In Year 7 you cover a wide range of topics, although mostly Romans which is probably the most fun topic you do over the whole of history.
Over Year 8 you learn about the plague, Great Fire of London, and a eye-watering long list of Tudor monarchs.
In Year 9 you cover World War One (hence the Ypres trip in this year) and start the 'Medicine and Public Health Through Time'. If you choose geography rather than history most history teachers just let you chat or do crosswords rather than the alarming number of booklets the rest of the class needs to complete.
This monster of a GCSE topic is composed of everything that has ever happened with Medicine from Pre-history to the development of the NHS. Each year, you are set one sub topic which is guaranteed to come up in your exam, as well as having to do another medicinal component (it could be anything, sadly) and a public health component (usually either the Romans or the Liberal reforms in the early 20th century). It is an absolutely crazy thing to have to revise for, but coming out of it with a good grade is one of the most satisfactory exam results.
You start this topic in Year 9, arguably putting off any potential history students who then choose geography in favour of colouring in maps all lesson.