This section organises material on Key Stage 3 into four categories:

Progression and Assessment (Key Stage 3): History teachers need models of what progression in history looks like. This is not a straightforward matter!  Contrasting and competing models exist and lively debates continue.  All history teachers need to know enough to understand those debates and join them, drawing on the collective knowledge we already have. They also need to plan for assessment, so as to ensure that pupils do actually make the expected progress and so as to keep the whole process manageable.  In this section, you will find articles, guidance and exemplars which reveal or explain models and debates about what progress is in history and how it can be assessed.  History teachers and history education researchers have long traditions of defining and testing goals for students, debating how far these should relate to substantive knowledge and/or disciplinary thinking and working out optimal paths to get students there.

Transition (Key Stages 2 to 3) contains examples of projects and advice on securing primary-secondary liaison. Here the focus is on ensuring that Year 6, in particular, prepares for Year 7, as well as ensuring that Year 7 is properly building on Year 6, and taking into account (currently very diverse) primary school starting points.

Planning Key Stage 3 contains general advice on planning in the lower secondary years. This includes examples of how history teachers and other history education experts have planned everything from single activities and lessons to two or three years of work.

In Global Learning Project you will find history-related materials from a growing national network of like-minded schools exploring effective teaching and learning about development and global issues at Key Stages 2 and 3.

Click here to access all our Key Stage 3 resources...