Students can be given a stronger sense of their own identity and their place in the world around them if they can make sense of how the past has impacted on the present. For newly arrived students this is not just at a personal level but also in the sense of how the place they now live has developed, how the new language they are now learning has evolved, how some of the experiences they enjoy, such as freedom from child labour and the right to an education, were not always rights in the UK but had to be gained through determination and legislation.

Civil war is often associated in the news media with the developing world but history helps students recognise that civil wars are a feature of the history of many states. They have been waged in England, the USA, and more recently in Spain and the former Yugoslavia. Understanding that throughout history civil wars happen and people’s lives are changed as a consequence might help a student recognise that their move to this country is part of a much bigger picture and not due to the ‘failing’ of individual migrant families.

Planning for inclusion

The national curriculum is the starting point for planning a school curriculum that meets the specific needs of newly arrived pupils. The national curriculum inclusion statement outlines how teachers can modify, as necessary, the national curriculum programmes of study to provide all pupils with relevant and appropriately challenging work at each key stage. It sets out three principles that are essential to developing a more inclusive curriculum:

• setting suitable learning challenges
• responding to pupils' diverse learning needs
• overcoming potential barriers to learning and assessment for individuals and groups of pupils.

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Setting suitable learning challenges

Schools should aim to give every student the opportunity to experience success in learning and to achieve as high a standard as possible. The national curriculum programmes of study set out what most students should be taught at each key stage but teachers are expected to teach the knowledge, skills and understanding in ways that suit their students’ abilities. The content of certain history study units may be more accessible than others to new arrivals. Where logistics allow, this could mean choosing knowledge, skills and understanding from earlier key stages so that individual students can make progress and show what they can achieve.

A similarly flexible approach will be needed to take account of any gaps in students’ learning resulting from missed or interrupted schooling. A small number of students arriving in the UK may not have received any previous schooling or their education may have been interrupted because of war. These students will have fewer historical skills than their peers. The 'Children with little or no prior education' area of this site gives further guidance on this.

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Responding to pupils' diverse learning needs

When planning, staff should have high expectations and provide opportunities for all students to achieve. Teachers will be aware that students bring to school different experiences, interests and strengths which will influence the way in which they learn. The experiences of students who have lived overseas can be an asset to the history class. However, it is important to understand that some students may wish to put their experiences behind them and might feel uncomfortable if required to draw on recent traumatic events as part of their learning in school. Drawing on a student’s past personal experience requires appropriate professional judgement and sensitivity. Even work in history that does not appear to be directly related to the experiences of the student may raise difficult issues.

Teachers are expected to plan their approaches to teaching and learning so that all students can take part in lessons. This will include the planning of work that is accessible for students with EAL, as well as work that extends their language skills.

Teachers will need to plan appropriately challenging work for those whose ability and understanding of historical concepts are in advance of their language skills. This may mean students using their first language in history lessons. Engagement and access to history can be impeded if a student’s first language is not supported appropriately. The 'English as an additional language' area of this website gives further guidance on this.

As most new arrivals from overseas will need English language support, history departments will have to consider how they support the needs of these students. Access and engagement in history: teaching pupils for whom English is an additional language applies the principles of the key stage 3 national strategy to the teaching and learning of history for EAL students. It suggests strategies to help teachers support students at different points of learning English:

• to develop their understanding and use of the English language
• to enhance their learning in history lessons.

The guidance is in two parts. Sections 1 to 4 are intended for subject leaders of history and ethnic minority achievement (EMA) teachers in secondary schools. These sections are designed to support a departmental meeting focused on reviewing the attainment of EAL students and should be read in conjunction with the later sections.

Sections 5 to 8 are for all history teachers and their EMA colleagues. They aim to help teachers support EAL students in the classroom, particularly those working at levels 3 to 4 and who have been learning in English for a minimum of two years, in order to raise their attainment in history lessons.

The Ofsted report Managing the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant: good practice in secondary schools (2004) gives a number of examples of good classroom practice and case studies.

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Overcoming potential barriers to learning and assessment for individuals and groups of pupils

The idea of the past can be quite different in some cultures and this goes well beyond differences in work on historical interpretation. Some cultures have an idea of a continuous present and can find the idea of separate historical periods difficult to grasp. It is important to find out from the new arrivals what they understand by the past so that basic differences in interpretation do not hinder progress for the students. Failure to understand that this could be an issue may lead to significant misunderstanding.

A minority of students will have particular learning and assessment requirements which, if not addressed, could create barriers to learning. For newly arrived students these are most often linked to progress in learning English as an additional language.

The key criterion for decisions about setting and streaming is ability rather than what a pupil has previously studied or their fluency in English. The 'Initial assessment' area of this site gives further guidance on this.

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What is the potential in the history curriculum for valuing diversity and challenging racism?

The national curriculum programme of study and the QCA/DCFS schemes of work for history provide starting points for valuing diversity and challenging racism in the classroom. The national curriculum makes the following statement about the importance of history:

History fires pupils' curiosity about the past in Britain and the wider world. Pupils consider how the past influences the present, what past societies were like, how these societies organised their politics, and what beliefs and cultures influenced people's actions. They see the diversity of human experience, and understand more about themselves as individuals and members of society. What they learn can influence their decisions about personal choices, attitudes and values. In history, pupils find evidence, weigh it up and reach their own conclusions. To do this they need to be able to research, sift through evidence, and argue for their point of view – skills that are prized in adult life.

On the Respect for all in history website there is guidance on how the programme of study requirements provide opportunities to value diversity and challenge racism.

Students should be taught to view differences in others positively, whether arising from race, gender, ability, disability, age, religion/belief or sexual orientation. History teachers can achieve this by using materials which reflect social and cultural diversity, and by providing positive images of race, gender, disability, age, religion/belief and sexual orientation.

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Classroom displays

Many students like to see the countries from where they originate or where they have relatives reflected in classroom displays. Displays are also a powerful medium for representing diversity in the world both of today and of the past. Schools can attempt, where practicable, to create history displays that reflect migration and diversity as well as students’ regions of origin.

Differences in teaching history

Class sizes in some of the countries from which newly arrived students come are larger than in England. This often results in a more teacher-directed style of learning. Some countries’ education systems place greater emphasis on the acquisition of knowledge rather than the development of skills or concepts. Students arriving from countries where either or both of these conditions apply may have little prior experience of historical enquiry.

Teachers might consider working with EAL staff to develop induction materials. Such materials would introduce students to historical enquiry, different types of evidence, the wide range of sources that can be used in history, and the potential of ICT within the subject.

Students newly arrived from overseas may also be less familiar with the practice of evaluating different historical interpretations and researching the causes and consequences of historical change and continuity.

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Difficulties in interpreting primary sources

Some students find it difficult to analyse and interpret primary sources used in teaching history. The English language used in the medieval, Tudor or even Civil War periods can be difficult to understand for many students. For EAL students this may prove to be even more challenging. The practice of providing original sources along with simplified versions of primary sources written in modern English is well established and allows the learner access to the content while still recognising that the original primary source looks different to how we write things today. Where a teacher has in-class support it might be possible for the support teacher to read the source with the students in advance of the lesson or to use prepared tapes, particularly when working with significant quantities of written materials or at speed. If there is no support in lessons, the EAL support teacher could help prepare visual materials to aid the learning of new words.

Visual sources can also be challenging, as a student may not have the contextual information to interpret the source. The teacher can support the student by anticipating where visual sources might require an elaboration of context to make them more accessible. For example, when studying unit 7 'Images of an age: what can we learn from portraits 1500–1700?' new arrivals will not have experienced analytical work on portraits at key stage 2, some might regard all portraits as objective depictions of people from the past.

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Adapting the curriculum

Teachers can consider adapting the history curriculum in order to enhance students’ learning by providing them with activities that have been customised to meet their experiences, needs and abilities and by helping them to make the best use of resources available in their school and in the local area.

The key stage 3 curriculum can be adapted to examine the growth of multi-ethnic Britain. At key stage 3 pupils have to undertake a world study before 1900 and a world study after 1900. These two studies can also be adapted according to pupil intake.

Examples

Unit 14 'The British Empire: how was it that, by 1900, Britain controlled nearly a quarter of the world?' can be adapted to include analyses of whether the countries of origin of new arrivals were part of the British or other European empires in the nineteenth century.

Unit 18 'Hot war, cold war: why did the major twentieth-century conflicts affect so many people?' can be adapted to look at the flight of refugees.

Unit 19 'How and why did the Holocaust happen?' can be adapted to look at human rights as well as the flight of refugees.

Unit 22 'The role of the individual for good or ill': new arrivals will often have a sense of the role of significant individuals in their family’s migration. Asylum-seeking families in particular will be aware of key individuals’ roles.

The Respect for all site can support the adaptation of the history curriculum. The site includes history units that promote diversity and challenge racism. These are ‘Migration to Britain’ and ‘Who are the British?’

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Historical vocabulary

Teachers may wish to provide lists of historical terms with definitions. If using the DCFS/QCA schemes of work the key words can be drawn from the ‘Language for learning’ sections in the key stage 3 units. Students could build their own bilingual dictionary of key words.

Collaborative learning involves students working together in small groups and helping each other learn. This is a good way of developing a student’s vocabulary.

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Useful weblinks

Please note: QCA is not responsible for the content of external sites

Black History Month
This event happens every October. Local groups, schools and local authorities organise their own events that examine black history.

British Pathe Film Archive
The Pathe News website has a wealth of still and movie clips from the last 75 years and it is free to all maintained schools in the UK.

DCFS: Access and engagement in history: teaching pupils for whom English is an additional language
This report draws attention to the ‘considerable evidence that once proficiency in English is achieved, the progress for pupils with EAL across the curriculum was rapid and their attainment on a par with or higher than that of their monolingual peers.’

Holocaust Memorial Day
This is an annual event commemorated on 26 January. Many schools and local authorities organise their own events and commemorations.

Imperial War Museum
The Imperial War Museum’s collections cover conflict and the flight of refugees. The Holocaust exhibition is based at the Imperial War Museum, London. The website offers online exhibitions, archival material and book purchases.

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Moving here: 200 years of migration to England
This website is a database of digitised photographs, maps, objects, documents and audio items from 30 local and national archives, museums and libraries which record migration experiences of the last 200 years. The site is useful for history teachers developing schemes of work on migration and the development of ethnically diverse communities in Britain.

Ofsted: Managing the Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant: good practice in secondary schools
This 2004 report includes case studies of schools which manage their Ethnic Minority Achievement Grant (EMAG) funding effectively.

QCA: Innovating with history
This area of the QCA website shows how the history national curriculum can motivate pupils aged 5 to 14, improve the quality of teaching and learning and raise standards of achievement. Use this site to engage pupils with the excitement of school history, to find out what others have planned and to share your own good practice. However innovative you are, you should find something to help you improve your teaching and increase your pupils' learning.

Refugee Council
The Refugee Council produces a range of resources for schools.

Refugee Week
Refugee Week is an annual event that celebrates the enormous contribution of refugees to life in the UK. The Refugee Week website provides information on running successful events in schools. There are also free curriculum resources to download.

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Runnymede Trust: Real Histories Directory
The Real Histories Directory has been created as a resource tool for teachers, parents, pupils and the wider community to support them in their teaching and learning about cultural diversity in the UK.

Beth Shalom Centre
This is a Holocaust museum based in Nottinghamshire. The Aegis Trust, an associated organisation, has carried out work to support the welcome of refugees.

British Museum
The website has many online resources that support the teaching of world history.

The National Archives Learning Curve
The Learning Curve website is an online teaching resource, structured to tie in with the history national curriculum. The Learning Curve contains a varied range of original sources including documents, photographs, film and sound recordings. A range of resources related to migration and diversity are available.

Refuge Project: Learning about refugees with refugees: a citizenship education project
The Refuge Project teacher’s resource pack is the result of a schools project in the UK which paired nine refugees with nine schools for a six-month period.

UNHCR in the UK: Teaching tools
The website of the UK office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) provides a wide range of teaching resources that can support learning about refugees in several subjects including history.

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