Welcome to the History Department

The department consists of 4 members of staff and is committed to developing an interest and an enthusiasm for the subject. The ethos of the department is based on working together to share good practice. We also think that it is important to develop within our students an enquiring approach towards the subject. Students are encouraged to take an active part in lessons.

We aim to enable students to become independent learners and develop important study skills. We encourage them to work with others and to present their work to their peers.

With these aims in mind we have promoted Assessment for Learning (AFL) in all years. Three members of the department have undertaken paired teacher research projects looking into the effectiveness of different AFL strategies. We have looked at the impact of peer assessment to help improve extended writing and source analysis and how it can help speaking and listening in the subject.

The department has developed a number of assessment exercises for both Key Stages using pupil friendly mark schemes which allow the students to identify their success and what they need to do to improve a piece of work. We have found that these have helped in the development of extended writing.

The department is keen to promote the use of ICT and is developing activities to use with interactive whiteboards.