There are big changes in assessment taking place at Key Stage 4. If you are still getting to grips with what those changes are and what you can expect it to look like in practice, or you want to compare the assessment approaches taken by different examination Boards, then this...

The recent Ofsted report 'Key Stage 3 The Wasted Years' highlights the need more than ever for Key Stage 3 to act as it was intended; as a solid 3 year grounding in the subject. The current un-accredited status of GCSE specifications also provides a stronger basis upon which to...

Steve Mastin is head of history at Sawston Village College in Cambridgeshire. The downloadable resource below is from a workshop session delivered at the London History Forum in November 2013 on progression in the new curriculum. Alex Ford is Head of History at Guiseley School. In his article in Teaching History 157, Alex...

"As part of our reforms to the national curriculum , the current system of ‘levels' used to report children's attainment and progress will be removed.  It will not be replaced." (DfE 2013)If you are beginning to think about how to go about defining and assessing progress in a post levels...

Ofsted...does that word leave you quaking in your boots? As we are sure you are aware, the new Ofsted framework came into force in January 2012. If you are yet to be inspected under the new framework, or you have an inspection imminent and you are wondering what to expect...

In this unit, Mel Jones takes a journey into history in academies through this snapshot case-study of history in one single south London academy that appears to buck the trend of poor status and time allocation for history in academies as evidenced by th Historical Association surveys into history in...

If you are a new teacher or head of department, sometimes making sense of Ofsted criteria and relating it to your own departmental practice can be a daunting prospect. It can be difficult to see the difference between one grade and another and where you can improve. We at the...

If you are looking to raise your D grades into Cs, a big focus is going to be fact retention. This can be in the form of fact based quizzes and organisational activities, but also in the form of starter quizzes and plenaries. Below are a few ideas that move...

Whilst we can all appreciate the renewed status that the English Baccalaureate will bring for history, there is no doubt that along with it will come new pressures upon history departments to ensure that the maximum number of students achieve at least a grade C. The Historical Association is here...

The lessons in this unit do not constitute a single "module". Instead they seek to show how aspects of Romany Gypsy life can find a place naturally within existing work at Key Stages 1, 2 and 3. This approach has been adopted as it is in some ways preferable to come across...

Context: Primarily aimed at International Schools, although increasingly taken up by schools in the UK, the Cambridge IGCSE is very similar to the OCR GCSE in Modern History in terms of content and structure. Candidates can still produce coursework, or, if you are an International School on a fairly isolated...

This unit was produced before the new curriculum and therefore while much of the advice is still useful, there may be some out of date references or links. To help you implement the curriculum, our guide provides a variety of resources that enable you to explore the concepts, processes, range and...

A briefing for Head Teachers and Chairs of Governing Bodies PSHE education and statutory status Wash-up negotiations between the government and opposition parties on the Children, Schools and Families Bill resulted in the removal of the clauses to introduce PSHE education as a statutory subject in the national curriculum at...

Context: Following a great deal of adverse publicity about coursework, the then-QCA carried out a study into cheating and plagiarism. It released this in 2005 and found that about 4000 students a year were being caught for breaching the rules.  The blame was laid at the internet especially custom-made essays...

There are an increasing number of schools now adopting a thematic or skills based curriculum for year 7 students.  This type of curriculum is often based on the RSA ‘Opening Minds' project or similar ‘Learning to Learn' packages. The amount of curriculum time dedicated to this model appears to vary...

The Personal Learning and Thinking Skills (PLTS) framework provides some ideas about what could be assessed when delivering a theme based curriculum. This Briefing Pack will assess teaching history as part of a 'Theme Based Curriculum'.