The Joe Scott Award: rewarding excellence in the History Around Us unit at GCSE History

Dan Lyndon-Cohen, Director of Schools History Project and Richard Kerridge, OCR History Subject Advisor

Each year the Schools History Project (SHP) presents an award to the top-performing student on the History Around Us unit of the OCR History B GCSE specification. 

Richard explains why this unit is so important to our qualification and invites Dan Lyndon-Cohen to introduce this year’s award and talk about Joe Scott, the historian that the award was named after.

About the History Around Us unit

Before Dan tells us about Joe Scott and the award presentation, it is worth considering the nature of the History Around Us (HAU) unit. The HAU unit is one of five equally weighted units in the OCR GCSE History B specification. This makes our History B specification unique across all history GCSEs. All other specifications place the compulsory site study in another unit. 

The Schools History Project (SHP) believes as a core principle that: 

“engaging with ‘history around us’, and considering what the historic environment can tell us about people’s lives and beliefs in the past, are some of the most stimulating aspects of learning history. The SHP believes that there should be more opportunities for children and young people to study ‘history around us’ (SHP Core Principle #5).”

To that end, teachers of GCSE History B get to choose the site they study, therefore making sure it can be engaging and relevant for their students. We have written about local history in two recent blogs: Local history month: do your students understand their local history? and Powerful connections: linking local, national and international stories in your curriculum.

The 2024 Joe Scott award – words from Dan Lyndon-Cohen

Last week I had the absolute pleasure to present the Joe Scott Award for the top performing candidate on the History Around Us unit of the OCR B History GCSE. 

This year the award went to Sam Hickman from the Bristol Cathedral School. I was joined by Rich Kerridge, and we spent time talking to Sam and his teacher, Dr Michael Brodie. We discussed the historical site that was chosen for the exam, Bristol Cathedral. Sam spoke so passionately about the building. It was as if the cathedral was a close friend. It might well have been as it happens to be part of their school. They have assemblies in it, presentation, and commemoration events. We concluded that Sam and his classmates may be the only students in the country who were able to spend the morning of the exam visiting their chosen site! 

Sam has been inspired by his History GCSE and is now studying it at A Level where a career in teaching is definitely an option.

About Joe Scott

I also wanted to share with you a bit about Joe Scott, the man that the award is named after. Joe was one of the original members of the Schools Council History Project (SCHP), which was the forerunner of the Schools History Project. My thanks go to Ian Dawson for sharing his memories of Joe. 

Joe served in a tank regiment in World War II and was wounded in France. He spent part of his convalescence at Harewood House near Leeds which is where he met his wife, Nan. After the war Joe studied History at Oxford, where his tutor was Christopher Hill. His lifelong passion was 17th century history: his knowledge of the Civil War remained deep and penetrating and he strongly believed in the importance of studying it along with the radicalism of the period. 

He then taught at Glossop School until 1979 when he joined SCHP towards the end of his career and spent four years as National Co-ordinator until the Schools Council funding ended in 1983. He’d taken up the project in its trial phase. Joe’s main task was to liaise with the local co-ordinators (there was one in almost every local authority) and run CPD courses around the country, often with Denis Shemilt who was Director from 1980 to 1983.

Joe was a huge asset to SCHP. Although the late-70s and early-80s saw a huge increase in take-up in history, there was still plenty of strongly voiced hostility at meetings. Joe was ideally placed to present the case for SCHP. He had 30 years teaching experience so no-one could accuse him of being a youthful idealist. He had the intellectual clarity and knowledge of the philosophy of history to deal with those who tried to get on their high horses about academic standards. 

Joe was also involved in the mid-1980s publishing. He wrote Hadrian’s Wall: A Study in Causation in the 11-13 series c1984, Energy through Time and then the revised version of Medicine through Time. Medicine was highly successful, echoing the innovative structure he’d used in Energy (though Energy was a topic no-one wanted to teach!). 

Joe therefore stayed involved into the mid-80s and must have played a part in all the trials of GCSE work the SCHP did. SCHP was very much at the centre of the work ahead of the implementation of GCSE and Joe had built a lot of experience of assessment through SCHP papers. Back in the late 1970s and early 1980s, SCHP was seen as being at the forefront of assessment, including being responsible for levels marking being used. 

For SCHP, Joe was a figure of great importance, combining vast teaching experience with intellectual insight. This was important in helping establish SCHP as a serious contributor to history education. He is a worthy person to have an award presented in his name.

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About the authors

Dan Lyndon-Cohen is the Director of the Schools History Project and Lead Practitioner for Humanities at Park View School in Tottenham. Dan worked with OCR on developing the specification for the migration units on the OCR A and B GCSE courses and was the exam constructor for the former. He has also published many books and articles, and has been a consultant for the BBC, IWM, NPG and the National Trust. Outside of the education world Dan enjoys hikes in the countryside, watching The Arsenal and listening to 1990’s liquid drum and bass!

Richard Kerridge joined Cambridge International Assessment in September 2019 and OCR in October 2022. Prior to joining OCR, he taught History for seventeen years. He was a Deputy Head of Sixth Form, Head of Humanities, SSAT Lead Practitioner as well as writing and contributing to textbooks and exam-board resources. He has presented at the Historical Association and Schools History Project Annual Conferences and for Keynote Education. Richard is very proud to be an Honorary Fellow of the Historical Association. He enjoys being surrounded by his family, friends and two dogs.