History at Ashcombe
History helps to develop children’s curiosity and understanding of the past in their local area, in Britain and in the wider word.
It can also encourage a wide range of skills which can be transferred to other classroom learning, such as collaboration, enquiry and investigation. History also requires children to develop their ability to analyse, evaluate and present their findings in order to make sense of their learning.
Our general aims
History is taught as part of Understanding the World.
Key Stage 1 and 2
Throughout Years 1 to 6 History is taught as part of a topic based curriculum or, where necessary, as a set of discrete history lessons. Where appropriate, learning is supported by visits to places of interest or by external parties visiting the school site to enrich the children’s learning experience in school. These visits allow the children to gain a deeper understanding of a particular historical period and provides opportunities for experiential learning.
The National Curriculum states that children should understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources. Therefore, within the classroom setting, children have the chance to develop their historical knowledge within and across the periods they study by looking at different types of evidence, appropriate artefacts, resource books, CDROMs and by taking part in role plays and presentations.
As a result of the new 2014 National Curriculum some of the history programmes of study taught by Key Stages 1 and 2 have changed. Please see below the topics covered by each year group.
Year 1
Changes within living memory
-Old and new toys
-Old and new houses
Significant historical places in the locality
-Weston-super-Mare past and present (features of a seaside)
Lives of significant individuals
-A comparison of Elizabeth II with Queen Victoria
Year 2
Events beyond living memory
Great Fire of London
Lives of significant individuals
Comparison of LS Lowry and Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Comparison of Neil Armstrong and Christopher Columbus
Florence Nightingale.
Year 3
The Roman Empire and its impact on Britain
Changes to Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age
Year 4
The achievements of the earliest civilisations
-Ancient Egypt
Ancient Greece
Year 5
A study on a non-European society that provides contrasts with British history
-Mayan civilisation c. AD 900
A study of an aspect or theme of British history that extends pupils chronological knowledge beyond 1066
-World War II
Year 6
A local history study
-The Victorians
Britain’s settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots
Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the kingdom of England to the time of Edward the Confessor
History helps to develop children’s curiosity and understanding of the past in their local area, in Britain and in the wider word.
It can also encourage a wide range of skills which can be transferred to other classroom learning, such as collaboration, enquiry and investigation. History also requires children to develop their ability to analyse, evaluate and present their findings in order to make sense of their learning.
Our general aims
- To enable children to enjoy all that the History curriculum has to offer by fostering an interest in the past e.g. having WOW days where the children dress up and experience a historical period first hand.
- To help children to consider how the past influences the present.
- To help children identify the different ways that the past is represented and to know significant facts about a period.
- To develop a chronologically secure knowledge and understanding of British, local and world history.
- To help children develop a sense of their cultural heritage.
- To develop an understanding of the legacy of the past e.g. the everyday use of words with Greek and Latin origins.
History is taught as part of Understanding the World.
Key Stage 1 and 2
Throughout Years 1 to 6 History is taught as part of a topic based curriculum or, where necessary, as a set of discrete history lessons. Where appropriate, learning is supported by visits to places of interest or by external parties visiting the school site to enrich the children’s learning experience in school. These visits allow the children to gain a deeper understanding of a particular historical period and provides opportunities for experiential learning.
The National Curriculum states that children should understand how our knowledge of the past is constructed from a range of sources. Therefore, within the classroom setting, children have the chance to develop their historical knowledge within and across the periods they study by looking at different types of evidence, appropriate artefacts, resource books, CDROMs and by taking part in role plays and presentations.
As a result of the new 2014 National Curriculum some of the history programmes of study taught by Key Stages 1 and 2 have changed. Please see below the topics covered by each year group.
Year 1
Changes within living memory
-Old and new toys
-Old and new houses
Significant historical places in the locality
-Weston-super-Mare past and present (features of a seaside)
Lives of significant individuals
-A comparison of Elizabeth II with Queen Victoria
Year 2
Events beyond living memory
Great Fire of London
Lives of significant individuals
Comparison of LS Lowry and Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Comparison of Neil Armstrong and Christopher Columbus
Florence Nightingale.
Year 3
The Roman Empire and its impact on Britain
Changes to Britain from the Stone Age to the Iron Age
Year 4
The achievements of the earliest civilisations
-Ancient Egypt
Ancient Greece
Year 5
A study on a non-European society that provides contrasts with British history
-Mayan civilisation c. AD 900
A study of an aspect or theme of British history that extends pupils chronological knowledge beyond 1066
-World War II
Year 6
A local history study
-The Victorians
Britain’s settlement by Anglo-Saxons and Scots
Viking and Anglo-Saxon struggle for the kingdom of England to the time of Edward the Confessor