Humanities - History & Geography

“A good school provides a rounded education for the whole person.

And a good Catholic school, over and above this, should help all its students to become saints….” Pope Benedict XVI, 2010

History & Geography are key subjects taught within our creative curriculum. Teachers ensure a full coverage of key skills and knowledge is planned and delivered each year. This allows progression, challenge and building on prior learning in all year groups.

History:

In History we widen and deepen the essential knowledge, skills and understanding of learners in a variety of ways.

Learners are encouraged to share and reflect upon their own place and role within society which helps to develop their self-esteem.

Through building and developing relationships, learners are able to recognise the importance of mutual respect.

Learner’s develop their awareness of empathy and compassion through discussing, questioning and reflecting on topics being learnt.

Links with the local community enables learners’ to understand, challenge and reflect upon changes within society.

At school, we emphasise the importance of learners’ understanding their role as a citizen in modern Britain; appreciating differences and similarities; showing tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs; being inspired by role models and having ambition to develop their own integrity and self-belief in the world we live in.

Across the school at Holy Family, an awareness of learners’ responsibility as a global citizen is paramount in History lessons; how can learners’ contribute positively to the world around them. Learners’ are continuously encouraged to take risks, solve problems and become self-motivated.

National Curriculum

The national curriculum for history aims to ensure that all pupils:

know people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world
know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind
gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’
understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses
understand the methods of historical enquiry, including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims, and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed
gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts: understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term timescales

We believe in quality teaching and learning. The aim for our learners is to have a fully encompassing creative curriculum, which engages their imagination and encourages the next steps in their learning. Our subjects are planned in Learning topics and these are frequently reviewed and revised where necessary.

Geography:

At Holy Family, our definition of progress in Geography is the widening and deepening of essential knowledge, skills, understanding and learning behaviours. We design, organise and plan our curriculum to ensure that children are not merely covering content, but achieving a depth to their learning that enables them to use their skills and understanding in all areas of the curriculum.

It is our intention that Geography will inspire learners with a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people, that will remain with them throughout their lives.

We strive to offer opportunities for learners to explore the environment around them in order to develop an understanding of the human and physical world in which they live in and their place within it.

Throughout our teaching, emphasis is placed on promoting learner’s interest, respect and understanding about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes.

It is our intention that Geography will build upon and enhance learner’s spiritual, moral, social and cultural development helping them to have a greater understanding of their role as a citizen of Britain and their responsibility as a global citizen contributing positively to the world around them.

Through building on and developing learners understanding as they acquire knowledge, learners are encouraged to be inquisitive and ask questions about the world and develop geographical skills and knowledge to be able to answer them.

Through our intention to widen and deepen the essential skills within geography, it is our intention that the Geography curriculum will be both stimulating and motivating in order to capture the learner’s curiosity and fuel their motivation to learn. All learners are provided with exciting learning opportunities, acquiring and developing their skills and knowledge, perceiving the world as an interesting place. With a solid foundation upon which they can continue to build their knowledge, we hope that learners will continue to have a curiosity of the world throughout their life.

National Curriculum aims:

The national curriculum for geography aims to ensure that all pupils:

develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places – both terrestrial and marine – including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes
understand the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time
are competent in the geographical skills needed to:
- collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes
- interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
- communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length

Each topic learning experience takes appropriate objectives from the National Curriculum and they are then taught creatively to make even the most abstract of ideas real to the children. Each topic has an exciting start or big question to 'hook' the learners in and ends with a purposeful outcome. Throughout the topic, learners are encouraged to think about what they are learning, why they are learning it and how they will be able to apply these new skills in a meaningful context. The creativity is backed up by a rigorous set of basic skills.

Click on the attachments below for further humanities information, including examples of knowledge organisers for history and geography.