The Quality Mark is a national award that recognises the excellence of history provision in a school. Last year, the department was awarded the Silver Quality Mark, and its potential to gain gold was rapidly identified.
In his Gold report, the assessor Mr J. Edgar commented: “Teachers harnessed their extensive and detailed subject knowledge to ensure that students were not only engaged, but very much enjoyed their history lessons.”
He added: “students are challenged and inspired to achieve their best, and monitoring evidence shows that they are consistently making outstanding progress relative to starting points.”
He was ‘struck’ by the strong focus that the Head of Department has on meeting the needs of all students, regardless of ability, commenting: “The individualised additional support provided by teachers has a profound impact on progress, and is undoubtedly important in enabling many students to exceed their academic targets.”
Julie Boden, Dunottar’s head of history and a leading contributor to TES resources, commented: “We have been continually trying to improve the History provision for students at Dunottar School and are pleased that this has been recognised by the gold award.”