History
History Tutor, 2021 – present
Mr Kieran Bailey graduated with a First Class Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the University of Oxford in July 2021. He studied at Christ Church. Prior to his undergraduate studies Kieran spent a gap year working as a Boarding Tutor at the academically selective Aitchison College where he taught English, History and debating. Here he gained skills in teaching students aged 10-18. Kieran came top in his year in A-Levels at Taunton School receiving A*s in History, English Literature, Fine Art and Critical Thinking and an A in Classics. He is well-acquainted, therefore, with the English public examination system.
Mr Bailey’s academic interests are concentrated in medieval and early modern History. He is especially interested in the medieval papacy; the Renaissance; eighteenth-century Britain and intellectual history. Medieval and early modern history often present unique challenges for students with unusual source material and new ideas to handle on religion, culture and politics. Kieran will enable your students to bridge the gap. He is able to teach a broad suite of topics for undergraduates, A-Level, IB, Pre-U and IGCSE and is further acquainted with many of the modern topics.
Kieran is further available to teach English Language, English Literature, Politics and History of Art and to prepare students for Oxford and Cambridge interviews and admissions.
History Tutor, 2018 – present
Ian Thomas has been tutoring History at IST since August 2018. He holds an LL.B degree from Queen Mary College, University of London (now QML) and an LL.M degree from Hong Kong University. He is a solicitor of the Supreme Court of England and Wales and sat as a Permanent Magistrate in Hong Kong for over twenty years. Since stepping down from the bench Ian has been the Senior Regulatory Development Manager, Asia Pacific for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and has taught a Legal Drafting and Legal Writing module on the Higher Diploma for Legal Executives course at a community college. He is an Independent Document Examiner (e-discovery) in the field of civil litigation and is an Independent Academic Business Case Writer and Proof-Reader preparing business cases for use in tertiary business and management schools.
Ian studied History at school to GCE A level. He has maintained a keen interest in the subject, bearing in mind the importance that history has in the development, content and form of the law and of legal structures and processes.
Ian is particularly interested in the Persian, Greek and Roman Empires, the subjugation of Britain by the Norsemen and the Normans, Elizabethan England, and the history of industrialisation in Britain, Europe and North America. The causes and roots of the American Civil War also hold a fascination for him.
Ian takes a keen interest in current affairs and therefore is an avid student of the two great wars, WW1 and WW2 and their respective aftermaths. These would include the Cold War in general, the civil war in China and the establishment of the People’s Republic of China, the Korean and Vietnam Wars and subsequent events, and the establishment of the Cuban Communist government after the revolution in that island.
The events in Afghanistan, Kosovo and Rwanda are more recent but their consequences still reverberate and Ian is happy to pass on his knowledge of these momentous events to students whose courses involve these topics..
Ian’s areas of interest and expertise will be of value to those students who are taking courses on the effects of WW1 and WW2 on the geopolitical changes that came about after each of those events. These would include the Chinese revolution the Korean and Vietnamese Wars and the decolonisation of Asia and Africa, their causes and consequences and the problems that these events still cause. Those studying the events in Cuba after WW2 that led to revolution, their effects internally, regionally and globally will also benefit from Ian’s guidance.
Ian’s knowledge will also be of value to those studying the American Civil War which has shaped and is continuing to shape modern U.S. politics and economics.
Ian has mentored students on the Cold War, The Cuban Missile Crisis, The Russian Revolution, The American Civil War, The Effect of History on Literature and the Roman Empire.
Ian is keen to ensure that students realise that the lessons of history do not lie uniquely in the past but teach and inform in the modern world. He believes firmly in the adage that ‘those who do not learn from the mistakes of the past are condemned to repeat them’. The study of history is also that of the present. One of his students is now studying history at St. Andrew’s University in the UK.
Principal History Tutor, 2005 – present
Mr Don Ho is the Principal and a co-founder of International Scholars Tuition School. Don has a Bachelor of Education from the University of Alberta (Canada) and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Victoria (Canada) where he was also awarded the South-East Asia Business Research Grant and the Asia Pacific Scholar’s Grant. Don is a registered teacher in Hong Kong and Canada.
He has tutored World War I, the US Civil War, and the Chinese Civil War to a German Swiss International School (HK) student, who now attends Harrow School (UK); and the rise of Hitler and Nazi Germany to students from Charterhouse (UK) and Tonbridge School (UK).