Teaching the unteachable?
Planning for the new Key Stage 3
Barbara Hibbert and Andrew Wrenn
SSAT 17th May 2013
Where are we now?
– Draft curriculum published in February
– Discussions led by HA and other learned bodies as
well as other campaigns
– Consultation closed 16th April
– No response yet
– Hope to have a final version by late summer
Where are we going?
• June 2013: consultation on reform of GCSEs
• Sept 2013: first teaching of ‘strengthened’
GCSE history; national curriculum ‘disapplied’
• Aug 2014: first results for linear GCSEs
• Sept 2014: first teaching of new NC KS1-3;
specifications for new GCSEs, A levels and AS
with schools?
• Sept 2015: first teaching of new GCSEs, new
standalone AS, new linear A levels.
What have NC proposals got to do
with you?
• What happens with new GCSE specifications
will be key driver of what needs to be taught
at KS3
• Transition between phases and sectors of
education happens
• Pupils do need a ‘useable map of the past’.
Do they get that from current programmes of
study?
• Both opportunities and problems
A quick focus on the aims
• know and understand the story of these islands: how
the British people shaped this nation and how Britain
influenced the world
• know and understand British history as a coherent,
chronological narrative, from the story of the first
settlers in these islands to the development of the
institutions which govern our lives today
• know and understand the broad outlines of European
and world history: the growth and decline of ancient
civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires;
the achievements and follies of mankind
Aims continued
• gain and deploy a historically-grounded understanding of abstract
terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’
• understand historical concepts such as continuity and change,
cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and
use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends,
frame historically-valid questions and create their own structured
accounts, including written narratives and analyses
• understand how evidence is used rigorously to make historical
claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and
interpretations of the past have been constructed
• gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into
different contexts, understanding the connections between local,
regional, national and international history; between cultural,
economic, military, political, religious and social history; and
between short- and long-term timescales.
How can you fit it all in?
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KS3 has 20 topics and 62 sub bullet points.
How much time will you have to deliver this?
How long is KS3 in your school?
Are your KS3 teachers history specialists?
Will the content help to fulfil the stated aims?
Why focus on enquiries?
• The wording of an enquiry frames the learning for
a number of lessons – moving away from the
‘tyranny of the lesson’
• The strongest are those with a clear conceptual
framework
• This is NOT about ‘skills’ but about knitting
together learning
• Allows for constant revisiting of knowledge and
addition of new knowledge – this means more
demanding content can be absorbed
How would you formulate an enquiry
question for each of these concepts
using the content proposed?
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Cause and Consequence
Similarity and Diversity
Change and Continuity
Historical Significance
Evidence
Interpretations
Interpretations
• Should we be proud of the British Empire?
• Why do opinions of Victoria’s Empire keep
changing?
Similarity and Difference
• Who fought on the Western Front?
• How different were the attitudes of the rulers
and the ruled in the British Empire?
Causes and Consequences
• Why was universal suffrage introduced?
• Why did Britain’s role in the world change
after the Second World War?
Change and Continuity
• Which reform has done the most to change
life in Britain in the 20th century?
• How close was Britain to revolution between
1789 and 1832?
Significance
• Why do we still remember the Peace talks of
1919?
• How should Winston Churchill be
remembered?
Evidence
• Why is it hard to decide whether Edwardian
Britain was a Golden Age?
• What can the Great Exhibition of 1851 tell us
about Victorian Britain?
So – is the new NC unteachable?
Can we give pupils a ‘useable
framework of the past’?