Setting

Mr Lahive Headteacher Riverside Primary School Brighton Street Wallasey Merseyside CH44 6QW

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Ofsted Subject Inspection Programme - History

Thank you for your hospitality and co-operation, and that of your staff, during the visit I made on 06 February 2007 to look at work in history.

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Ofsted Subject Inspection Programme - History

The visit provided valuable information which will contribute to our national evaluation and reporting. Published reports are likely to list the names of the contributing institutions, but individual institutions will not be identified in the main text. All feedback letters will be published on the OFSTED website at the end of each half term.

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Ofsted Subject Inspection Programme - History

I undertook to provide a brief written version of the main points made in my feedback at the end of the visit, to support development in history. This follows. The evidence used to inform the judgements made included: interviews with staff and pupils, scrutiny of relevant documentation, analysis of pupils’ work and observation of lessons.

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Ofsted Subject Inspection Programme - History

The overall effectiveness of history was judged to be good.

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Achievement and standards

Achievement in history is good. Standards are broadly average.

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Achievement and standards

 From low levels of communication and literacy skills on entry to the school, pupils achieve well in history and reach broadly average standards at the end of Year 6.  Pupils’ personal development is good. Pupils behave well, engage with the subject matter and enjoy taking responsibility for their own learning.  In the Foundation Stage, children work well together in pairs to formulate questions they ask of visitors. They make a good start to the Alexandra House 33 Kingsway London WC2B 6SE T 08456 404045 F 020 7421 6855 www.ofsted.gov.uk development of their historical skills because at such an early age they are beginning to question the resources available to them.  Pupils build upon these skills throughout Key Stage 1 and by the end of Year 2 they draw reasoned conclusions from a range of sources. The more able pupils justify the judgements they make.  This good achievement continues in Key Stage 2 and pupils in Year 6

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Achievement and standards

are aware of apparent contradictions in the texts they use. They are aware of different kinds of evidence, but their understanding of the nature of bias is limited.  In both key stages, pupils use computers for personal research with confidence and visit a range of relevant Internet sites.

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Quality of teaching and learning

Teaching and learning in history are good.

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Quality of teaching and learning

 Teachers foster the development of pupils’ historical skills and their regular use of Information and Communication Technology as a tool for personal research. Most lessons comprise a wide range of activities designed to encourage pupils to find things out for themselves.  Planning and lesson preparation are comprehensive and teachers work hard to provide their pupils with assignments which are relevant to their learning needs, interests and levels of ability.  In most lessons, teachers have high expectations of what their pupils can achieve and ask challenging questions of them. On occasions, some questioning demands too much of lower-ability pupils.  Monitoring of progress is good and pupils complete regular assignments which are assessed against National Curriculum level criteria. Marking is regular but does not always provide clear guidance to pupils on how to improve.

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Quality of the curriculum

 The curriculum is often planned in conjunction with other subjects and pupils are able to see the links between history and citizenship, for example.  The history curriculum places strong emphasis on the development of pupils’ literacy skills. This helps raise the standard of written work in history.  History has a high profile within the school. Pupils speak highly of the regular ‘history days’ and of the visits they make to Chester and Croxteth Park. These contribute to their understanding and enjoyment of the subject.

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Leadership and management of history

 The co-ordinator has an accurate view of overall performance in the subject, including standards reached by the pupils, the quality of teaching and learning, and areas for development.  The scrutiny of pupils’ work is carried out annually and an action plan for improvement has been produced following this exercise. Some monitoring of lessons is undertaken, but this is not yet well established.  There is a good focus on improving the quality of history. For example, the co-ordinator is working closely with the local authority on the development of a local field study and also on history resources for early years education.

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Inclusion

Inclusion is good. There is strong support for pupils with learning difficulties and higher ability pupils are generally challenged appropriately.

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Literacy

 Pupils in the reception class regularly discuss in pairs and ask questions of visitors. In older pupils’ lessons, pair and group discussion is the norm and pupils are therefore confident in presenting their findings to the rest of the class. Most pupils in Year 6 can use relevant historical terminology accurately and in context.  Extended writing is fostered throughout Key Stage 2 and reading is encouraged by the use of historical story books in every classroom.

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Overall effectiveness of the subject

Provision for history is good. Effective teaching and learning, an inclusive and skills-based curriculum, and the many links with literacy lead to good pupil achievement. Pupils enjoy the subject and are enthusiastic about the topics they study.

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Areas for improvement, which we discussed, included:

 an agreed marking policy, to ensure that pupils receive more advice on how to improve their work  more regular monitoring of history lessons. Thank you once again for your kindness during my visit. I hope these observations are useful as you continue to develop history in the school.

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