History at Malvern
History is compulsory in the first and is a very popular option for GCSE and Sixth Form courses. The History course for the Foundation Year (year 9) aims to show something of the variety of the subject. The year begins with a brief history of the school, which leads into an examination of late Victorian and Edwardian Britain, followed by a comparison with Tsarist Russia which then leads into the origins of the First World War. The war is then studied in detail during the Lent and summer terms including a study visit to the First World War battlefields in Northern France and Belgium.
The GCSE course is studied in the Remove (year 10) and Hundred (year 11). Pupils study The Peace settlement on 1919, the League of Nations, Weimar Germany, The Third Reich, Britain and World War II and Russia 1917-41. In the Sixth Form, History is available for all pupils at both A-level and the International Baccalaureate.
The IB course consists of three examinations papers a document paper, twentieth century world topics and a regional study of Europe and the Middle East. In addition all students write an individual assignment on a topic of their own choice. For the AS course, the units studied are a history of modern China from 1900 to 1976 and Britain and India 1900-47. A further two units are added for the A2 course; Revolution, Republic and Restoration: England 1629-67 and coursework Assignments based on a close study of the making of Modern Germany c1800-c1900.
Within these courses the department is concerned to make ideas come alive - from early modern kingship, to the nature of warfare, through the great philosophical systems that have shaped our world - nationalism, the varieties of democracy, liberalism, conservatism, socialism, fascism and communism.
A large number of students continue these historical studies at university with over 30 achieving places at Oxford and Cambridge in the last ten years as well as at other leading universities. The department has a vigorous History Society which organises lectures and visits.
The members of the department represent a wide range of interests and expertise. We have specialists in the Anglo Saxon Monarchy, Stuart England, Oliver Cromwell, the Enlightenment, British Conservatism, the French Revolution, Political ideas, Nineteenth and Twentieth Century British History, and French, German, Russian, Italian and Chinese and Indian history.