Humanities

TOPICS COVERED:

KS3

Geography and History are taught as ‘Humanities’ in Year 7 and 8. Students study each subject in alternating half-terms and are taught by the same teacher. Topics covered include Global Development, Geographical Skills, Romans and Anglo-Saxons and The Tudors, allowing students to develop understanding and skills required for GCSE. In Year 9, students start following the GCSE course in both subjects and are taught them as discrete subjects.

Social and Religious Studies are taught in Years 7-9 and the subject covers a wide variety of topics. Students learn about different religions and are taught to form objective opinions on both this and a range of social issues.

KS4

GCSE History is a linear qualification, meaning that students will sit all their exams at the end of the course. There is no coursework or controlled assessment unit. GCSE History students must take assessments in three of the following papers in the same series:

• Crime and punishment in Britain, c1000-present; Whitechapel, c1870-c1900: crime, policing and the inner city.
• Superpower relations and the Cold War 1941-91; Early Elizabethan England, 1558-88.
• Weimar and Nazi Germany, 1918-39.

GCSE Geography is taught using the AQA Geography specification. The course allows us to deliver a range of diverse topics covering both human and physical geography. Students are also able to develop their geographical, mathematical and literacy skills.

• Students will take three papers:
• Paper 1 – Living with the physical environment (1 hr 30) 35%The challenge of natural hazards
• The living world
• Physical landscapes in the UK
• Paper 2 – Challenges in the human environment (1 hr 30) 35%Urban issues and challenges
• The changing economic world
• The challenge of resource management
• Paper 3 – Geographical Applications (1 hr 15) 30%
• Pupils will develop skills to interpret maps and graphs using statistics, fieldwork and issue evaluation.

GCSE Religious Studies involves students focusing on the core beliefs and practice of Christianity and Islam. Students then use their knowledge to understand and evaluate religious teachings on marriage and the family, philosophy and ethics, peace and conflict, and crime and punishment. The key skills students are assessed on will be explaining and evaluating religious attitudes, beliefs and practice. Students are taught to reach informed and objective opinions on matters of faith which they can then express using specialist language and excellent English. The subject is assessed by two exams, which are taken at the end of the two year course.