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	Watford Grammar School for Boys

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Many students commented that they appreciated the use of visual presentations of key points and one said he could recall these presentations to ‘help me plan essays and organise paragraphs in the exam’.

Peer and self-assessments are used to help students identify how they can improve their own performance:

‘I need to have a better introduction. One that’s more to the point.’

‘I need to read the question more carefully and plan better.’

‘I should have revised better. I didn’t know it well enough’.

Watford Grammar School for Boys


		11-16 schools

		6th form schools

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The school

Watford Grammar School for Boys is an 11–18 comprehensive school with approximately 1,200 students on roll, and over 300 students in the sixth form. The school intake is ethnically diverse and it has science specialist status. 50 per cent of students are selected on the basis of academic ability.

The department

The history department is made up of a well-established team and includes staff who have experience as A level examiners. The department offers a wide range of enrichment activities to students which are integrated into schemes of work and include educational visits at home and abroad.

In its overall curriculum planning, the department stresses the skills and techniques needed in order to be successful in the examination, including understanding question types and familiarity with mark schemes. It also emphasises the skills needed to be a successful lifelong learner, including independent learning, research skills, and problem solving.

Individual teachers in the department take responsibility for developing expertise in a particular area – for example, an historical period or specific skill – and are able to act as a resource for other teachers.

Specification

The department uses the OCR specification and in the past has offered two courses. However, with few students opting for Early modern, one course is now offered – Modern European and British, including Henry VII (complementary to ‘role of individual’ Hitler studies) and British domestic 1919–1939 (complementary to Weimar Germany).

Modern world history, including Nazi Germany, is studied at both GCSE and A level. The repetition of historical content is viewed as an advantage because it enables teaching and learning to focus on developing skills with sources and skills of analysis, particularly analysis in depth.

All A level students complete a coursework unit. This is begun immediately after the AS examinations in the summer term. Advanced extension award (AEA) is also available in history.

The assessment pattern for history AS and A level is under review at the school. Currently all students are entered in January of year 12, with approximately one-third resitting.

Teaching and learning

An intranet is being developed with partner schools as a tool for developing independent and collaborative learning. The site is interactive – students can answer AS and A level questions and receive feedback from a tutor. They can ask questions which can be responded to by other students and by tutors.

A central element of the effectiveness of the department is the degree to which students are given ownership of the learning process. AS and A2 students are made familiar with the requirements of the specification. The intranet is being developed to support learner autonomy and consideration is being given to including other resources on the site, such as schemes of work, visual images and presentations from lessons.

Extensive use is made of awarding body materials, including mark schemes and examiners’ reports.

Approach to lessons

Learning objectives are displayed at the start of the lesson, giving a clear agenda for learning.
A variety of learning techniques is used in each lesson and the aims of each are clearly set out so that learning activities are purposeful.
Teachers draw on contemporary knowledge and experience to support understanding of challenging concepts (for example comparisons between the role of the Deputy Prime Minister in the UK and the position of Chancellor in Germany 1933).
Peer and self-assessments are used regularly. Peer group assessment of essays follows a common format to enable students to record observations and make comments about each other’s work, with a focus on strengths and weaknesses.
Essays are handed back with a copy of the mark scheme, and the process by which examiners reach a mark is discussed. Comments from teachers on marked work emphasise how improvements can be made.
PowerPoint presentations are used to support good practice in note taking and to aid understanding by means of imagery.

Students have regular one-to-one tutorials to discuss progress in relation to targets set. For example, after they have completed unit 1 (AS) at the end of the autumn term, all students have an individual tutorial to review their performance. Each student is given a short list of skills to work on improving.

Management of coursework

After the AS exams, students are given two tasks. The first is an induction to Russian history for their thematic A2 paper. The second is to complete a proposal form for their coursework essay. The induction course is based around a pack which includes articles, questions, key words, timelines and reading lists, and provides the basis for a seminar approach to learning and independent ‘out-of-classroom’ learning.
A wide range of topics is covered by the coursework. Students receive guidance before submitting their initial proposal. Coursework teaching sessions focus on ‘how to footnote’; ‘constructing hypotheses’, ‘assessing counter factual arguments’, and so on.
Staff feel there are advantages to starting the coursework before the summer break:
1) Coursework proposals submitted in the summer can receive early feedback.
2) Students can start research over the summer period.
3) First drafts can completed by the end of September.
In October there is a ‘coursework review’. Each student receives an assessment of their first draft of coursework which contains comments on a wide range of questions, including:
1) How critically have a range of sources been used?
2) At what level does analysis take place?
3) How well does the answer focus on the question?

The assessment will contain a list of strengths and areas for improvement.

Exam technique

Students are given specific guidance on exam technique:

Use is made of materials available from the awarding body, particularly the generic and core content mark schemes.
Key words such as ‘perspective’ and ‘evaluation’ are clearly explained with reference to context, including contemporary contexts, in order to further aid understanding.
The skills of essay writing are gradually built up from the second term onwards by giving structured frameworks within which to develop skills of constructing arguments and explanations.
Key words and key sentences to begin, construct and link paragraphs are displayed on classroom walls.

Progression from key stage 4 to AS

The department stresses the need to develop historical skills and understanding, as well as learning skills, during key stages 3 and 4 in order to be successful at A level. The level of skills of analysis, particularly within essay questions, of A level history students has improved at the school because of a focus on analysis at key stage 4. This has included, for example, an explicit focus at key stage 4 on understanding and being able to distinguish between the skills of ‘description’ and ‘explanation’.
Students’ source skills have been more difficult to develop than essay skills. The department has used a formulaic approach in the past to teaching source skills at key stage 4 and is currently reviewing practice in this area. In particular, the skill of comparing two or more sources which needs considerable attention at AS level, is being developed during key stage 4.
Currently, a ‘welcome pack’ is being developed for students at the start of the AS course. The pack is to be used as a resource throughout the year and will contain a copy of the specification as well as lists of expectations of each teaching and assessment unit.
There is no specific induction programme at the start of the AS course. However, at the start of the AS course, significant support is given relating to exam technique. During the first term, the focus is on document questions and source skills in preparation for sitting unit 1 in January.

Study skills

Generic sessions in study skills are given to students from year 7 onwards and are an important part of the whole school curriculum.
Display areas in classrooms are used to reinforce and support learning. For example, timelines of prime ministers, maps, key words are clearly displayed and updated as appropriate.
A level students are provided with support for focused, purposeful reading and note taking skills. One strategy is the use of sub-questions under which notes must be compiled. For example, for the historical investigation on Chamberlain and Anglo-German relations 1919–1939 undertaken in year 13, students are given a pack of reading material and an extensive list of sub-questions in order to focus their reading and note taking. The reading sources provided are extensive, demanding and include AJP Taylor and R Henig.
Students are encouraged to be proactive and use their initiative. The skills of self-management, organisation and improving one’s own performance are developed by a course schedule of lessons and homework given to students at key stage 4 and in the sixth form.