Key Stage 3 Assessment Michael Fordham Assistant Headteacher West London Free School @mfordhamhistory

Where did it all go wrong?

History The Curriculum

The 1991 National Curriculum Attainment Target for Causation Level 1 Recognise everyday time conventions Level 2 Demonstrate, by reference to stories of the past, an awareness that actions have consequences Level 3 When examining historical issues, can draw the distinction between causes, motives and reasons Level 4 Understand that historical events usually have more than one cause and consequence Level 5 When explaining historical issues, place some causes and consequences in a sensible order of importance Level 6 Demonstrate an awareness of human motivation illustrated by reference to events of the past Level 7 Understand that historical events have different types of causes and consequences Level 8 Demonstrate an awareness of the problems inherent in the idea of causation Level 9 Produce a well-argued hierarchy of causes for complex historical issues Level 10 Demonstrate a clear understanding of the complexities of the relationship between cause, consequence and change

The 1991 National Curriculum Attainment Target for Causation Level 1 Recognise everyday time conventions Level 2 Demonstrate, by reference to stories of the past, an awareness that actions have consequences Level 3 Demonstrate an awareness of human motivation illustrated by reference to events of the past Level 4 Understand that historical events usually have more than one cause and consequence Level 5 Understand that historical events have different types of causes and consequences Level 6 When explaining historical issues, place some causes and consequences in a sensible order of importance Level 7 When examining historical issues, can draw the distinction between causes, motives and reasons Level 8 Produce a well-argued hierarchy of causes for complex historical issues Level 9 Demonstrate an awareness of the problems inherent in the idea of causation Level 10 Demonstrate a clear understanding of the complexities of the relationship between cause, consequence and change

Causal Questions We might quite legitimately teach pupils over time to structure causal writing in a variety of ways: ‘Short-term’ and ‘long-term’ causes Thematic causes (political, economic, etc.) Counter-factual arguments Necessry and sufficient causes Causal narrative

The Nature of Medieval Monarchy in England Crisis of Church and State ‘Feudalism’ Treason Terms of Magna Carta Simon de Montfort Primogeniture Minority of Henry VI English Common Law Taxation Attainder Edward I’s campaigns in Scotland Hundred Years’ War

History The Curriculum

What do you get if you cross a dodgy progression model with an invasive accountability framework? PiXL ‘Student friendly’ targets Memorising exam rubrics TEACHING TO THE TEST

A Manifesto

Less-predictable exams Marking by comparative judgement More ambivalence about verbs in questions Use of specified sources and interpretations More emphasis on breadth Assess the whole curriculum

1. Less-predictable exams (a) teaching to a mark scheme is a waste of time at KS3 (b) unpredictable questions are more likely to tell you what you want to know (c) teachers would stop attending workshops on ‘doing a 6-mark question’ and go instead to more interesting CPD (d) feedback to pupils less likely to be phrased in terms of exam skills, and more in terms of the content (both disciplinary and substantive) being learnt

2. Comparative judgement allows us to ditch mark schemes completely for extended writing, which, whilst scary, would in practice be quite liberating as there is no mark scheme to teach, teachers have more time to teach history allows pupils to go ‘off piste’ when answering a question without fear of not meeting the mark scheme requirements collaboration needed across schools to do this in a meaningful way

3. Ambivalence about verbs ditch the idea that we can meaningfully distinguish between words like “describe” or “explain” stop pupils obsessing about these words and ‘spotting’ question types break away from this idea that there is a hierarchy of ‘types of thinking’

4. Specified sources and interpretations tell pupils which specific sources and interpretations they need to learn, and then test them on their knowledge of these in an exam consign the idea of ‘generic source skills’ to the dustbin use ‘case studies’ of interpretations and make sure pupils know in some detail why that specific interpretation was formed in the way it was no more ‘death by Sources A-E’

5. Emphasis on breadth consider use of multiple-choice questions and collaborate with other schools to produce high-quality questions (hard!) use timeline tests give greater chronological, geographical, thematic or conceptual breadth within questions use interpretations in a clever way to assess knowledge of the period in which the interpretation was created and of the period being interpreted

6. Assess the whole curriculum Unit 1 Test on Unit 1 Unit 2 Test on Units 1 & 2 Unit 3 Test on Units 1, 2 & 3. Unit 4 Test on Units 1, 2, 3 & 4.

Key Stage 3 Assessment Michael Fordham Assistant Headteacher West London Free School @mfordhamhistory