Celebrating excellence in subject leadership

Why Broadway Academy won the 2021 BMC Award

Since taking over as Head of Department in September 2019, Jack Cockayne redesigned the curriculum to ensure that it gave students the best start in life as a geographer. His departmental vision was to inspire students, colleagues and the community to develop geographical thinking and work towards global change on 21^st century geographical issues.

The subject of geography has been entirely re-invented at the school to incorporate the Broadway Geographical Society (BGS), which was set up to engage and benefit learners inside and outside the classroom. Lessons are more challenging, ensuring every child is given access to the full breadth of the curriculum, and assessments are now seen as a ‘celebration of success’.

More 21^st century topics are introduced in KS3, such as species identification, colonialism, and geopolitics. Fieldwork and careers education are also embedded into the curriculum and extra-curricular mastery lessons are taught to stretch and inspire the most able students.

For this curriculum update to be successful, a more personalised professional development plan has been created for the academy’s geography teachers, ensuring they are true subject experts and remain up-to-date with the latest geography research and pedagogy.

As a result of these changes, students have flourished, with recorded improvements in engagement, behaviour and results. Students are excited about geography and show their enthusiasm through a love of learning.

Since this departmental transformation, extra-curricular opportunities have included a strategic boardgame club, Duke of Edinburgh programme, a sustainability fieldtrip to Cambridge Central Mosque, an emergency planning workshop at the University of Wolverhampton, and a range of fieldwork excursions to the schools very own Outdoor Education Centre at Top Barn in Worcestershire. Students have engaged with outside agencies such as Action for Conservation, where one student stands as an ambassador; Birmingham Wildlife Trust, where two students competed in the final of their environmentalist of the year competition; and Water aid, where one student has just finished an internship. 

Why Holland Park School was shortlisted for the BMC Award

The departmental vision was to increase the proportion of target language used within the classroom. The aim was that this extended to feedback provided to students in their workbooks, the teaching of grammar or written skills which might ordinarily be undertaken in English, and the spontaneous interactions both on the corridor and at the starts and ends of lessons.

The teachers and students developed an understanding that wherever possible, the default position was to avoid using English as the means of communication. If this required mime, images, gesture or repetition, then so be it: the target language was key to enabling students, inspiring their interest and securing their success. To scaffold this transition and support students, the department created ‘speaking mats’ that were placed upon desks in the classrooms. These differentiated aids offered prompts and key phrases that students initially had access to throughout their lessons.

Commitment to the teaching of grammar has been hugely empowering for students. Having invested substantial time in the collation of student views, it was clear from the outset that students’ confidence was key to increasing their speaking proficiency.

Much extracurricular provision has been established including 'Tales in Translation' - an extracurricular activity in partnership with the University of Caen. Students translate documents (such as letters, diaries, and testimonials) from the Occupation which enhanced both linguistic and cultural understanding.

Students are also sent on taster experiences at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge which has raised aspiration and desire to progress to higher education. Last year, two students secured places to study languages at Cambridge and one secured a place at Oxford.

Why Challney High School for Boys was shortlisted for the BMC Award

The departmental vision, led by Head of Department Nicola Quick, was to ensure that pupils receive the highest quality teaching experiences through an effectively planned curriculum, focused and targeted teaching and extra-curricular provision.

To ensure the English curriculum was impactful, separate timetabling for Language and Literature was introduced. This ensured deeper mastery in English with both subjects running throughout the year rather than transferring between the two. A split curriculum also allowed staff to better showcase their subject expertise given the extra content covered. A KS3 Golden Curriculum was designed and run by a primary specialist, improving provision for lower ability students.

The creation of a ‘Challney Voice’ oracy group has extended opportunities for pupils with a phenomenal impact. The group took part in Luton-wide debate competitions and attended the Model United Nations conference in London winning an astounding three awards. Cross-curricular links have been made with the History and PE departments, and extracurricular activities such as a poetry flash mob at parents’ evenings have taken place.

Links have been made with the local College and the Head of Faculty for English delivered an A-Level Literature lesson to Y11 which resulted in improvements in grades. Learn to Learn (L2L) sessions were created and delivered on a weekly basis to ensure that staff had time to collaborate and discuss pedagogy. Each week, a member of the team presents a strategy or experience which has shown positive impact on pupils.

The department has been at the heart of the transition project links with Primary feeder schools, including a reading project. This has been extremely valuable, allowing the department to evaluate and adapt the Y7 curriculum to ensure that it is tailored to the new cohort.

Why Loxford School was shortlisted for the BMC Award

The English department at Loxford School redesigned the curriculum to incorporate literary criticism to engage and challenge students in the changing landscape of English teaching. This included exposing Year 7 to Freudian psychoanalysis, introducing Year 8 students to second wave French feminism and encouraging Year 9 to engage with post-colonial discourse.

At A level, the students were exposed to a performance of The Tempest over Zoom which was orchestrated by a team of inspiring English teachers to help bring the life to play for the students. The staff filmed this scene by scene over the space of 4 weeks and students were then given access to the recording as part of their online study.

This was followed up and supported by ‘teacher talks’ where members of the cast were interviewed to speak critically about the scene they had just been in. This offered insight into character motivations and modelled what it means to speak critically about texts. For their own professional development, the English teachers in the department made full use of the back catalogue of lectures and courses available on the PTI Staffroom to enrich their subject knowledge.

As the lead school in the Loxford Trust all of the school’s critical theory based SOWs and their aims and strategies have been shared and disseminated with partner schools. 

Why Queen Katharine Academy was shortlisted for the BMC Award

The department vision was to promote social mobility at KS5 through academic attainment. They completely revised the curriculum at KS5 following Josephine’s attendance at a dedicated PTI residential weekend. This inspired her colleagues to revise the KS3 and KS4 curriculum too; lockdown provided an ideal setting for this level of revision to take place.

This revision has resulted in an increased uptake in the subject at KS5, as well as the increased provision of all three subject strands at A level by student demand. This is unprecedented in the history of the school and is a great leap forward as these are challenging, academic subjects.

New reading and debate clubs have been introduced to promote self-confidence and public speaking. In addition, interactive Shakespeare workshops were devised to engage learners and extra-curricular visits to Harry Potter Studio World and the West End took place. Students are also now entered in to termly Young Writer competitions.

Inspired by the PTI, the department decided to run a weekly ‘Lunchtime Lift’. This series of talks by colleagues from within and outside the department has been especially popular and has promoted cross-curricular communication between departments. Because of this, a core subject behaviour liaison support network was set up, as well as a system of ‘Triple A’ visuals for year 11 students regarding attainment, attendance and attitude to learning. This has resulted in an improved atmosphere for learning, not only in English department but across the school.

Weekly ‘uplift and inspiration’ emails promote mental wellbeing. The department also aid learners’ concentration by using diffusers with academically enhancing and calming essential oils such as peppermint and cedar and playing Mozart. 

Why St Edward's College was shortlisted for the BMC Award

The departmental vision was to ensure curriculum was at the core of all learning experiences, deliberately designed to cultivate Geographers who are resilient citizens, thinking globally, acting locally and living sustainably operating as role models for society.

The Geography department promote ‘Everyday Geographies’. Teachers are encouraged to challenge mainstream schemes of learning, take risks and develop learning experiences which are innovative and exciting for students. This has led to the development of ‘Soccernomics’, a year 8 unit of study addressing social inequalities and economic change facilitated through football. Thinking outside the box led to mass student ‘buy in’, increasing engagement and improving outcomes. Geography is now one of the school’s most popular GCSE option subjects. The department was invited to share best practice with colleagues across the country at the annual Geographical Association’s conference where they delivered a lecture discussing this innovative unit of study.

Extra-curricular Geology Club enhances understanding of challenging physical Geography concepts. A-level students operate as role models driving GCSE students’ engagement and ambition. The success of this project has precipitated the inaugural year of GCSE Geology at St Edward’s College.

The SEC Geography Department assisted in the construction of ‘Teaching Geography’, a third year undergraduate module at the University of Liverpool. One of the team is an honorary lecturer at the University of Liverpool and delivers 10 lectures to the next generation of Geography teachers. Teaching Geography undergraduates have delivered A-Level masterclasses to A-Level Geographers at St Edwards College.

Why Wymondham College was shortlisted for the BMC Award

The History department at Wymondham College reviewed their curriculum to focus on ‘overarching’ and ‘enquiry’ questions and a ‘Story, Source and Scholarship’ approach. Each individual lesson formed an enquiry which fed into the overarching question to be answered at the end of the unit. ‘Meanwhile, Elsewhere…’ activity sheets were developed with a local focus and a focus on exploring aspects of History beyond Europe.

Student views were considered with extensive student voice conducted to gauge their opinions. Noteworthy efforts have been made to decolonise the History curriculum, as well as the development of opportunities for students to engage with Historical scholarship and processes to ensure a sound grasp of the subject. This has been adopted with lessons devised for Y7 students focusing on Historical reconstructions and the job of the historian.

Creation of ‘The Ages’ magazine, a student led publication with a focus on historical scandals was used as a tool for student engagement, publicity, PR and praise. The department also worked with the Museum of East Anglian Life who sought volunteers to digitally catalogue their artefacts. This provided an opportunity for students to work with a curator to gain practical experience.

Students are also enthused through positive reinforcement and praise. History prizes are awarded annually at Speech day, and 'I Love History' badges have been introduced for students who have produced outstanding work or exceeded expectations. Further opportunities are provided to students through a Genius Hour initiative which allows students to research and present an area of study.

Relationships have been forged with UEA lecturers and made use of resources from the History Association and Learning Scientists. The department worked with sixth form students to develop a ‘Great Women’ exhibition hosted by the College. Work has been done to provide the Historical context to other topics. For example resources were provided to the English department relating to the Titanic to help prepare students for their study of An Inspector Calls.