History Standard and Higher Level Group 3

Applications Open: 5th December 2025

On Time Applications Close: 31st January 2026

Later Applications: Applications continue to be accepted after 31 January 2026

Entry Requirements: https://www.tgs.kent.sch.uk/sixth-form

How to Apply: Please apply via Tonbridge Grammar School’s website https://www.tgs.kent.sch.uk/apply-to-our-sixth-form

Tonbridge Grammar School does not accept applications via KentChoices.

PLEASE NOTE

Tonbridge Grammar School doesn’t accept applications through Kent Choices - please visit our website to apply https://www.tgs.kent.sch.uk/sixth-form-admissions

Once we have received your application we will contact you for a guidance meeting. This is an opportunity to discuss your course interests or choices and to help you plan the best programme for you.

History is a subject with relevance to, and resonance in today’s events, giving the context necessary to achieve a clearer understanding of those events, their roots and their effects. History taps into interests in language, literature, cartoons, photography and their uses and abuses as evidence. History opens doors to most subjects and careers, even in sciences, because academics and employers know that the skills of the historian are invaluable in assessing evidence, applying objectivity, reaching reasoned conclusions, dealing with a wealth of information in an effective and clear-minded way.

At Standard Level we build on existing knowledge of the modern world to explore key topics in greater depth and with an understanding of differing perspectives; at Higher Level we go into less familiar but highly engaging territory, considering some of the changes in a turbulent, earlier period which still resonate today.

Standard Level

Students take a source-based course on rising world tensions in the 1930s; and an essay-based course on Authoritarian States in the 20th century and on the Cold War.

Higher Level

Standard Level options and an additional paper on the History of the Europe, focusing on the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries through studies of the Renaissance, exploration and discovery, and the political and cultural impact of the Reformation.

What do students say?

“History allows me to form my own opinions on the past. I believe it is very important that humanity can understand our history, because if we don't, there's no way we'll be able to understand our present, or even our future". Ellen

Standard Level

Written assignment (25%)

The Move to Global War (30%)

Authoritarian States; the Cold War (45%)

Higher Level

Written assignment (20%)

The Move to Global War (20%)

Causes, Practices and Effects of War; the Cold War (25%)

History of Europe: Renaissance, Reformation, Exploration. (35%)

All candidates should have GCSE Grade 6 or above (or its equivalent) in English, Mathematics, at least one Science and one language where studied. Standard Level requirement is a 6, Higher Level requirement is a 7. Where equivalence cannot be established the School will set appropriate I/GCSE papers to confirm that the applicant is capable of satisfying the academic profile required for the subjects to be studied and the IB Diploma Programme as a whole

In recent years, students have gained places to read History or a related subject at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, Exeter, York and Manchester