May 25th 2023
Is Britain a more equal and diverse society than it was 50 years ago?
As part of our curriculum for boys in Year 8, we no longer teach the Common Entrance syllabus in History, Geography and TPR which are collectively known as the Humanities subjects. In their place, we have developed our own curriculum which focuses on the development of skills as well as knowledge acquisition.
However, there has still been a desire for an ‘end’ product in order to replace the examinations. As a result, we have developed a project which has seen the boys work in mixed groups across in order to answer the question ‘Is Britain a more equal and diverse society than it was 50 years ago?’
The boys were set the challenge of answering this question in three different formats in order to highlight the skills they have developed during Humanities lessons. These were:
- A video including interviews with relatives
- A Google Slides presentation
- A debate where they had to argue for one side of a question relevant to this topic. This involved some groups arguing against a view they naturally believe in.
As part of the preparation for this, the boys welcomed specialists in the art of video making and presentation techniques. We are grateful to both Max Tilney and Luisa March Baldini for giving up their time in order to offer their expertise in these areas. It is clear from watching the finished products that the boys took a lot of the advice on board.
The boys have been working on this project since February half-term and it reached a culmination over the last ten days with presentations in front of the whole year group and some senior members of staff. Mr Beardmore-Gray watched all elements of the project and gave some useful advice following the completion of the debates.
The finished elements of this project contained examples that showed impressive knowledge and understanding and the humanities staff were full of praise for the technical proficiency shown in the skills of: video making, presenting as a group and public speaking in a debate format, as these are all skills that will assist them in later life.
This has been a valuable term’s work where the boys have concluded that whilst we are living in a more diverse nation there is still a journey to travel in terms of making it as diverse as it could be.
