IB History

Applications Open - 3rd November 2025

Applications Close - 3rd April 2026

Entry Requirements -

IBDP - 6 Grade 6s

IBCP - 5 Grade 5s

Level 3 - 4 Grade 4s

Level 2 - dependent

How to Apply - Please apply via KentChoices

To apply for courses at TMS sixth form please select the subject combination you wish to apply for. The combinations as described are subject to change so please put in your ideal choices, even if they do not match the options grid.

All course options will be confirmed post interviews.

When you access the application page you will be shown a list of subjects only. Please note they will not be separated into the 3 different pathways (vocational, IBCP, IBDP)

For those wishing to apply for the level1/2 vocational pathway, please select this as an option. You do not need to select any further subjects and individual choices will be confirmed at interview.

For those wishing to apply for the IBCP or IBDP pathway please select the individual choices from the list.

Level1/2 Vocational pathway

Select the Level1/2 vocational pathway only

History is the study of people, actions, decisions, interactions and behaviours' ... We seek to understand the past by determining and ordering 'facts'; and from these narratives we hope to explain the decisions and processes which shape our existence. History can take the form of a tremendous story, a rolling narrative filled with great personalities and tales of turmoil and triumph. Each generation adds its own chapters to history while reinterpreting and finding new things in those chapters already written.

Those new to studying history often think history and the past are the same thing. This is not the case. The past refers to an earlier time, the people and societies who inhabited it and the events that took place there. History describes our attempts to research, study and explain the past.

Paper 1: Rights and protest (Higher level and Standard level):

Case study 1 — The civil rights movement in the USA 1954-65 (Ku Klux Klan; Martin Luther King; Malcolm X; Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act).

Case study 2 — Apartheid South Africa 1948-64 (Apartheid; protests; Nelson Mandela and Albert Luthuli).

Paper 2: World history topics (Higher level and Standard level):

Topic 10 — Authoritarian states (20th Century)

Topics will include Hitler and Lenin/Stalin in Europe, Mao in China.

Topic 12 — The Cold war

This will examine the origins, developments and end of the Cold war, including crises such as the Cuban missile crisis and leaders such as Reagan and Gorbachev.

Historical investigation (Higher level and Standard level)

An essay (max 2,200 words) on a topic of the student's choice. This is a great opportunity for students to explore an area that they find interesting, usually from within the syllabus.

Paper 3: Aspects of the history of Europe (HIgher level only)

Topic 12 — Imperial Russia, revolutions and the emergence of the Soviet state 1855-1924

This will allow students to understand the context within which a communist revolution altered the course of Russian history, and will afford one half of the study of an area across over a century.

Topic 14 — European states in the inter-war years 1918-1939

This will complement topic 3 on paper 2 and will involve fascinating events like the regimes of Mussolini in Italy, Hitler in Grmany and possibly britain 1918-39 or the Spanish civil war if there is time.

Topic 9 - The USSR and post-Soviet Russia 1924-2000

This will complete the picture for Russian history and will also complement the work done for paper 2.

All students do Papers 1 and 2 and the historical investigation. To achieve the higher level, students will also take Paper 3:

Paper 1— Source analysis — Four short-answer/ structured questions. 1 hr.

Paper 2 - Two essays from a choice. 1 hr 30 mins.

Historical Investigation — on the student's choice, internally assessed and externally moderated.

Paper 3 — Three essays from a choice. 2 hrs 30 mins.

General entry requirements:

International Baccalaureate Diploma: 6 x grade 6 or above, including Maths and English (GCSE or equivalent)

International Baccalaureate Career-Related Programme: 5 x grade 5 or above, including Maths and English (GCSE or equivalent)

We have a strong history of students progressing on to university or apprenticeships