In the summer of 2017 Moat Community College were awarded silver Quality Mark in recognition of the journey they had embarked upon towards developing the provision and status of history in the school.
They are still very much on that journey; however, their assessor was impressed by the dedication of the staff and the commitment they have for engaging pupils from a wide variety of backgrounds with the study of history.
While the school operates a 2-year Key Stage 3 – something that the Historical Association does not advocate for the study of history – we do recognise the constraints within which schools work and it is testament to the hard work and dedication of the staff that well over half of the current year 9 cohort opted for history at GCSE.
Here we feature a small selection of items from the QM portfolio that Moat School submitted.
About the school
Moat Community College is a large 11-16 school situated in the centre of Leicester City serving a community of pupils from minority ethnic backgrounds with almost all speaking English as an additional language. The proportion of students eligible for the pupil premium is above average.
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Almost all students at Moat Community College are from minority ethnic backgrounds; Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Somali are the largest ethnic groups in the school. The school is larger than most secondary schools and also has an above average number of students eligible for pupil premium and with special educational needs
The history department consists of three specialist teachers within a larger humanities faculty. Annabelle Dobson, the history subject leader is also the humanities faculty leader. She says of the QM process:
"The process of applying and being assessed for the QM was completely developmental. I am confident that our department has improved as a result of our participation, and we were delighted to receive the award. I would recommend all schools to participate, not just those with high attainment, as we very much felt the QM process recognised quality History teaching, learning and enrichment, not just student outcomes."
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1. Teaching and Learning
Pupils join the school with a very wide range of prior attainment from some who are newly arrived in the country to those who will achieve grade 9 at GCSE. There are a significant number of pupils who have poor literacy skills, which provides the department with a challenge in making the historical content accessible to them. There is a strong emphasis on developing literacy levels throughout both key stages and it is testimony to the department that outcomes at GCSE are as good as they currently are.
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The department is bound to follow the school assessment system of tracking pupils against GCSE targets from year 7 through a ‘flight path’ approach underpinned by regular assessments with standardised feedback against criteria including on-going literacy elements. While there are flaws in any whole school assessment system, at Moat this has provided continuity and progression across all years. Assessment activities are interesting and are clearly more challenging as pupils get older. Pupils feel they are well supported by this approach although additional development is needed to ensure that the historical skills, concepts and processes feature more specifically throughout. The approach of having notes in exercise books with assessment activities in a separate exercise book works well and allows for easy tracking of pupil progress across all year groups.
The emphasis on literacy development has resulted in considerable care being taken to ensure materials are accessible for pupils including a wide range of written, visual and physical source types.
Pupils value the subject and had a range of views as to why studying history is important. These reasons included developing a good knowledge of their own heritage and culture, and understanding the past to make sense of the world around them both in terms of the local and wider areas.
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2. Leadership
The department is very well led by a conscientious, hard-working and visionary leader who is highly valued by the headteacher, her subject colleagues and also by the pupils. Currently the subject leader is completing a doctorate, with a focus on improving the academic performance of Somali pupils who are a cohort of concern within the school and is also working with Historic England to achieve Heritage School status. In the recent past she has also participated in National Archives programmes and produced resources that are now used by them.
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Congratulations to Moat Community School on achieving a silver award. This is a department that is very clearly on an improvement journey. It has made considerable progress to get to the point where it has taken the decision to apply for the Quality Mark but is also very clear about future challenges and the need to continue to improve further. There is a unity of purpose across the team, allied to an energy and willingness to learn from a wide range of areas to enhance the learning experience they offer pupils. They have a good understanding of the local community and its particular needs and requirements, but also the limitations that this imposes. As a well led team they have the capacity to build on the Quality Mark and improve the outcomes and reputation of history at The Moat in the future. We wish them every success.
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3. Curriculum
The history team has put considerable thought into its curriculum provision which is very much tailored to an understanding of the specific needs of the school population. For example, the department is currently looking to develop more materials on Eastern Europe to reflect an increasing number of pupils joining the school from that region.
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Considerable thought has been exercised to ensure that the reduction of key stage 3 to two years still results in a curriculum that is accessible to pupils. The department has considered carefully how it teaches the Holocaust in year 8 rather than the more usual year 9. As with most departments the history team is currently reassessing the key stage 3 curriculum in terms of its appropriateness to the new GCSE specification and under the leadership of the subject leader aiming to ensure a more cohesive five-year approach to the subject.
The department is very clear that for many pupils such as the new arrivals, they have a limited understanding of the broad sweep of British history and heritage and British values is an element that is worked on to help pupils understand where they now live, but this is also closely matched with helping pupils to understand their own heritage and identity through history.
Within the limits of a two-year key stage 3 the department has a good balance of local, national and international history. Pupils were able to talk with confidence about a range of different aspects of local history from the location of the school, which is built on a Victorian workhouse which at one point was the home of Joseph Meyrick, the Elephant Man, Richard III, the Jewry Wall Museum linking to Roman Leicester and some very interesting work on World War One which had been featured on the regional BBC news.
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4. Achievement
The department is focused on a ‘can do’ mentality and there is considerable effort put in to celebrating pupil achievement from displays of pupils’ work in classrooms, through a prize in each year group for a worker of the term to a history prize at the annual awards evening.
Results at GCSE have fluctuated between 53 and 75% A*-C over the last 5 years and continue on an upward trajectory. This is particularly impressive when compared against starting points of students and some other subjects within the school.
5. Enrichment
This is a real strength at the school and students have benefitted from a wide range of opportunities.
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One example of this might be the teaching of the First World War and the enrichment on offer and tapped into by the school from outside agencies. The school became a Heritage School as part of the programme run by Historic England. This culminated in locally based project work in which pupils explored the contribution made by former pupils of the school that had been recorded on a roll of honour displayed in the school among other activities. This was coupled with work on the “Unremembered” project, which explored the role of the Indian Labour Corps.
Clearly always responsive to need, the department is currently also developing materials on Eastern Europe to reflect an increasing number of pupils joining the school from that region. The displays at the school also spill out into a memorial hub which houses a war memorial and examples of student work based around recent visits to Thiepval, as part of the 100th Anniversary Commemorations of the Battle of the Somme. The school has also been an active participant in the Battlefields Trust Centenary programme.
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