
  • Promotes active learning & supports weaker learners through structured activities

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What do teachers say about this resource? (11291)

A very detailed overview of human rights cases. This would be very useful for a teacher starting out teaching this module or a teacher who needed to update their class resources.

In particular, I like the fact the case grid is divided up into topic area in the last column, I think it makes it a user-friendly resource despite the size of it. It is also useful for teachers to be able to read through all the examples on this document and select which ones they will use for their teaching, as well as use the priority case table at the beginning.

Reference to the exam board mark schemes at the beginning of the resource adds extra value to this resource. Newly qualified teachers or teachers new to this specification will find that useful. E.g., reference to the fact there are now no set requirements for a certain number of cases is useful to know, as previously there were none.

The explanation given to a cases significance is particularly useful, students will not only know the facts and outcome but why that decision was made. This will help develop their A02 application skills in being able to identify similar facts in a scenario and then also be able to write evaluation points for their A03. The significance part of the grid may develop their A03 skills by being bale to identify areas of the law that need improving or resulted in unfairness.

I really like the layout of the case and statute grids; these are easy to use and would be useful to print to use alongside other planning. Very user friendly.

This resource matches the specification extremely well. There are no cases/Acts that are missing that I can see and each one is explained in full how they can be used as part of an essay with an explanation to their significance. Furthermore, the explanation of cases after a copy of the Article from the ECHR is useful to know how an A01 part of an essay could be structured. This would be useful for a new teacher to human rights to influence their teaching on essay writing.

This resource is to an excellent standard and is one I would consider buying if I were at the beginning of planning a course. It would be one I would recommend to anyone in that position.

V Binns, Law Teacher & Peer Reviewer

A useful resource to amalgamate all sources of law for Human Rights. There is comprehensive case law from both the ECtHR and UK courts. I thought there was a good variety of helpful activities to support learning and retrieval/revision .

I particularly liked that the resource includes an asterisks to identify cases that are particularly important. Identifying and recalling leading cases is a skill my students can struggle with - this should help.

This resource could help to support flipped learning, with students learning important cases and/or statutes at home before a lesson. The flash cards activity would be useful to support retention and retrieval activities in the classroom.

The instructions at the beginning were helpful. The flashcards activity has been prepared well - it appears easy to print and distribute to students. I like that cases are listed alphabetically making them easy to find (especially for cases that feature in more than one area of the specification).

I think this resource matches the OCR specification well. It focuses on important key authority students will need to succeed in the paper 3 examination. The resource clearly breaks down all areas of HR listed on the specification and provides details on what authority is included for each section.

This is a good resource to develop a deeper understanding of key authority contained within the HR module. It would be well matched with a resource detailing HR content.

E Nash, Teacher of Law & Peer Reviewer

This is a great resource for staff and students. I would use the activities in class and for revision.

[Teachers] say that the number of cases is a challenge, as well as there being an overall lack of available resources as the option has not been around as long as the others on the OCR spec. I have recommended this to them as I really think it will help with their teaching. The focus on what aspects of the case are important and linking it to the relevant article and part of the specification is really useful.

It is really clear which aspect of the topic and specification the case links to and why it is important. Students need to be able to accurate cite, relevant cases and make the relevance clear to meet the assessment grades and the resource helps them do this.

The content is suitable and the facts of the cases are given succinctly using appropriate language.

The specification is met. The reference to levels of assessments and the importance of case law within that are highlighting in the introduction to the resource. This focus is good for teachers and students so they are clear on why case law and statute law are so important to getting good marks in the exam.

The guidance for how teachers can use the resource is great, it is always good to have new ideas and activities. Students often like to use flashcards in their revision but they are not always good and create them so to have this already made and accurate would be great for them.

I really like the staring system for the cases so that students and teachers can prioritise important cases.

As a teacher I also like the fact that there is an option to edit certain parts of the resource [and] select parts from it to use. It would certainly help people new to human rights as the content is accurate and through.

Cases in this area can be factually confusing and go to court numerous timed so to have the information accurately laid out is great. The important warning about some of the content of the cases in the introduction will help teachers to select cases which are right for their learners. This is a useful warning.

C Vaughan, Teacher and Expert Reviewer

What do teachers say about this resource? (11046)

This resource is every Law teachers and students dream. The layout is nice, clear and concise. Excellently presented.

The nature of the topics results in a lot of cases. This can be daunting for students, but this author has indicated using stars the priority cases. This is turn should put some students at ease.

This resource is essential for teaching paper 2 - Law of Tort.

L Amparbeng, Head of Law & Peer Reviewer

What do teachers say about this resource? (11042)

I think that this is a very useful resource which allows for learning and retrieving of knowledge of key cases. This is reinforced through the variety of activities which will be useful to reinforce the knowledge of the cases and provide variety in one of the things students find hardest about the Law specification – learning all the cases!

I particularly like the clear grid of cases at the start of the activity pack which lists the key cases for the topic/subtopic – this gives students a good overview of the key cases that need to be remembered for their examinations.

I also like the ranking of the cases in priority order, using the star ranking. This is very good to enable students to highlight the key cases they need to remember for each topic – one of the things I am commonly asked by students is “what cases do I REALLY need to know?” and this resource makes this clearly known.

I very much like the advice on Key Cases which is useful to students in application questions – it reiterates the importance of some cases over others and which are vital to explain key points of law.

I like the variety of resources available - the idea of having flash cards ready created for students rather than them having to create their own, is a time saver and allows them to practice using the cases rather than creating the resource.

It enhances student’s ability to spend time on learning cases and practice using them in assessment questions as opposed to spending time creating their own revision aid for the knowledge of cases.

It promotes the development of retrieval practice and use of metacognition in revision as it enables students to revise key cases in a variety of methods.

This is a very beneficial educational resource as it also frees up teachers from creating lengthy case activities – the activities will be very engaging to use in the classroom and during independent study so is well worth the money!

I believe it would save me time from developing resources to learn cases as well as benefiting students in terms of retrieving knowledge of cases using a variety of recall methods.

J Watkinson, Leader of Teaching & Learning and Innovation, Teacher, Examiner & Peer Reviewer

What do teachers say about this resource? (11292)

It matches the specification and correctly lists the assessment objectives in the introduction.

Some of the cases are very recent and much more up to date than the textbooks which is really useful. It is also really useful that the resource includes a star system for prioritising certain cases and statutes. This makes the list less intimidating and is really helpful to teachers and students.

Overall it is a useful resource. Students often struggle with this paper as it is quite different to the other 2 that they sit. They particularly struggle to learn the different theories and theorists as this is not a skill they require for the other papers. As it is a new addition to the spec there are less resources available for it. This resource gives teachers valuable materials to use for revision, independent study and to assist recall of knowledge. Students are often not very good at producing their own flashcards so this is particularly useful. A number of different activities can be undertaken with the case study grids. A teacher could cut them up and give each column of one row to different students and ask them to find students with the other elements etc. Which is good for getting students to move around the room. Or completion of the table could be set for independent study. So it is a very useful, flexible resource.

C Vaughan, Law Teacher & Peer Reviewer

What do teachers say about this resource? (11043)

I think that this is a very useful resource which allows for learning and retrieving of knowledge of key cases in the Tort Topic. This is reinforced through the variety of activities which will be useful to reinforce the knowledge of the cases and provide variety in one of the things students find hardest about the Law specification – learning all the cases!

particularly like the clear grid of cases at the start of the activity pack which lists the key cases for the topic/subtopic – this gives students a good overview of the key cases that need to be remembered for their examinations.

I also like the ranking of the cases in priority order, using the star ranking. This is very good to enable students to highlight the key cases they need to remember for each topic – one of the things I am commonly asked by students is “what cases do I REALLY need to know?” and this resource makes this clearly known.

I very much like the advice on Key Cases which is useful to students in application questions – it reiterates the importance of some cases over others and which are vital to explain key points of law.

I like the variety of resources available but the idea of having flash cards ready created for students rather than them having to create their own, is a time saver and allows them to practice using the cases rather than creating the resource.

It enhances student’s ability to spend time on learning cases and practice using them in assessment questions as opposed to spending time creating their own revision aid for the knowledge of cases.

It promotes the development of retrieval practice and use of metacognition in revision as it enables students to revise key cases in a variety of methods.

This is a very beneficial educational resource as it also frees up teachers from creating lengthy case activities – the activities will be very engaging to use in the classroom and during independent study so is well worth the money!

J Watkinson, Leader of Teaching & Learning and Innovation. Teacher of Law and Business. Examiner for OCR Law and other exam boards. & Peer Reviewer