'Trendy lessons' are depriving children of their classic cultural heritage

Dr Kate Pretty said many youngsters were not being taught time-honoured stories such as the tale of King Alfred the Great burning the cakes.

Britain was in "grave" danger of losing its sense of shared culture and heritage as a result, she said.

Dr Pretty, head of the teaching college Homerton, revealed that only one student in a class of 20 trainee teachers knew about Christopher Columbus's landing in America.

Most did not learn about him at school because subject content was being watered down in favour of trendy themed lessons, she warned.

Dr Pretty spoke out at a meeting of teachers and academics convened by Prince Charles, who is concerned that "modish" teaching theories are failing children. A senior Ofsted inspector told the same conference the schools watchdog will release a report this month warning history is becoming "marginalised". Only a third of youngsters are studying the subject after the age of 14.

Dr Pretty said Cambridge students were increasingly arriving at the university with gaps in their basic knowledge of key events and people that shaped history.

This was partly down to an overcrowded primary school curriculum which was increasingly dominated by the three Rs, she said.

"It is worse than it used to be and some of it is about the erosion of history as a defined topic at primary level," she added.

"It is not the secondary schools that instil that deficit but primaries. The little, tiny stories that make up the common thread which you can pull on, we are expecting students to somehow implicitly know. There are the great stories of the past like Alfred burning the cakes, the Magna Carta, Columbus sailing the ocean blue - all that sort of stuff we learned.

"It is not about A-level knowledge of a particular subject, it is a more general sense of the web of understanding that binds us to a common understanding of the past."

She said it was harder to teach students who were unable to pick up on references such as the Biblical story of the Israelites destroying the walls of Jericho.

She said students of all faiths should be taught such stories since they were part of general knowledge. She added: "It is very difficult to teach students who don't know the stories of the Bible."

Horrified at her students' ignoranceof Columbus and other swathes of history, she sent them off to read a light-hearted take on British history - 1066 And All That by WC Sellar and RJ Yeatman.

Her criticism came as it emerged Ofsted is about to deliver a critical assessment of history teaching.

Paul Armitage, Ofsted's specialist adviser for history, said a report would warn the subject was being "marginalised".

Schools Secretary Ed Balls has pledged £13.7million to teach children how to handle their emotions. They will be taught how to deal with feelings such as anger and frustration without resorting to swearing and fighting - and how to be good losers in PE.