History at Aston on Trent Primary School is an exciting and interesting subject full of discovery and fun. Children start in the foundation stage focusing on the Early Learning Goal, “ Past and Present” in the ‘Understanding the World’ Area of Learning and move on from there. It is our intention to allow the children to understand how the past is relevant to them, even from a young age.

During the time the children are in KS1, they learn about significant people like Queen Elizabeth I and II, Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole, as well as local significant people such as Thomas Cook and Ellen McArthur. KS1 children also learn about events beyond living memory, including The Great Fire Of London and War and remembrance. 

In KS2, the children learn about groups of people affecting Great Britain in a chronological way; in Year 3 they find out about the Stone Age, by Year 6 they are taught about World War II.  As a school, we found that teaching in such a way helps the children with the tricky concepts of eras and elapsed time. This is reinforced with a time-line of historical events studied here displayed in the hall and replicated in classrooms, in addition to being on all knowledge organisers too. This allows children to identify links between their prior knowledge and where their learning is going in the future. 

History is taught in a dynamic way, making many strong cross-curricular links with computing and IT, reading and writing, art and music, plus other subjects links too. Lessons are brought to life through role play, investigation and child-led research. The children benefit from visits to other places – sites like the Stone Centre, The National Space Centre, Rural Pride and visits around our village linked to our local studies in history including the 'Aston during the Victorian era' and 'Aston during the world wars'.

These visits in particular allow the children in all stages to be aware of and subsequently proud of the history on the doorstep in the Derbyshire.