Year 7

Medieval England (the Norman conquest; the establishment of Norman rule and feudalism; castles; the medieval church; Henry II and Thomas Becket; the medieval village economy; the Black Death; the peasants’ revolt).

Year 8

Aspects of early modern European history (the Renaissance; the Italian city states; the Reformation; art; architecture; patronage; criticism of the Church) and British history (religion and rebellion under Edward VI and Mary I; the reign of Elizabeth I, including the Spanish Armada; James I; the causes and course of the civil wars).

Year 9

Expansion, trade and industry (slavery, the agricultural and industrial revolutions, transport, political change and imperialism); the First World War (its causes, trench warfare, the home front and the events of 1917-18); civil rights in the USA from emancipation to the 1960s.

Year 10

Russia between 1905 and 1941 (the collapse of the Tsarist regime; the Russian revolution; the Bolsheviks and Stalin in power); international relations between 1919 and 1949 (the 1919-1923 peace treaties, the League of Nations, the collapse of international peace and the start of the Cold War).

Year 11

Coursework on Germany c 1920-1945 followed by a British module covering the first two decades of the twentieth century; welfare, suffragettes and the home front during war time.

Year 12

The transition from Anglo-Saxon to Norman rule between 1035 and 1087 (claims to the English throne in 1066; why William of Normandy won the battle of Hastings; how William dealt with opposition and defended his English frontiers); the origins and course of the French revolution between 1774 and 1795. There's a trip to Paris in July to look at some of the most important revolutionary sites.

Year 13

Philip II's rule in Spain and the Netherlands or the reign of Peter the Great in eighteenth-century Russia; Britain and Ireland between 1798 and 1921. In the spring we hold a British and Irish history conference with top academics. There’s also an independent investigation on a topic of your choice.