How to develop pupils’ understanding of chronology at key stages 1 and 2
Section 3: How should teachers assess pupils’ progress in chronological understanding?
Although schools are not required to report a level for history at the end of key stage 1 or 2, there is a statutory requirement to report to parents once a year about the progress of their children in history.
The level descriptions may provide a useful reference to help make more summative judgements about pupils’ attainment in history. Such judgements can serve a number of purposes:
- to summarise attainment and track pupils’ longer-term progress in history
- to summarise attainment for parents or another teacher
- to help monitor the effectiveness of a school’s history plans.
Chronological understanding and the history attainment target
The learning objectives in section 3 of this guidance set out what most pupils should be able to achieve by the end of key stages 1 and 2. These are closely linked to the level descriptions in the history attainment target, which should be used as the means of assessing pupils’ progress in chronological understanding. It is expected that most pupils will reach level 2 by the end of key stage 1 and level 4 by the end of key stage 2, but you will need to provide opportunities for more able pupils to progress beyond these levels.
The first three level descriptions of the attainment target contain an explicit reference to chronology, focusing mainly on an understanding of the vocabulary of chronological understanding and the development of a sense of period.
Level 1 |
Pupils show their emerging sense of chronology by placing a few events and objects in order. |
Level 2 |
Pupils show their developing sense of chronology by using terms concerned with the passing of time by placing events and objects in order and by recognising that their own lives are different from the lives of people in the past. |
Level 3 |
Pupils show their developing sense of chronology by their realisation that the past can be divided into different periods of time, their recognition of some of the similarities and differences between these periods, and their use of dates and terms. |
Thereafter, pupils will need to continue to practise and develop their knowledge of the vocabulary of chronology along with all other aspects of chronological understanding put forward in this guidance in order to make progress in history and to meet the requirements set out in the higher level descriptions.
For example, at level 4 pupils are required to ‘show increasing depth of factual knowledge and understanding of the history of Britain and the wider world’ and are ‘beginning to produce structured work, making appropriate use of dates’. At level 5 pupils are required to ‘describe features of past societies and periods and begin to make links between them’ and they should be able to ‘select and organise information to produce structured work, making appropriate use of dates and terms’.
Assessing pupils’ progress in chronological understanding
Assessment should take a variety of forms during key stage 1 and 2 and should centre mainly on teacher observation and discussion with individual pupils. A number of the activities provided in Section 6 of this guidance could be adapted to assess progress in the various aspects of chronological understanding during and at the end of key stages 1 and 2.
For example, the following activities have been adapted as a summative assessment task for use at the end of key stages 1 and 2. A possible mark scheme has been included for use with the task
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Key stage 2: Assessment activity 1 (date card sequencing) The pupils are offered a set of seven picture cards that are in a random order. Five of the cards are in colour and two are in black and white. Each card has a brief description that includes the date of the picture. These pictures depict:
Scoring Teachers should record and interpret the discussion that pupils have while placing the cards, as these individual interactions can provide valuable evidence of a child’s understanding. More summative data can be obtained as follows. The pupils are provided with a timeline to fix the cards to.
Each card that is correctly positioned receives one mark. In addition, each card that is correctly located with respect to those on either side is awarded a mark for each correct relationship. A card will still obtain a score for the sequence even if it is not located correctly.
Total score achieved = 19 Incorrect example
Total score achieved = 13 This pupil has received no marks for the placement of the woolly mammoth and the Kuwait War. However, as the rest of the cards are correctly placed they have received 5 marks for placement. The pupil also receives 8 marks for the correct chronological sequencing of five cards. Lower ability: pupil scores 0 to 6 |
Key stage 2: Assessment activity 2 (language) Pupils are presented with six cards that have a picture and a date on them. Pupils are asked to chronologically sequence the cards and give an oral explanation of their placements. Lower ability: pupils’ justification for the sequence employs terms such as a long time ago, a very long time ago, past, old, new, oldest, newest (ie descriptive language). Middle ability: pupils’ justification for the sequence employs descriptive vocabulary and some technical vocabulary, eg AD, 1900s. Higher ability: pupils’ justification for the sequence is framed by the employment of technical vocabulary, and there is some use of conceptual vocabulary to describe the changes in the pictures on the cards. |
Key stage 1: Assessment activity 1 (object sequencing) Pupils are given five everyday objects that they sequence chronologically. Lower ability: pupils can sequence one or two objects |
Key stage 1: Assessment activity 2 (story sequencing) Pupils are read the story of a person’s life (eg Florence Nightingale) and then provided with seven jumbled cards that relate to the story. Pupils can be asked to sequence the cards in the correct chronological order. Lower ability: pupils can sequence one or two cards correctly
and demonstrate a little understanding of the person’s life. |
Further guidance on assessment in history
For further information and guidance on assessment at key stages 1 and
2, go to the ‘Developing Assessment’
section of this website.
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