Progression at Key Stage 2

OFSTED's recent report, History in the Balance, published in July 2007, selected lack of progression at Key Stage 2 as one of its chief concerns.  This will not come as a surprise to many of you I'm sure. Finding ways of remedying the problem is more tricky.  If you start by using the level descriptions, you soon find out that they do not offer the precision you require.  If you plump for simple indicators of progression and leave it to your colleagues'  knowledge and understanding to pitch the work right, you are unlikely to solve the problem.  Few teachers of 11 subjects can expect to have a detailed knowledge of progression in each.  For that reason I have suggested that you use the progression charts included here in the Progression by skill/concept section.

Every subject leader I have worked with has found these invaluable.  Not only do they offer small steps of progress that they can understand, they also offer examples in context which make them so much easier to apply.  So helpful have many subject leaders found them that they have often 'copied' the appropriate statements which relate to the key concept (e.g. causation) and have 'pasted' them directly into the medium term planning.  So if the focus in the final Year 6 unit is interpretations, they look to those statements at the foot of the page describing progress in that key element and highlight the ones that seem most relevant.   With a small amount of adjustment they have then given the teachers a clear indication of what to expect of their year group.  By copying and pasting all the statements you can guarantee not only that you are covering all the ideas, but you also know that year groups are taking on new challenges not just repeating those they learned in previous years.

You will need to spend a little time getting familiar with the different strands, but you will often find that the context I have given really helps. Indeed, some of you will be teaching those topics in the very year groups I have exemplified so you can transfer those into medium term plans fairly painlessly.  Keeping a copy of these progression grids on file will be important.  Using a highlighter pen you can show by contrasting colours which objectives have been earmarked for which year group.  Helpful to staff, certainly and perhaps OFSTED  will start being less disparaging about progression in Key Stage 2 history!

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