The assessment visit included meetings with senior leaders; governors with responsibility for the overall curriculum and for history specifically; time with the subject leader; meetings with other staff from across the school; lesson observations of staff other than those met; time scrutinising children’s work and subject documentation; and discussions with groups of children from both key stage 1 and 2. An electronic portfolio is also supplied as part of the assessment.

What is impressive about history at The Berkeley is the way in which developments have been thought through so clearly by the subject leader with selective use of external CPD which has then been implemented across the school to very good effect – a track record of improvement. Staff have been very well supported and guided by the subject leader. Senior leaders, including governors, have very clear strategic oversight and sense of direction and have put in place systems and structures to draw on the strengths of staff. There is a clear sense that the school is ambitious and the achievement of the Quality Mark is one more step on a learning journey that will undoubtedly continue for the benefit of the children at the school.

What follows is a case study of the QM assessment of the school, with commentary from both the assessor and the school.

As our key drivers for the school include ‘knowledge of the world’ and ‘enquiry’ I have been very fortunate that history has earned an important (and deserved!) role within our school ethos. Through conducting pupil voices, of Early Years and Nursery as well as KS1 And 2, it was easy to see how passionate the children were about the learning. These recordings were then excellent evidence to provide for the application, alongside the parent survey I sent out to see what local history we could add to our curriculum, alongside their view of how history was taught. Furthermore, evidence of our tracking of history using iTrack was important evidence to show how learning and achievement was monitored. As with other areas of the application, photos are invaluable evidence of the impact. Photos of children’s work, photos of work from all abilities, show the quality of teaching and learning at the school in advance of the assessors visit. The assessor visit goes into more detail and depth of the assessment of teaching and learning but photos and records of work definitely support the application.

The school was judged to meet the gold criteria in this section. Read on for the assessor’s commentary:

The subject leader conducts termly pupil voice surveys to monitor and evaluate provision across the school. The focus for these surveys varies in relation to the key development points set out in the annual action plan. Outcomes of these surveys are used to evaluate the impact of actions taken and modify future learning. An example of this was the inclusion of a new history focus on medieval Baghdad and early Islam in direct response to feedback that was generated from a Muslim visitor to the school last year. This is one example of a continually changing curriculum that is responsive to the needs of the children and results in high levels of enthusiasm and engagement of the children in lessons and at home. When asked about the point of studying history, children were very clear that an understanding of what happened in the past would help them to better understand things that were happening today. One child said “History is interesting, but we need to learn from the mistakes our ancestors made.”

History teaching is very effective and leads to very good progress being made across the school. The analysis of progress information over time through the use of Tapestry in the early years and I-Track in key stages 1 and 2 provided statistical information to support this and also allowed the individual class teachers and subject leader to identify sub-group progress information. Teachers made good use of a wide range of teaching approaches underpinned by a school framework of progression in key skills and concepts across the school. The approach to curriculum planning of looking at broad themes naturally encourages teachers to build on connecting learning across individual subjects. The work of the subject leader is clearly evidenced in the support he provides to all staff in the form of planning ideas, resources and supportive feedback. The subject leader has worked very hard to develop a good range of resources in school, including working with a friend to build a wood and iron replica Viking shield. Children are encouraged to be active participants and their enthusiasm for the subject was clear when in discussions they were able to talk confidently about their independent history learning – often taking in areas of the subject that were not actually part of the taught curriculum. Very good use was seen of TAs supporting learning and encouraging children to develop their own ideas and views on the Great Fire of London.

Overall planning has been carefully structured by the subject leader which gives teachers freedom and scope to develop the class teaching programmes within clear parameters. There are clear lines of progression which leads to sequential learning across all year groups. Verbal feedback and engagement in learning is very good and a range of good examples were seen of subject specific feedback to pupils. This is not yet fully embedded evenly across all teachers but there is sufficient capacity within the school, and particularly with the subject leader, to ensure that the best practice of subject specific marking and feedback (in whichever form) becomes a feature of all teachers.

Based on the teachers’ good understanding of progression in the subject, the progress of pupils across the school is very clear. The progression path used by the school has been developed with other members of the curriculum project team to ensure an overall balance, in which they have developed a curriculum web which shows how progression develops throughout the school thereby ensuring that the children aren’t taught and retaught the same skill at the expense of others. The tracking systems across both the early years and key stages 1 and 2 are established and are providing very good information to monitor progress and plan appropriate interventions where necessary. The layers of review and monitoring of these systems is very impressive. Initially the class teachers use the information to plan future learning and any required interventions. Beyond this the subject leader has dedicated time to oversee the outcomes of every class and again plan any support or guidance. This in turn is overseen by senior leaders on a termly basis and also the link governor for history has termly meetings with the subject leader to monitor and evaluate pupil progress as well as overall progress against the subject action plan. The outcomes of these governor meetings are planned so that summaries are presented and discussed at full governing body meetings termly.

There are displays in all classrooms and children were keen to talk about the opportunities offered by Friday achievement assemblies where good work is recognised and shared with the whole school. The school exudes an atmosphere of positive attitudes to learning and many children were keen to talk about the work they were doing in history. In the pupil discussions, it proved difficult to halt the key stage 1 children talking at length and in great detail about the great fires of London and Nantwich and the great fire on the school playground of models the children had built of houses from the period. The (planned) arrival of the local fire brigade to put out the fire made a huge impression on the children and reinforced their comparisons of the tackling of fires now and in the past.

• Evidence for Criteria 1 (PPT, 14MB)
• Appendix for Criteria 1 (PPT, 57MB)
• Observation of Year 2 History Lesson (Word, 0.1MB)

I became leader of history after I had finished my NQT year. Having achieved a history degree prior to my PGCE I have always had a passion for history, and this started for me at Primary school (indeed the very school I work at!) with exciting trips to York, making Viking swords, and learning in a hands on style. For me it was important to continue to provide exciting and enjoyable history and to tap into the quality teaching staff we have here to achieve that. Having been on a subject leader course I then joined the association with my school and attended my first conference. The opportunity to talk to likeminded individuals was invaluable and helped me to restructure the teaching in the school. From here I looked into how to develop and refine the learning at our school. Through adaptation of the ‘new’ curriculum we tailored the learning to fit into a more chronological approach and through discussions with the teaching staff I was able to support any of the staff who were unsure of any of the subject knowledge. Working with The deputy and head to make best effective use of my management time allowed me to look into how history is taught at Early Years and I was able to bring those elements of the school, often forgotten, into our environment.

I do have to say though, that the governors and SLT were a big help in supporting and developing my ability as a subject leader. Regular reflection and questions asked of myself help to streamline the subject and move it forward. When it came to finding evidence for this section I was fortunate that our school policy is to share what we do in our management time and so we keep a log of all the activities, scrutinies and observations on our shared server. Through accessing this I was able to collate the evidence to support the application. I’d also say that its often surprising how many of the things you do as a subject leader day to day are supportive to gold quality practise.

In this category, the school was judged to meet the gold criteria. What follows is the assessor’s commentary:

All of the aspects of leadership are the real strength of the school. From first reading of the evidence it was apparent that there were very clear whole school structures and processes in place within which history operated. The whole school curriculum understanding, approach to assessment, clarity of the role of the subject leader and the encouragement of them to fulfil their roles, the monitoring and evaluation of provision by the subject leader, senior leaders and governors was very impressive. The subject leader operated within a system of clarity of purpose which encouraged his development.

Senior leaders had absolute clarity regarding the outcomes they expected from the Quality Mark process and saw history as a key element in the curriculum. The subject leader is a committed, dedicated and self-reflective individual who is held in high esteem by senior leaders, colleagues and governors. There are clear processes in place for the monitoring and evaluation of the history provision ranging from the termly pupil voice evaluations, through parent surveys, regular monitoring meetings with senior leaders against the priorities set out in the action plan, to regular termly meetings with the link governor who then feeds back to full governing body meetings on his findings. This whole process is exceptionally thorough and highly effective in bringing all of the leadership aspects together for a common purpose of subject improvement.

Since taking over the role a few years ago the subject leader has had a significant impact on the quality of provision at the school. For example, following attendance at a HA CPD session the whole curriculum map was rearranged from its previous piecemeal approach. The current curriculum has coherence, a clear logic and rationale to it and ownership not just by the subject leader but by the whole staff. The above systems provide all staff with a high quality level of support from the subject lead. When he has attended any external CPD there is an expectation and time found for feeding back to all staff through staff meetings in addition to any focused feedback to individual staff. The school has a clear expectation that CPD attendance needs to lead to impact back in school.

• Evidence for Criteria 2 (PPT, 0.1MB)
• Appendix for Criteria 2 (PPT, 4MB)
• History Action Plan 2018-2019 (Word, 0.1MB)
• History Questionnaire (Word, 0.9MB)
• Pupil Voice (Word, 0.1MB)

Reflecting on the curriculum was one of the first things I achieved as a subject leader. Following discussions at the History Association Annual Conference I completely redrew and remapped the curriculum so that it would flow chronologically. Furthermore, to help to encourage future generations to learn more and celebrate differences, the Year 5 curriculum was altered to add the study of Early Islamic civilisation. This was felt to be important due to our ethnic demographic and to help children to get a balanced and fair understanding that often gets missed out in today’s media.

The curriculum is a key part of our school, and was celebrated in our most recent Ofsted inspection as a core strength. We continue to evaluate, reflect and adapt our curriculum to meet the needs of the children and also to streamline sessions so that knowledge can be built upon year by year, not just in a quiz style fact absorption style, but through meaningful lessons delivered by passionate staff who don’t feel under pressure to cram everything in. as quickly as possible.

The school was judged to meet the gold criteria in this section. What follows is the assessor’s commentary for this section:

The current curriculum at the school represents considerable and on-going thought by the subject leader but also by the senior leadership team who have a very clear devolved structure of curriculum planning that draws together the strengths of the staff. As a result of the regular surveys, use made of CPD and other external ideas and continual self-reflection on the part of the subject leader the curriculum is continually evolving. For example, following attendance at a national training session the subject leader decided to adopt a chronological approach to the teaching of the history curriculum which has been favourably received by staff. This is underpinned by selective use of the published HA schemes of work which are made available to individual members of staff to support their own planning. The senior leaders and governors are very clear about the strategic development of the subject, and the monitoring and evaluation carried out by the subject leader and the history link governor provides for effective and on-going monitoring and evaluation. Whilst the broad approach of the school is thematic, teachers were very clear that this was used thoughtfully. Learning is connected through the theme where it makes clear sense and when it is in danger of becoming forced then these elements are taught discretely.

Enquiry approaches underpin the learning throughout the school including such things as the use of KWL grids at the start of a theme of a lesson, through questions replacing learning objectives in many lessons and children determining their own questions. The current curriculum reflects very well the national requirements with all of the required content in place and underpinned by the clear identification, in a progressive manner, of the necessary key skills and concepts.

The allocation of time for history is in line with that for other non-core subjects and is evidently sufficient to allow pupils to produce high quality work. The balance of the curriculum is good but the school is right to be looking to develop the local dimension further. This is a point for development that the school is already clearly aware of. At key stage 1 this could take the shape of more examples of famous local people and the development of the local community over time. The celebration of the school’s 50^th anniversary this year is a wonderful opportunity to build strong community links and there are good quality plans in place to support this. An interesting feature of the school is the way in which staff are moved around so that they teach different year groups over the years. This broadens the whole staff’s understanding of the curriculum and broadens their ability to bring about change and innovation. Judging the curriculum to be very good at the moment is accurate but does not give credit to the fact that the curriculum is continually adapting to inputs from the children, from parents, from the experience of staff moving, from governor monitoring and particularly from the subject leader who is continually looking for, and open to, new ideas and approaches.

• Evidence for Criteria 3 (PPT, 47MB)

Enrichment has always been a crucial part of the curriculum here. To encourage passion with the learners it is important to hook them with high quality experiences. That can be a range of things, from trips to museums, local companies or community sites, to events at our own school, such as recreating the fire of London on our playground, or excavating historical artefacts on the school fields.

Enriching the curriculum is vastly important to myself and the school. To get children to follow their passions you must first get the children to enjoy the subject, and these opportunities are an excellent way to do so. When children reflect at the end of their time at The Berkeley they won’t remember the lessons sat in the classrooms, they will remember the exciting time they dug up a skull on the playground and discovered how the person may have ended up there!

Again the school was judged to meet the gold criteria in this section. Here is what the assessor had to say:

History at The Berkeley Academy is clearly an enriching and lively experience for the children who talked enthusiastically throughout the day about their learning across the history curriculum. The subject leader has been involved in leading history meetings of a local cluster group of schools, but unfortunately this has not been able to be sustained. The reasons for this are not a reflection of the efforts of the subject leader and the achievement of the Quality Mark may provide a renewed stimulus to revisit this again. All of the individual classrooms throughout the school are named after famous historical figures and every year there is a week where there are opportunities for all classes to carry our research into these figures.

There are a series of planned visits which enrich the school based work such as to Nantwich, Chester and Crewe Railway Museum, and the various themed days such as the Stone Age day or the Viking day made a big impression on the children’s learning and understanding of different times in the past. At the time of the visit there were displays of history work across the school and in corridors reflecting the current work and displaying strong links between history and other curriculum areas. The school approach to the curriculum of broad themes encourages very strong and effective links between history and other subjects to secure good learning.

Links to the local community are good but this is a development point that the school has identified and is working on to improve even further. Local people have been invited in to school to talk about the past and the school has involvement with the local community for example in taking part by invite in local Remembrance Day celebrations. The current work on celebrating the 50th anniversary of the school will enrich this area as staff and pupils from the past have already been contacted to visit and contribute to the work. Whilst acknowledging that there are areas of this element still being further developed there was enough in place to merit a gold in this section.

• Evidence for Criteria 4 (PPT, 0.1MB)

In terms of short term impact the Quality Mark process has been excellent for consolidating and celebrating practise here at The Berkeley. Having the year from application to assessment really encouraged me to structure and collate the evidence required and I think has made me a more confident and competent subject leader. I also think it has supported the staff to see the praise that has been shared in the above document. I think everyone likes to be reassured that they are doing a good job, and here with our gold award the staff are very proud of their achievements!

In the long term I think this process has definitely entrenched history as an important subject at the school. It has allowed children to talk at length about other subjects than just the core parts of the curriculum and it allows children who lack confidence in other areas to notice their strengths in this one.

• Evidence for Criteria 5 (PPT, 24MB)
• Appendix for Criteria 5 (PPT, 27MB)