Progression in history at KS2: part of your preparation for an OFSTED history deep dive
Planning for progression in history is difficult, very difficult. You will be hard pressed to find any advice on any website which secures colleagues’ understanding in a way that genuinely informs their practice. Most advice rarely rises above generalities. Statements usually cover the whole key stage when what you want is to show progress within the key stage. Often schools skirt round the issue or simply assume that work in history will get better naturally as literacy improves.
But one school I worked with recently took it very seriously. They realised that once they had got the curriculum secure and had built each sequenced topic around a strong set of enquiry questions, it was worth moving onto progression and assessment with confidence.
The first question to tackle was what does getting better at history at KS2 look like? Is it about knowing more? Clearly you will expect topics in Y6 to be taught in greater depth that those in Y3. You will also expect pupils to make links and comparisons between topics studied as they move through the key stage. You will definitely expect pupils
