History

Our Sussex Road history curriculum aims to inspire pupils to question the world around them, challenge assumptions about the past, and explore the lives, events, and ideas that have shaped human history. We aim to ignite curiosity and develop a love of learning about the past through meaningful stories, enquiry-based learning, and hands-on experiences. Pupils will learn to think critically, consider different viewpoints, and begin to understand how history influences the present. Our goal is to equip children with the skills to investigate evidence, ask thoughtful questions, and form their own informed interpretations of history.

History teaching at Sussex Road Primary School aims to stimulate pupils to use a variety of primary and secondary sources to develop their understanding of the past. Each unit of work follows the Question, Challenge, Explore model deepening children’s curiosity about different interpretations of the past. Children will learn to recognise the impact of specific events and make comparisons with the those happening in the modern day.

Each classroom has a historical timeline created specifically to show the historical learning that has already taken place across the school.  To support children’s learning, within lessons, you would see children accessing books, images and a wide range of artefacts provided by the teacher. You would also see children carrying out their own research (using ICT and VR headsets) on different topics to deepen and widen their historical knowledge within and across time periods.

Our stimulating History curriculum is broken into three sections.

• The first looks at Disciplinary Knowledge in which children are taught and encouraged to ‘behave like a historian’. They will explore Chronological Knowledge and Understanding, Historical Enquiry, Interpretations of History and Recording which are all mapped out to ensure that pupils build on secure prior knowledge and develop the necessary skills to further their historical understanding.
• The second section revolves around Second Order Concepts; the underpinning pillars of historical learning. In each Key Stage children will study units that allow them to engage with the following themes: Cause (e.g. Year 3 why there was a shift from the hunter-gatherer society to that of more settled farming), Consequence (e.g. Year 4 looking at the punishments of crimes), Continuity and Change (e.g. Local History in Year 2 considers the way local people have lived changes over the last century), Similarity and Difference (e.g. Year 1 consider changes in communication methods) and Significance (e.g. Year 6 investigate why the achievements of the Greeks are more significant than some others)
• The third and final section focuses on Substantive Concepts. These thematic threads provide a central focus that is revisited across the years while children are at Sussex Road Primary;

• Religion
• Language
• Trade
• Settlement
• Movement and Migration
• Law and Order

These concepts have been chosen because of their importance in the world that we live in, the relevance in Tonbridge and the local area and to support the children in their historical learning that they will study in subsequent key stages.