There is a specific focus on getting pupils to explore the historic environment as an historical source in its own right. Pupils will be encouraged to compare the environment they can see with historic images and maps and begin to drawn tentative conclusions about the nature and scale of change (Principle 2 & 4).

Pupils will also have opportunities to explore census data and historical newspaper clippings to get a better sense of how peoples' lives in their towns were shaped by local, national and international events. They will also begin to explore how different people might have experienced change in the past (Principle 2 & 3).

At various points, pupils will be asked to share their findings and thinking with their peers and have opportunities to help refine their work (Principle 7).

Where possible, the unit will also involve physically visiting the street and comparing it with photographs, building pupils' fascination with the history around them (Principle 7)

Pupils will share their work with parents at a special exhibition and QR codes will be put along a virtual street. In this way we hope pupils will see themselves as taking an active part in the process of historical construction (Principle 2 & 7)

By the end of the sequence, pupils will have worked in groups to create a history of a single house on the street over time. These can then be used as part of a historical exhibition or even digitised and put online. 

Second order concepts

The main disciplinary / second-order focus is on understanding how a wide range of source materials can be used as historical evidence to make tentative historical claims. The unit asks pupils to look at maps, census data, newspaper clippings and other traces to make claims about change and continuity, similarity and difference, and other relevant historical concepts. 

Substantive knowledge

Key substantive content will include: the changing demographics of the street (with connections to industrialisation, class systems, migration and empire); changes in work patterns and roles (again with strong connections to industrialisation); changing fashions; and wider developments 1871-1891 (empire, colonialism, educational changes).

This is maybe a better example of bombs being dropped during WW2 BBC Two - A House Through Time, Series 3, Episode 4, A bomb falls on Guinea Street – this does a nice job of connecting something we do know (the bombing) and something we don’t (how the residents reacted).

And another one – this time with a fire relating to a specific house. But how might this have impacted the neighbours: BBC Two - A House Through Time, Series 4, Episode 2, A catastrophic fire hits one of the residents