Fiducia TogetherProvenance
Where a source came from: who made it, when, why and for whom. Usually the difference between bands.
Please note: This page explains a word or a process in education. It is general information about the system, the law and the guidance in England — not advice about your child, your school or your exam. If a decision is going against you, get advice from one of the free services we link to before you agree to anything or miss a deadline. If you are revising, check your own exam board's specification: boards word things differently and yours is the one that marks you.
What it is
Provenance is the origin and context of a source — author, date, type, audience and purpose.
Where it applies
GCSE and A Level history.
How it works
Purpose is the most powerful element and the least used. A speech intended to raise morale, a private letter, a government report and a newspaper aimed at a particular readership are unreliable in different, predictable directions.
Date matters twice: when the events happened, and when the source was made. A memoir written forty years later has hindsight and faded memory.
How to use it in your work
Use the NOP structure — Nature, Origin, Purpose — and make one specific point from each.
Be specific rather than generic. "It's a newspaper so it might be biased" is a stock phrase examiners report seeing thousands of times. "It is a Nazi-controlled newspaper published for a German readership in 1935, so it will present the rally as a success" is analysis.
Where to get help
Your teacher and your board's specification — options differ enormously between centres, and yours is the one that counts. Bitesize covers the skills; the subject song runs the topics.
Revise this with a song
These are ours. We write revision songs because a lot of people remember a tune when they cannot remember a page, and because revising out loud in the kitchen beats staring at a highlighter.
- The History Song The GCSE history topics, set to music.
Where to read more
Last reviewed 2026-08-28 by Fiducia Together · Next review due 2027-08-28
Please note: This page explains a word or a process in education. It is general information about the system, the law and the guidance in England — not advice about your child, your school or your exam. If a decision is going against you, get advice from one of the free services we link to before you agree to anything or miss a deadline. If you are revising, check your own exam board's specification: boards word things differently and yours is the one that marks you.