Getting yourself noticed

Getting yourself noticed!

Any good history department needs to raise its profile.

What I did when I arrived at the school was to begin painting my walls with scenes from history.

Students soon wanted to help and up to 25 students stayed back after school (some up to 4 nights a week!).

When we had the Holocaust remembrance week the art department worked with students to produce paintings based on Auschwitz. Many thanks to Alison Johnson (Head of Art) for her work. Here are some examples (more to follow)

Using merit certificates, events such as Holocaust memorial week etc. to emphasise the value of history to the wider school are definitely worth the effort.

Don't forget that you have a role outside the history department than can be fun. Especially if you are a raging Man City fan and the school is linked to MCFC!!!

Jason, Paul Power (The Paul Power) and myself at a presentation evening.

Finally, making the History department a focus for good practice, ideas and enthusiasm is essential to making staff as well as students take you seriously. History is under the cosh at the moment from other subjects at GCSE. It is not a lost battle. All we have to do is make sure that students and parents see history is important for several reasons

1) It is a strong academic subject.

2) It is fun and interesting to study.

3) History departments are the focus of good practice in schools.

4) The subject has relevance (see the page on

preparing for option evenings).

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