Teacher Talk: History means "two wars, a dictator and a nasty murderer"

James Wilding, 49, is headteacher at Claires Court independent secondary school in Maidenhead, Berkshire

Parents who take their children on holiday during term time are to be fined up to £100. Do you support this?

No. Truancy fines will set schools against families. Parents who take their children out of school – and they do it occasionally because of holiday plans – will feel persecuted, while parents of persistent truants will have their negative view of the authorities reinforced, and may not be able to pay. Trying to cut truancy figures by cracking down on holiday absences is just silly. I think the new vocational curriculum options for 14- to 16-year-olds promise to make a difference. As an independent school we don't have problems with truancy – parents would be punishing themselves because they've already paid for tuition.

The chief executive of WH Smith says that work experience for schoolchildren tends to be menial and fails to give a positive impression of corporate life. Do you agree?

Yes. Part of the problem is that it's quite difficult for companies to find meaningful work for pupils aged 15. We've chosen to implement our work-experience programme after the GCSE exams, when students are nearly 17. We ask parents to help us to come up with good placements, and we hand-pick companies from those that advertise. Where possible we want children to be involved in high-level experience; to work shadowing a manager rather than packing CDs, for example.

History lessons at GCSE and A-level are being dominated by the study of Hitler and the Second World War, according to Ofsted. Do you agree?

My wife's the head of history here, and she tells prospective GCSE pupils that the course is about "two wars, a dictator and a nasty murderer" (a reference to Jack the Ripper). We find that a focus on key events is needed to sell the subject to adolescents who are tempted to take newer subjects such as business, IT or drama. But the school has a strong view that it's important to teach world as well as British and European history, so we always have an American postgraduate student here in the autumn, teaching modules such as pre-American history or the civil rights movement.

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