Assessing
Pupil Progress:
transforming teacher assessment
in Key Stage 3 history
Englands Qualification and Curriculum Development
Authority (QCDA) has been working on a new way of trying
to support teachers in handling interim assessment during
Key Stage 3. It is called Assessing Pupil Progress (APP).
Jerome Freeman of QCDA and Joanne Philpott, an Advanced
Skills Teacher and teacher member of QCDAs Exemplification
of Standards project, explain how APP is designed to
address the much reported problems surrounding mis-
use of National Curriculum Level Descriptions (see, for
example, those discussed by history teachers in Teaching
History, 115, Assessment Without Levels Edition). APP, by
contrast, will foster holistic assessment, fully integrated into
normal, everyday teaching, learning and assessment. In
this two-part article, the two authors challenge the now
widespread practice of levelling individual pieces of work.
They each share insights, gained from their respective
institutional positions and experience, into ways of building
a more rigorous, integrated approach. Freeman explains
the rationale behind the development of APP and how its
principles could be applied to teacher assessment in history.
Philpott argues that the experience of piloting assessment
using the APP criteria has wrought fundamental changes in
her departments thinking, culture and practice changes
which have arisen from an increasingly collaborative and
in-depth reflection on historys concepts and processes.
Jerome Freeman and Joanne Philpott
Jerome Freeman is a Curriculum and
Assessment Adviser at the Qualifications and
Curriculum Development Agency (QCDA).
Joanne Philpott is an Advanced Skills
Teacher (AST) at Dereham Neatherd High
School (11-18 comprehensive), Norfolk. She
is also East of England Regional Adviser for
the QCA/CfBT project providing guidance
for history teachers on implementing the
2008 National Curriculum
4 Teaching History 137 December 2009 The Historical Association
Jerome Freeman writes
We believe that assessment is at the heart of an effective
curriculum and is a fundamental part of good teaching and
learning. To this end, the Qualifications and Curriculum
Development Agency (QCDA) has been working with schools
in England and with key partners to develop new ways of looking
at assessment that put the learner at the heart of the process.
Central to this is a new national approach to assessment called
Assessing Pupils Progress (APP). APP is designed not only
to provide a link to national standards, but also to build a
well-rounded individual profile of learners achievements that
highlights their strengths and areas for improvement. QCDA
research has shown that APP helps teachers to tailor their
planning and teaching and can support productive discussions
between teachers, learners and parents.
Many secondary schools in England are already using the APP
approach in English, ICT, mathematics and science. QCDA,
through its project on exemplifying standards in the new Key
Stage 3 National Curriculum, is working with teachers to develop
additional materials in order to support the extension of this
approach into the Foundation Subjects, including history.1
What is the APP approach?
Assessing pupils progress (APP) is a structured approach to
assessment that equips teachers to make periodic judgements
on pupils progress using a wide range of evidence taken from
a variety of classroom contexts.
The APP subject materials for teachers include:
a handbook a guide to using the materials and implementing
the approach.
assessment guidelines for assessing pupils work in
relation to national curriculum levels. These provide a simple
recording format providing assessment criteria for each of the
assessment focuses in the subject.
standards files annotated collections of pupils day-to-day
work that exemplify national standards at different levels. These
help teachers to reach consistent and reliable judgements about
national curriculum levels.
Figure 1: Draft APP assessment guidelines for Level 4

Assessment Focus 1 Assessment Focus 2 Assessment Focus 3

Thinking Historically Exploring Interpretations Historical Enquiry

Pupils: Pupils: Pupils:

Level 4 describe characteristic describe how people have persue investigations to

citeria features of past societies interpreted the past in find answers to historical
and periods different ways questions

identify change and use sources to test

continuity within and hypotheses about the past
across different periods of
history present and structure their
findings in a variety of
identify causes of events ways
and situations

History teachers who have piloted some of the draft materials
have been enthusiastic about the APP process. In many cases,
they report that it has given them the confidence and ability
to recognise how and when pupils are learning, making
them less reliant on specific assessment tasks and tests, and
improving their curriculum planning.
How does the APP process work?
the main aspects of performance in a subject. The assessment
focuses are broken down into criteria which illustrate
characteristic achievement at each national curriculum level.
Figure 3 shows what that might look like for history at Level 4.
Note that there are 3 assessment focuses for history and that
each one of these has criteria describing the sort of achievement
that could be expected from a pupil working at Level 4.

The APP approach is straightforward. In line with their
school assessment policy and practice, teachers periodically
review evidence of pupils learning, using the assessment
guidelines, and build a profile of pupils achievements.
1. Generating evidence from
teaching and learning
Through their day-to-day interactions, observations and
ongoing assessment, teachers see evidence of what pupils
understand and can do. APP is most effective when it draws
on a broad range of evidence that shows what pupils can do
independently.
In history, assessment evidence could include:
extended or shorter focused pieces of writing in a variety
of different forms for a range of purposes;
oral work such as pupil presentations to the class,
contributions to class, discussions, drama activities or
discussions with teachers;
observations of pupils behaviour and interactions;
information from different curriculum areas;
pupils self-assessment.
2. Reviewing the evidence
When a teacher has enough evidence about what a pupil is able to
do independently and in different contexts, the APP assessment
guidelines can be applied to make a periodic assessment.
The APP assessment guidelines are set out in the form of a
grid and consist of Assessment Focuses (AFs) which identify
Drawing on the evidence which they have selected, teachers
then consider each of the subject assessment focuses carefully
and highlight where the criteria have been met.
3. Making a judgement
Once judgements have been made for each of the assessment
focuses, the teacher is able to make an informed decision
about the overall national curriculum level that the learner
is working at. Where appropriate, this can be refined into
low, secure or high within the level. The judgement is
made in a holistic way, taking account of how independently,
consistently and in what range of contexts pupils have
demonstrated their knowledge, understanding and skills.
Using the assessment criteria inevitably involves a degree of
interpretation and professional judgement. APP works alongside
collections of pupils work called standards files. These collections
exemplify pupils work at each national curriculum level and
can be used by teachers to help ensure that their judgements
are consistent and aligned with national standards. Regular
collaborative assessment and discussion is another important
way of ensuring that assessment standards are reliable.
4. Using information from APP
The assessment guideline sheet gives detailed information
that can be used to create relevant targets for improvement.
APP is designed to put the learner at the heart of assessment.
It does this by providing a detailed and personalised profile
that gives an overview of where pupils are in a particular
subject and what they need to do to improve.

Teaching History 137 December 2009 The Historical Association 5

What makes the
APP approach different?
The APP approach is based on a number of key principles.
First, that a teachers assessment of a pupils progress is based
on a collection of evidence and not on individual pieces of
work. This evidence can be wide ranging and come from a
variety of contexts. Second, that this periodic assessment is
only made when it is possible and useful to review progress
over time. For history this would typically be around twice
a year when sufficient evidence of the pupils progress has
been accumulated and at a point when the review can
provide useful feedback on the pupils learning. Finally,
that moderation with their colleagues and against the pupil
standards files for their subject results in teachers making
more reliable assessment judgements.
Teachers who have piloted the APP process have found that
it is important to keep it manageable. Using the assessment
guidelines on a small sample of pupils is a sensible way to
start. Working with departmental colleagues can also help.
What could the assessment
guidelines for history look like?
QCDA has worked with teachers to develop and pilot some
assessment guidelines for Key Stage 3 history. Further work
on these has still to be undertaken but three assessment
focuses have been identified and trialled:
AF1 Thinking historically
AF1 is concerned with how pupils develop an understanding
of past events, developments and decisions through the
study of cause and consequence, and how they develop an
understanding of the characteristic features of periods and
past societies through the study of the extent and nature of
change, continuity and diversity within and across those
periods and societies.
AF2 Exploring interpretations
AF2 is concerned with pupils evaluating how and why
different interpretations of the past have been constructed
and how judgements of significance may vary according
to the perspectives, positions or purposes of the people
making them.
AF3 Historical enquiry
AF3 is concerned with how pupils use their period
knowledge and conceptual understanding to carry out
historical enquiries, using sources critically to establish
evidence to support their findings, and with how pupils
communicate these findings in a range of appropriate and
structured ways.
Figure 2 shows how the draft assessment focuses for history
link to the key concepts and processes in the new history
programme of study.
Taken together, the assessment focuses encapsulate the key
features of progress in history, as defined by the national
curriculum for history in England. AF1 and AF2 describe
aspects of progress in pupils conceptual understanding of the
6 Teaching History 137 December 2009 The Historical Association
Figure 2: Links between Key Stage 3 History and draft APP
guidelines
KS3 History APP History
Key Concepts Assessment Focuses
Chronology
Diversity AF1: Thinking
Historically
Change
Causation
Significance
AF2: Exploring
Interpretations Interpretations
KS3 History
Key Processes
Enquiry
AF3: Historical
Enquiry
Evidence
Communication
past and are closely linked to the key concepts in the 2008
history programme of study for Key Stage 3. AF2 is distinct
from AF1 in that historical interpretations and significance
are about exploring how the past has been presented by
others, whereas concepts such as diversity, change and
causation enable pupils to gain their own understanding of
the characteristics and developments of different periods and
societies and to examine these analytically. AF3 is closely
linked to the key processes in the programme of study.
The assessment focuses and their criteria are not confined
to particular historical contexts and so evidence of pupil
progression in these may be generated across the full range
of topics taught in Key Stage 3. For example, an enquiry into
how the Industrial Revolution affected a schools locality
could generate assessment evidence for AF1, where pupils
draw conclusions about the extent and nature of change, and
AF3, where they select and evaluate a range of local sources
to establish relevant evidence to support their findings.
Likewise, an enquiry into how the slave trade is remembered
could involve pupils suggesting reasons why people construct
different interpretations of the past (AF2), whilst at the
same time using appropriate historical terminology when
presenting their findings (AF3).
What are the advantages of
using the APP approach?
The APP approach has a number of benefits:
It reduces the need to use tests and specific assessment
tasks in assessment judgements, and instead uses
evidence from the opportunities generated by ordinary,
planned teaching and learning.
The emphasis on using a wide range of evidence to
assess pupils achievement can lead to a broadening of
the curriculum.
 Taking into account a far wider range of evidence gives a
clearer and more accurate picture of pupils achievements
and progress.
It provides a common framework for teachers to share
and discuss the evidence that they have of pupils
progress, in order to build assessment expertise and
develop confidence.
It directly informs discussions with pupils, as well as
future planning, teaching and learning.
It offers a secure basis for pupil tracking against national
standards.
APP provides teachers with a valuable opportunity for
professional development as it gives them effective tools
to develop their assessment and teaching techniques. This
can give pupils greater independence and choice in their
work and a chance to become more engaged in the learning
process.
Teachers involved in the pilots have said that it takes time
to get used to the assessment tools and level-related criteria,
but they found that when APP is applied in the classroom,
A teachers assessment of a pupils progress is
based on a collection of evidence and not on
individual pieces of work.
the benefits far outweigh the challenges. In her feedback, one
APP Pilot Teacher remarked:
Far from adding another layer of assessment, APP helps
to rationalise the current system and focuses planning,
teaching and assessment.2
Where do I get more information
about APP and history?
QCDA is currently working with teachers in order to develop
materials that will exemplify standards in the Key Stage 3
history national curriculum and is continuing to develop
some assessment guidelines to go with these. The aim is
to publish some of these materials in 2010 on the national
curriculum website.
Joanne Philpott writes:
What do the following have in common: a photograph, a
magazine article, a DVD, a mind map, a museum display
and an essay? Collectively they form evidence of historical
learning of a Year 9 pupil called Sam. As far as Sam is
concerned it is his work from September to February, but
as a collection it will enable me, as his teacher, to form a
judgement about the progress that Sam has made so far
and what he will need to do in order to get better at history.
Having regularly fed back to Sam on his day-to-day work,
Sam and I have a shared understanding of his conceptual
understanding and his approach to learning. By looking
at the collection as a whole, along with my knowledge of
Sams contribution to discussion and group work, I can
Teaching History 137
identify which national curriculum level he is operating at
and where his strengths and weaknesses are. I can share this
information with Sams parents and record my findings on
the school tracking system. Sams learning has been assessed,
not through a series of levelled single pieces but as a whole
collection. This periodic approach to assessment is what APP
looks like in action. But how does it work and will it support
pupils progression in history?
The editorial of Teaching History 131 (Assessing Differently
Edition) comments that the tensions created through the
competing demands of assessment have resulted in simplistic
and distorted progression structures which have been:
transformed into hierarchies of tiny increments and
stages, filigreed ladders that pupils must ascend and know
they are ascending, regardless of whether these reflect the
depth, complexity or richness of the discipline and how
pupils learn within it.3
While working as a Regional Adviser for the Historical
Associations Key Stage 3 curriculum support project, and
in AST outreach work in Norfolk schools, I often noticed
that this problem is exacerbated at school level by data
tracking systems promoting the need for pupils to progress
at a desirable rate of sub-levels and move in a linear fashion
through the national curriculum levels. Dereham Neatherd
High School is no exception to this with a tracking system
that suggests pupils should be aiming to make two sub-levels
of progress per year based on milestone assessment tasks.
Through my work with teachers across the East of England,
I was becoming increasingly unhappy witnessing assessment
systems which placed emphasis on milestone tasks and seemed
to pay little regard to the work pupils produced on a day-to-
day basis. I became keen to explore ways of promoting the
value of ordinary homework and classwork and thus allowing
pupils to be recognised for all their achievements not just
for the half-termly assessment task. When our department
was invited to be part of the Key Stage 3 Exemplification of
Standards QCDA project coordinated by Jerome Freeman
of QCDA and Michael Riley (who worked with teachers
to develop exemplification materials), we embraced the
opportunity to develop our own curriculum and to consider
issues of assessment through this work.4 The Exemplification
of Standards project brought together a group of teachers in
order to develop exemplification materials for history in the
new national curriculum through the gathering of evidence of
pupil learning. As this project progressed, QCDAs other new
initiative, Assessing Pupils Progress (APP) was also getting
underway in history and our work on the exemplification
project began to link up with it. Through involvement in the
APP pilot, we were to discover that we were part of something
that could make a real difference to our understanding of
historical learning and progress and how we measure that
progress across a key stage.
December 2009 The Historical Association 7
Figure 3: Examples of Key Stage 3 exemplification
project planning and evaluation questions
What is the intention of the unit where do
you want pupils to be by the end of it?
How does the intention of the unit address
the National Curriculum importance
statement for your subject?
Which key concept will underpin the study
of this unit in order to deepen and broaden
pupils knowledge, skills and understanding?
Which aspect of the range and content does
this unit relate to?
Which curriculum opportunity will pupils be
offered in the course of this unit?
What are the planned assessment outcomes?
What have the pupils learned?
What does the work show about what the
pupils have learned?
What does the work show as a collection?
What steps are needed to be taken to
improve the collection?
What have you learned about your planning
and teaching?
What did we do?
Beginning in the autumn term 2007, four schools from
across the country would record and share their planning
and resulting pupil outcomes for the new history curriculum
over a period of two academic years. We could then evaluate
how far the work had met the new history programme of
studys intentions, and amend planning and outcomes in
response to that evaluation. Meanwhile, as this work for the
QCDA Exemplification of Standards project was gaining
momentum, another team of history education professionals
were meeting together to discuss APP. Our exemplification
group soon learned, as Jerome Freeman explains above,
that APP is a tool with which to review pupil progress by
periodically using collections of day-to-day learning in order
to make periodic judgements on pupils progress using a
wide range of evidence taken from a variety of classroom
contexts. As part of the exemplification project, we were
8 Teaching History 137 December 2009 The Historical Association
asked to make a judgement of our pupils progress from the
termly collection of work.
The exemplification project and APP development thus
began to merge: the collated work would be used as a
collection and levelled using the APP criteria to form
the standards files as part of the APP subject materials.
This would provide teachers with real examples of the new
curriculum in action.
The work was not designed to show perfect examples of
historical learning; instead it was intended to provide
working models of lessons and real pupil outcomes with
honest teacher evaluations. Those evaluations would explain
how far the work met the intended outcomes, what individual
pupils would need to do in order to improve next time and
how planning would be amended as a result.
Figure 3 is a list of questions that we answered as part of
the planning and review process. The questions appear
straightforward but on further reflection they forced us, in
our department, to question our understanding of the 2008
national curriculum for history and to what extent we were
planning for progression.5 We found ourselves asking more
complex questions as shown in Figure 4. We quickly realised
that finding the answers to these questions was going to
challenge our own understanding of the new curriculum.
Furthermore it would challenge our understanding of
rigorous historical learning and to what extent we were
providing the opportunities for pupils to get better at history.
These questions have proved a valuable planning tool and
are ones which we will continue to ask. They would create
valuable debate and discussion in any department meeting.
Figure 5 shows examples of the type of work included in a
standards file.
Figure 4: Questions posed at departmental level
Why are we teaching this unit?
When will we revisit each
concept?
How far have we planned for
progression across the key stage?
What does the outcome tell us
about the pupils understanding
of concept X?
How can we ensure inclusion
through this unit?
How do we evaluate the pupil
outcomes?
Figure 5: Examples of exemplified enquiries and outcomes in a standards file
Enquiry Concept Outcome
Britain1750-1900: Change and Mind map
all change? continuity

Britains transatlantic Diversity Web page

slave trade pupil
generated enquiry
question

How and why Significance Magazine article

should we remember
22 April 1915?

Why do people still Interpretation Film

argue about the Blitz?

Would a centenarian Change and Museum display

recognise Norwich in continuity
the new millennium?

Are all wars caused by Causation Essay

the same arguments?

How did we use APP?
In order to make informed judgements about a pupils
achievements and progress for the standards files, schools in
the exemplification project began to make use of APP criteria.
It was during the school-based pilot of the APP criteria that
our department really got to grips with how a teacher can
make use of APP. As a first move, the teacher reached a
provisional pre-judgement concerning the level at which
the pupil was operating, drawing upon their own, wide,
contextualised knowledge of the pupil. This professional
judgement was then confirmed or adjusted through more
detailed consideration of both a wide range of pupil work
had made and to consider what would be their next steps
for learning, based on the APP criteria. Through the process
of looking at a sample of pupils, we were also able to gain a
wider understanding of the class as a whole, without having
to complete a criteria sheet for each member of the class.
Furthermore we were able to identify weaknesses in our own
schemes of work through realising that a pupil had not met
some APP criteria or even, in our case, a whole assessment
focus (AF) because we had not provided the pupil with the
opportunity to do so.
This is a move away from our departments current
assessment procedures which previously relied on individual

Assessing a collection of the work of one child holistically,

rather than assessing a single task, has had a profound
impact on the way I plan for a unit of learning.
and professional insights gleaned from ongoing experience
of teaching the pupil. As Jerome Freeman explained earlier in
the article, each teacher then used the APP criteria grid (see
Figure 1), highlighting statements on the grid to show where
the pupil had shown evidence of meeting each criterion. As
a department, we then looked at the full collection of pupil
work and moderated each others judgements in a similar
fashion to the familiar process of moderating coursework
at GCSE. The meeting allowed us to share our work in a
non-threatening way, to discuss the progress that each pupil
or milestone tasks often situated at the end of an enquiry
as a summative piece of learning. APP moves away from
this approach towards a more holistic view of historical
learning based on the observations a teacher makes of a pupil
during everyday lessons. This includes their classwork and
homework as presented in their exercise book or folder but
also involves reliance on a teachers professional judgement
of the child based on the comments that pupils have made
in discussion or group work, or even their asides or remarks
made during or after a lesson.

Teaching History 137 December 2009 The Historical Association 9

 Figure 6: A scheme of work using principles of APP for periodic assessment

Main issues and content: Over-arching question

Did the qualities needed to be a mighty monarch change over time?
Key Number Concept PLTS Process Range and content Outcome
Question of lessons

What 1 Change Team Given criteria, Film clip of Elizabeth Timeline

Chronological understanding fostered through a clear

makes a and work amended by II, followed by DVD Mighty

framework addressed at the start of each enquiry.

mighty continuity pupils extracts of other monarchometer
monarch? monarchs over time. in books and on
Tick grid box to show class room wall
who meets criteria.
Begin to frame own
questions

How did 2 Change

William and Team Enquiry Power bases and Carousel
keep continuity work Communication establishment of of activities
control? power exploring
Methods of different features
control by William of keeping
castles, cathedrals, control in order to
occupation, establish qualities
punishment, of a medieval
Domesday, feudalism. king. Consolidate
Qualities of medieval with a magazine
kingship article.

This is a significant shift away from more common current
assessment procedures to be found in many schools which
are generally dependent on a teacher being able to prove a
pupils attainment through hard copy evidence. The APP
approach puts trust in the professional judgement of the
teacher and in doing so placing value on their day-to-day
planning of teaching and learning. Through APP, a childs
progress can be based on their whole performance across a
given period not just on a particular day. If such a system
is to work effectively, however, then we as a department
needed to agree on what, for instance, a child achieving
Level 5 was able to do and not do. As with GCSE levels for
assessment, we needed to be certain that our judgements
were reliable and transferable from year to year and teacher
to teacher. In order to do this, we needed to keep developing
our understanding of what it means to get better in history
and to articulate this appropriately to the pupils, something
which our department had arguably been doing more by
luck than judgement.
What are the benefits of APP?
The teachers from all the schools involved in the APP pilot
process were asked by QCDA to evaluate their experience
of using APP. Our departmental evaluation recognised
many benefits. First, our department gained a much
better understanding of what the national curriculum
level descriptions look like in terms of pupil learning and
outcomes. The level descriptions have always been almost
impossible to interpret when applied to single pieces of
work and this is because they were never designed to be
used in this way. All the early guidance from QCA and its
predecessors had been clear about the importance of not
doing this, but data-driven trends in school went in a very
different direction. 6 The original intended purpose of the
levels, ever since the first versions were designed for the 1995
national curriculum, were to be best-fit, holistic descriptions,
designed primarily for end-of-key-stage bench-marking
purposes only, leaving teachers free to plan for progression
and assessment across the Key Stage 3, as they judged fit.
The APP criteria now provide a more suitable base from
which to work when making occasional (say, twice yearly)
interim judgements.
Moreover, clear criteria for APP should mean that the
complexity of a pupils historical achievement at Level 5
in my classroom will look similar to that in my colleagues
classroom next door and to that in another colleagues
classroom in another part of the country. This must surely
be helpful to teachers, pupils and their parents in helping
them understand the progress a child has made in identified
areas of learning across a given period of time.

10 Teaching History 137 December 2009 The Historical Association

The second benefit of APP is that when used in conjunction
with Assessment for Learning principles, periodic
assessment can help pupils to get better at history.7 The APP
criteria do not provide precise ladders of progression. Rather,
they recognise that each successive national curriculum
level allows for a greater and increased breadth of historical
understanding. It is important to stress that the criteria
are not intended to be dumbed down into a checklist of
pupil speak but should instead be used as a professional
teaching aid, by teachers, to support pupil progression.
It is an important point that the criteria are designed by
teachers with the intention that they are used by teachers
in their planning and reflection on pupil learning. The
AFs and corresponding criteria are not designed to replace
existing models of progression developed by teachers nor
the individual task criteria and mark schemes commonly
produced by teachers. Departments should continue to
develop their own tools to support pupil learning and
assessment within their own history schemes of work.
The AFs provide a holistic tool to use when considering a
collection of work, not a checklist of achievement. Based
I am nervous that senior teams may corrupt this process
and insist on photocopied checklists of pupilspeak APP
criteria in every pupil book with highlighters at the ready.
on this, the role of assessment for learning principles and
associated methodology might be able to develop into an
even more central part of the assessment process.8
Closely linked to this, I regard the third benefit of APP as
its power to make the pupils own experience coherent. If
their work is to be assessed periodically, pupils need to be
made aware of this and shown how their lessons will link
together to form a coherent learning journey. APP has
made our department acutely aware of the importance in
sharing with pupils how their prior learning informs their
next stage of learning and increases the value of all aspects
of a pupils work.9 Assessing a collection of the work of one
child holistically, rather than assessing a single task, has had
a profound impact on the way I plan for a unit of learning.
What did our department learn
from APP?
Taking part in the exemplification and APP projects has
been immensely valuable. It has led to our department
looking much more closely at what we are trying to achieve
from our schemes of work and from pupil outcomes. We
also have a better grasp of the 2008 national curriculum in
its broader intentions of varied approaches to learning and
cross-curricular emphases. Participation in the project has
also contributed to a recent shift in our departmental ethos
towards being more collaborative and open.
For us, the most important aspect of APP has been to
demonstrate how fundamentally important the role of
planning is to pupil learning and progress. Since using APP
I have changed the way I approach planning and especially
planning for progression. I now ensure that I provide a clear
Teaching History 137
learning journey for teachers and pupils with clarity of focus
in terms of the intended concept, process and outcome.10
I have adopted a much simpler planning model for our
schemes of work (see Figure 4). Making the learning journey
explicit with the pupils is now central to my practice. Pupils
are able to value the learning that has already taken place
and to link their subsequent historical learning to previous
lessons. My aim is for pupils to identify the role of each lesson
in forming a bigger picture and at the end of the journey to
be able to piece together lessons in order to form a whole
rather than several disconnected parts.11
For example, Sam could not write his history magazine article
on the gas attack at Grafenstafel Ridge (see Figure 7), without
making use of the preceding lessons relating to the impact
of gas on different groups involved in World War I. It was
necessary to inform Sam and his classmates how these lessons
would lock together in order to enable him to produce his
final piece of work. Similarly in Year 8, Laura and her peers
were able to create their own learning journey by beginning
with the end of the story which we were investigating.12 After
studying the events surrounding the death of King Charles
I, the class determined the questions they would need to
answer in order to eventually construct their own response
to the causation question, Why did King Charles lose his
head? These questions structured our lessons and gave all
pupils a clear sense of direction in their learning.
In addition to this, I now place greater importance on the
nature of the pupil outcomes and how I am asking pupils to
demonstrate their learning. Outcomes are defined clearly
from the outset of the scheme in order that pupils know
what they are working towards, how they are going to get
there and why that choice of outcome will most effectively
demonstrate their historical learning.
Determining not only what the pupils will do but how they
will demonstrate their learning in a manner which allows
them to make obvious their conceptual understanding has
become even more important to us when we are designing
a sequence of lessons, than it was before. I now have greater
appreciation of the need for the task to be fit for purpose in
relation to the intended historical concept or process being
addressed for truly rigorous assessment to happen. When
writing the plans for the pilot we became acutely aware of
the dangers of insufficient regard for the quality of the final
task and the type of learning outcome it would foster. That
outcome must allow pupils to develop and demonstrate their
historical thinking within the conceptual area they have been
exploring, as well as their new substantive knowledge. At the
same time the outcomes should also be varied: we need to
avoid repeating the same type of task over and over again,
and instead search for varied, creative outcome activities.13
Occasionally, we found ourselves seduced by an attractive
outcome at the expense of historical rigour.
December 2009 The Historical Association 11
Figure 7: An extract of pupil work from the Level 5 standards file. Pupils wrote articles for a popular magazine
reporting on one of the first gas attacks of World War I.
Monthly war
How and why should we remember the 22nd of April 1915?
Sam Bartrum explains who was affected, what has been
done to remember and what could be done.
The facts
behind the
gas
On the 22nd of April 1915 the
Germans first used chlorine
gas cylinders in the north of
the Salient. They released
the gas on the French army at
the Ypres the cylinders were
released
at around
at 5:00 the
Ive never
gas lingered forgotten
for around
30 minuets nor ever will
and slowly forget it.
started to
clear the total death toll came
to approximately 1918 this
was manly due to choking to
death .however the French
soldiers that survived the gas
said that they saw yellow-
green clouds drifting slowly
towards the Allied trenches.
They also said it had a
distinctive smell which was
like a mixture of pineapple
and pepper.
Soldiers had to use urinated
cloth to cover there nose
and mouth this proved rather
effective against the gas.
12 Teaching History 137
A Nurses
view:
There are many people who
remember the gas attack
some of these people are
the nurses who helped to try
to and save the lives of the
soldiers who were caught
up in the gas, here is a
statement from a nurse
who watched as a soldier
cried out in pain. He
was sitting on the bed,
fighting for breath, his
lips plum colored. He
was a magnificent young
Canadian past all hope in
the Asphyxia of chlorine. I
shall never forget The look
in his eyes As he turned to
me And gasped: I cant die!
Is it possible that nothing
can be done for me? It
was a horrible death but as
hard, as they tried, doctors
were unable to find a way
of successfully treating
chlorine gas poisoning.
Many patients died due to the
fact that nurses and doctors
did not what was wrong with
them and so couldnt provide
the Wright help. There was
also a shortage of beds and
one to one care from nurses
there were just too many
caught up in the gas.
December 2009 The Historical Association
A French
soldiers
view:
Private W. Hay of the Royal
Scots arrived in Ypres just
after the chlorine gas attack
on 22nd April 1915.this is
what he said he saw we
knew there was something
was wrong. We started to
march towards Ypres but we
couldnt get past on the road
with refugees coming down
the road. We went along the
railway line to Ypres and
there were people, civilians
and soldiers, lying along the
roadside in a terrible state.
We heard
Yellow-green them say
it was
clouds drifting gas.
slowly towards We didnt
the Allied know
what
trenches. the Hell
gas was.
When we got to Ypres we
found a lot of Canadians lying
there dead from gas the day
before, poor devils, and it was
quite a horrible sight for us
young men. I was only twenty
so it was quite traumatic and
Ive never forgotten nor ever
will forget it.
 When looking at work as a collection it becomes acutely
apparent that there can be no waste. Every contribution
the pupil makes to the portfolio has to be valid historical
learning. It is not the fault of the pupils if they do not achieve
Level 5 because they have not been given the opportunity to
do so as a result of poorly thought out pupil outcomes. When
writing the Year 8 scheme of work following our involvement
in the pilot, I spent much more time than before considering
what type of outcome would allow pupils to most effectively
demonstrate their intended learning. Our new, Year 8 unit
will be the first where the department has agreed that all
teachers will teach to the same learning intentions and
pupils will produce the same outcomes. At the same time,
teachers have the autonomy to reach the outcome however
they choose, depending on the make-up of their own classes.
Finally APP has shown me that it is possible to assess pupil
learning regularly whilst ensuring that rigorous historical
learning is at the heart of every lesson. It has reassured me
that it is what happens on a daily basis within our classrooms
that really matters.
Some difficulties and challenges certainly remain, however.
I am nervous that senior teams may corrupt this process
and insist on photocopied checklists of pupilspeak APP
criteria in every pupil book with highlighters at the ready.
I also have reservations about how effective sampling will
be; conversely, I would be concerned at how unmanageable
the process will become if we do not use a sample. Yet if we
really want children to enjoy and get better at history, using
a blend of assessment for learning techniques with periodic,
holistic assessment is definitely a step in the right direction.
Well, we all change our address sometimes!
William III Charles Darwin
Holland to Devon Shrewsbury to HMS Beagle
November 1688 December 1831
learningcurve.gov.uk has moved to
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education
New name, new look, same great resources
Teaching History 137
REFERENCES
1
In the National Curriculum in England, the foundation subjects are art and
design, citizenship, design and technology, geography, history, modern foreign
languages, music, physical education and religious education.
2
QCDA (2008/9) Assessing Pupil Progress Evaluation Report, QCDA
3
Editorial, June 2008, Teaching History 131, Assessing Differently Edition
4
The QCDA Exemplification Project can be summarised as follows. Since 2007,
the QCDA has worked with schools to produce materials exemplifying national
standards in line with the new Key Stage 3 programmes of study. Standards
files containing annotated collections of pupils work at Levels 3 to 8 for each
national curriculum foundation subject will be published on the national
curriculum website in 2010.
5
QCA (2008) National Curriculum at Key Stage 3, Qualifications and Curriculum
Authority, www.curriculum.qca.org.uk
6
For a discussion of many of the challenges facing history teachers when asked
to make use of NC levels inappropriately, see Burnham, S. and Brown, G. (2004)
Assessment without Level Descriptions, Teaching History 115, Assessment
Without Levels Edition.
7
Assessment for Learning is a phrase commonly used to describe the use of
assessment to move pupils forward in their learning using a variety of strategies
to involve pupils in that process. It was originally launched by Paul Black and
Dylan Wiliam and the Assessment Reform Group. Its principles can be found
in many publications including Wiliam, D. and Black, P. (2006) Inside the Black
Box: Raising Standards Through Classroom Assessment, NFER Nelson.
8
For a provocative and challenging theoretical discussion of issues raised
regarding pupil assessment, see Knight O. (2008) Create something interesting
to show you have learned something Teaching History, 131, Assessing
Differently Edition.
9
For further ideas on how to make pupils learning bigger than the sum of its
parts, see Byrom, J. and Riley, M. (2003) Professional wrestling in the history
department: a case study in planning the teaching of the British Empire at Key
Stage 3, Teaching History, 112, Empire Edition.
10
See Riley, M. (2000) Into the Key Stage 3 history garden: choosing and planting
your enquiry questions, Teaching History 99, Curriculum Planning Edition.
11
At the Schools History Project Conference in Leeds Trinity and All Saints College
in July 2009, examples of clear learning journeys, constructed in a variety of
ways, were modelled by several presenters, such as Steve Mastin, Martin
Spafford and Rachel Foster. For more information on SHP workshops go to
www.schoolshistoryproject.org.uk/index.htm
12
For discussion of pupil-driven question, setting, see for example, Burnham,
S. (2007) Getting year 7 to set their own questions about the Islamic Empire,
600-1600 Teaching History, 128, Beyond the Exam Edition.
13
See the section defining the end product in Byrom, J. and Riley, R. (2003)
op. cit., p12.
Learning Curve
Emmeline Pankhurst Winston Churchill
Holborn to Holloway Prison Admiralty to Downing Street
April 1913 May 1940
December 2009 The Historical Association 13
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