Year 12 involves the study of two units. The first comprises a study in breadth, in which students will learn about key features of monarchical and republican rule in Britain in the seventeenth century, set within the context of broader social, economic and religious change. This includes a study of the causes and events of the Civil War, one of the bloodiest conflicts in British history. Students will also consider the changing role and status of women and Britain’s place in the wider world, including the beginnings of empire and the emergence of transatlantic slavery. The focus of study is on developments and changes over a broad timescale and so the content is presented as themes spanning a significant duration: 1625–88. This option also contains a study in depth of historical interpretations on a broad question that is contextualised by, and runs on from, the themes: how revolutionary, in the years to 1701, was the Glorious Revolution of 1688–89? The second comprises a study in depth of the causes, course and consolidation of the Russian Revolution of 1917, which had a momentous effect on twentieth-century Russia and throughout the modern world. Students will gain an in-depth understanding of revolutionary activity in Russia in the years 1894 to 1917, the response of successive governments to opposition to their rule, and the reasons for the successful consolidation of the revolution of October 1917 under Lenin and the Bolsheviks. In Year 13 students will study Ireland and the Union, c.1774-1923. This option comprises two parts: the aspects in breadth focus on long-term changes and contextualise the aspects in depth, which focus in detail on key episodes. Together, the breadth and depth topics explore the Irish struggle for constitutional change, and the ways in which the Irish economy and society changed and their impact on mainland Britain. This was a difficult period in the development of Irish society and for Anglo-Irish relations, involving passion, tensions and commitment to different causes that were in many ways irreconcilable, and an outcome that, by 1923, left many dissatisfied and eager for further change. Students will also complete a piece of coursework. The purpose of this coursework is to enable students to develop skills in the analysis and evaluation of interpretations of history in a chosen question, problem or issue as part of an independently researched assignment. The focus is on understanding the nature and purpose of the work of the historian. Students will be required to form a critical view based on relevant reading on the question, problem or issue. They will also be specifically required to analyse, explain and evaluate the interpretations of three historians. The coursework will be assessed using a centre-set assignment. Students will have a choice on the focus of their historical controversy from topics such as: the nature of Hitler’s rule and the Nazi state, women’s suffrage, civil rights, the impact of the 1916 Easter Rising; the French Revolution and the causes of the First World War. Please access the Ripley St Thomas Sixth Form courses section for more information https://ripleystthomas.com/sixth-form/courses/