The disapplication of level descriptions in the 2014 National Curriculum has spurred many history departments to rethink their approach not only to assessment but to their models of progression. In this article Rachael Cook builds on the recent work of history teachers such as Ford (TH157), Hawkey et al (TH161), Luff (TH164) and Arscott and Hinks (TH164), offering an account of how the history department at Twynham School sought to respond to the new freedoms they had been given to devise their own subject-specific approach to assessment. In doing so, the department developed a model of progression that, whilst based on second-order concepts, construes progression as being inextricably tied to the curriculum by increasing the complexity and scope of the questions pupils are asked to address.