The story is set in a boys' grammar school in Sheffield in 1983. Crowther (Samuel Anderson), Posner (Samuel Barnett), Dakin (Dominic Cooper), Timms (James Corden), Akthar (Sacha Dhawan), Lockwood (Andrew Knott), Scripps (Jamie Parker), and Rudge (Russell Tovey) have recently obtained the school's highest ever A-level scores and are hoping to enter Oxford or Cambridge, taking a seventh-term entrance exam in History. The General Studies teacher, known by staff and boys alike by his nickname "Hector" (Richard Griffiths), is their favourite and works alongside their deputy head and regular History teacher, Mrs. Lintott (Frances de la Tour). The Headmaster Felix (Clive Merrison) hires an energetic young contract teacher Irwin (Stephen Campbell Moore) to assist Hector and Mrs. Lintott in preparing the boys for the Oxbridge entrance exams. Irwin's style is utterly different from Hector's and Mrs. Lintott's; whilst the older teachers emphasise cultural and factual knowledge and the quest for truth, Irwin urges the boys to put a spin on their historical analysis, to value originality above objective truth...
