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

2. Where did it all go wrong?

3. History
The Curriculum

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

9. History
The Curriculum

10. 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

11. A Manifesto

12. 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

13. 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

14. 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

15. 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’

16. 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’

17. 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

18. 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.

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