History at Brampton College is a flourishing department, popular with students at both GCSE and A Level. It can be combined with any other subject but is most often studied alongside English, Politics, Sociology, Economics, Psychology and Languages. Studying History requires good reading and writing and critical thinking skills, so there is a strong emphasis in our small teaching groups at Brampton on developing these skills as much as possible. History is a widely respected subject at A level, which opens the doors to many university courses such as Law, Journalism, International Relations and War Studies, as well as courses involving history itself.
History attracts students from a wide range of backgrounds and previous experience, and we put great store on open student discussion and students’ listening to each other’s point of view. The many concepts covered in the study of History enable students to integrate learning in other subjects, and there is a clear cross-over between work in History and in areas such as Economics, Politics , Philosophy, English Literature, Psychology and Classics.
History is taught by highly qualified and experienced staff and is well equipped with the latest textbooks and a range of borrowing resources.
History Courses
The courses we offer for our main teaching at Brampton are in Modern History, which reflect the expertise and interests of the department and the background of most students. We can also be flexible enough to offer tuition in other areas as required.
A Level
We study the Cambridge International A Level , course 9489. This offers a coherent course in Modern European History from 1750 to 1945 and enables students to cover some of the key events and developments which have shaped the modern world.
Students will benefit from:
- Taking an AS level at the end of the first year. If necessary, these papers can be retaken in the autumn and then summer of the second year.
- A range of important topics to study.
- No coursework requirement which means more time can be taken in preparation for the examinations.
- Clear and user friendly examination papers
At AS Level the following will be studied
Paper 1
This is a document study which will cover Liberalism and Nationalism in Germany in 2025.
Paper 2
This is an outline study. The following topics will be studied
- The French Revolution and Napoleon
- The Industrial Revolution
- Liberalism and Nationalism in Germany 1815 – 1871
- The Russian Revoloution 1894-1921.
Students who are successful at AS will keep their grades when they continue to A Level.
At A Level the following will be studied
Paper 3
This is a paper which focuses on the nature of historical interpretation. The topic is the Holocaust.
Paper 4
This is a Depth Study on Europe in the Inter-War years covering:
- Mussolini’s Italy
- Lenin’s Russia
- The Soviet Union under Stalin
- Nazi Germany.
IGCSE
The course offered is the Edexcel IGCSE course in Modern World History. This is an intensive one year course which does require good reading and writing skills. The course is assessed in two examinations.
The topics studied are:
- Germany 1918-1945
- Superpower Conflict 1943-1972
- Conflict in Vietnam in 1972
- Changes in Medicine c1848 – c1948
History Departmental Features
History at Brampton College is taught by highly experienced A level teachers. A level Examination results are exceptionally high with over 85% of students gaining A* – B grades at A level and 100% of students gaining A*-C grades at A level since 2010. Students who join Brampton for their upper sixth year or to retake in one year are continuously successful in raising their grades. In addition, an increasing number of students are opting to read history at a wide variety of universities.
The history department at Brampton is situated in a dedicated teaching area. The department is well stocked with the latest textbooks for the new specifications, as well as other resources for coursework.
A Level Results
2017-21 |
A*/A |
A*-B |
| 34% | 70% |
