Humanities

In Humanities we are committed to academic excellence and holistic development, to ensure that any young person from any background is able to achieve equal success in whatever they choose to do. Our curriculum is based on developing a passion for the world around us and an understanding of the journey that has been taken by others to get us to this place in time. Our subject equips our students to understand the modern world and their place within it. Central to this is the instilling of core British values; democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs. Our curriculum ensures that students receive a broad and balanced curriculum across all three Humanities subjects; History, Geography and Religious Studies. We believe firmly that “knowledge begets knowledge” and this appreciation for the need for our students to acquire deep knowledge has driven the reshaping of our curriculum. Access to the research of the Learning Scientist has enabled us to plan more effectively for automaticity, vital to allow our students’ success in the more rigorous content of the reformed 2016 GCSEs. Throughout both key stages regular low stakes testing of both current and previous learning takes centre stage in both classroom activities and in the form of weekly homework, based on knowledge organisers which are provided for each taught topic. We have planned our five year curriculum to enable our students to achieve their potential at GCSE level and beyond through the creation of a KS3 which allows a seamless transition from one key stage to the next, in terms of skills – specifically of critical thinking skills and the ability to produce well-constructed extended writing but also in creation of a subject knowledge in terms of both depth and breadth. Throughout the five years in Humanities, students are not grouped by ability. We believe that mixed ability teaching promotes better progress across the cohort and reduces incidents of students feeling that they are defined by their set. We teach to the top and scaffold down to allow all learners to succeed. We are passionate at creating opportunities to raise students’ cultural capital, ensuring that our students all have at least one opportunity per academic year to visit sites of national importance. We feel this is vital to promote feelings of awe and to raise both aspirations and scholarly ambition, particularly amongst students experiencing disadvantage.

Please see our department documentation which details our curriculum intent and schemes of work.