HISTORY
History is taught from Years 3 to 8 in three lessons each week. Years 7 and 8 have one History prep each week and Years 5 and 6 have one every other week.
A wide variety of historical trips is undertaken. Each year Year 8 pupils are taken on a combined History/Art trip, generally in the Autumn Term. Most recently, we visited Buckingham Palace and the National Gallery, but the ‘historical’ element has also included Westminster Abbey, the
Museum of London and the Tower of London. For other Year groups, trips either to Lewes Castle or to Lewes Priory are regularly undertaken, while other visits in recent years have included Hampton Court Palace, Battle Abbey and the site of the Battle of Hastings, Hastings Castle, Penshurst Place, Bodiam Castle, Arundel Castle, The Weald and Downland Open-air Museum of Buildings near Chichester and the Mary Rose and Victory and their associated naval museums at Portsmouth.
In 2009 the Hands-on History Group gave an interactive presentation and demonstration on warfare and weaponry from the Saxons and Normans through to the Hundred Years War, while in 2010 the period covered was 1500-1650. Each year, the School enters the Townsend-Warner History Prize Competition. Over the past ten years, pupils have regularly come in the top 100 of about 800 entrants, with our best individual position being 10th. Each week, a small group of keen historians meets to prepare for this competition
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
With regard to the material covered during pupils’ time at the Prep School, we aim to give them a knowledge of British History from Prehistoric times to the end of the 17th century. The Tudor and Stuart periods are studied in particular detail, and are the focus of preparation for
Portrait of Catherine of Aragon
Common Entrance and Scholarship exams.
Apart from the above overall aim, the following are important objectives in the teaching of History at St. Aubyns
- to instil a sense of chronology, that is, a sense of the development of features such as government, religion, architecture and art (to name a few), over time.
- to develop the ability in pupils to describe and explain historical cause and change.
- to develop pupils’ ability to understand and evaluate historical sources and, connected with this, to develop pupils’ ability to identify and evaluate different ways in which the past is represented and interpreted.
In the course of achieving these objectives, pupils will also acquire and use historical vocabulary and develop the ability to select and organise historical information, whether in answer to questions on evidence or in writing essays.
Above all, the aim is to instil an enthusiasm for the subject in pupils, an enthusiasm which may lead to the development or enhancement of leisure interests in the future, or indeed to study of the subject at a higher level in years to come.
Scheme of Work
The syllabus, year by year, is as follows (the history studied is ‘British’, unless otherwise stated).
Year 3 (Transition): Prehistory to Viking invasions, c. 800 A.D
- Topics covered include the Old and New Stone Ages, the Bronze and Iron Ages and the Ancient Britons. Ancient Greece is studied as a special topic, then the Roman invasion of Britain, life in Roman Britain and, finally, the Anglo-Saxons.
Year 4: c. 800 to 1200 A.D.
- Topics covered include the Viking invasions, King Alfred, the 10th century Saxon kings, Canute, the background to the Norman Invasion and the invasion itself. The feudal system and other aspects of the reigns of the Norman kings. The Church in the Middle Ages, Henry II and Becket and Richard III and the Third Crusade.
Year 5: c. 1200 to 1483 A.D.
- Topics covered include King John and the Magna Carta, Henry III and de Montfort’s Parliament, Edward I and Wales and Scotland, and Edward II and Bannockburn. The Black Death, the Peasant’s Revolt, the 100 Years War and, finally, the Wars of the Roses.
Year 6: c. 1483 to c. 1580
- Topics covered include Richard III and the Princes in the Tower, the Battle of Bosworth and the reign of Henry VII. Henry VIII, with a focus on Wolsey, the Divorce Question and Break with Rome, and the Dissolution of the Monasteries. Edward VI and Mary I, with a focus on religious change, Elizabeth I’s Religious Settlement and, finally, the causes of the Spanish Armada.
Year 7: c. 1580 to 1649
- Topics covered include the Spanish Armada, Elizabeth’s overall achievement including the Poor Law and her relations with Parliament, James I and religion and the Gunpowder Plot, and James I’s relations with Parliament and his foreign policy. Charles I
- and the causes of the Civil War, the Civil War itself and the trial and execution of Charles I.
Year 8: 1649 to c. 1700
- The Commonwealth and Protectorate, the Great Plague and the Great Fire, the reigns of Charles II and James II in outline (in more detail for the Scholarship Group). The Glorious Revolution and the Bill of Rights. In the Spring and Summer Terms, there is revision of Tudor and Stuart topics studied in Years 6 and 7.
REVISION NOTES
Notes to assist pupils with revision for school exams can be downloaded by following these links:
Pupils in the older years can use previous year's notes to broaden the range of topics they revise.
Work for Transition - 2nd December 2010
Work for Years 4 to 8 - 3rd December 2010