History

We seek to do all we can to ensure that all pupils studying History are routinely stretched appropriately, that they take increasing responsibility for their own learning and that, by these means, we empower them to discern and appreciate the benefits of studying the past in a fast changing world.

In the History Department we seek to nourish and develop all the attributes of the academic historian, ranging from the ability to narrate detailed and complex chronologies, such as events in Russia in 1917 and the actions of the House of Commons 1640 – 1642, to demonstrating the capacity to interrogate a source. After all, if a scholar cannot think of a question to ask a source then that source forever remains silent in the same way that a suspect in a murder trial does not have to describe his whereabouts if not asked ‘So, where were you on the night of the murder?’ Our aim is to equip pupils to engage with the past and for them to develop the wherewithal to ask their own questions of the material they encounter, and by so doing to deepen and extend their own intellectual curiosity.

Fourth Form (Year 9)

We take great pride in the fourth form in allowing our teachers a free-hand to share their expertise. All pupils will cover the Holocaust, and there are some loose themes – war, revolution, significance – that gently bind the curriculum together, but otherwise we our focus is simply to share our passion for the subject and ensure boys are well-equipped to meet the demands of the IGCSE curriculum.

GCSE

Our GCSE pupils follow the Cambridge IGCSE History 0977 course, studying Option B (the 20th century: International Relations since 1919) accompanied by a Depth Study of Germany, 1918 – 1945. In studying the international relations part of the course, pupils consider how the peace was created in 1919 how within a very short period of time, Europe was engulfed in another conflict. We then moved to the Origins of the Cold War, through to America’s involvement in the Korean War, the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War. In the process pupils engage in historical controversy, including Chamberlain’s low historical reputation, American responsibility for causing the Cold War and Kennedy’s role in the Cuban Missile Crisis. For the depth study on Germany we consider the perennial question of how a country that produced Beethoven and Bach also fell prey to the fatal allure of Adolf Hitler.

A Level

At A level, pupils study the OCR syllabus and study topics that range across time and place: the Crusades, Pitt to Peel and US civil rights. For coursework, staff draw on their relevant expertise and offer pupils a range of questions on a topic chosen by the teacher, although there is scope for those students with particular interests to pursue a different research area.

Co-curricular

There are a number of History societies. The Senior History Society invites speakers every Monday lunchtime. Papers are delivered by distinguished academics, members of staff and the pupils. Archive Society meets on Monday afternoons and invites pupils to formulate an original research project using materials from the St Paul’s Archive. Enrichment sessions, which help prepare students for undergraduate study, take place on Tuesday afternoons and are generally focused on discussing an academic article or probing primary material.  The Junior History Society meets weekly to discuss material beyond the scope of the IGCSE curriculum.

Trips

Recent trips have included a joint venture with the Politics Department to the USA in October 2024; visits to Germany (Munich to Berlin via Nuremberg) and Prague to complement the IGCSE course, and to local sites of interest, such as Whitehall and the British Museum.