Humanities
The Humanities curriculum area is truly diverse both in the subjects we offer and the nature of our staffing. We believe we offer something for everyone and play to the students' natural interests and desires. We offer a wide range of courses including vocational from entry level to A Level which allows students to be successful on every level with the needs of the students driving the curriculum.
The Humanities staff are highly motivated and we pride ourselves on working as a team, sharing decisions, resources and offering assistance where needed. Within Humanities we have 13 members of staff and another 6 members from other areas who teach Humanities subjects in some form. Most of the humanities team have responsibilities including SLT (Senior Leadership Team), HOY (Head of Year) and whole school coordinators. We see this as a strength adding more expertise to draw upon. The teaching rooms are grouped together and are well resourced. All rooms have interactive whiteboards. We have a Humanities resource area where most resources can be accessed.
The Humanities area encompasses a wide variety of courses across all key stages and they are summarised below.
Key Stage Three
- History, Geography and RE is taught discretely over four lessons in years 7 & 8 and three lessons in year 9. Within these courses other areas are incorporated including citizenship, ICT, Sociology and Travel & Tourism.
- ASDAN in year 9.
Key Stage Four
- GCSE History
- GCSE Geography
- GCSE Sociology
- GCSE RE – both full and short course are offered.
- Level 2 OCR Nationals in Travel & Tourism
- COPE Award
Post 16
- A Level History
- A level Geography
- A level Sociology
- A Level Philosophy
- A level Health & Social Care
- A level Travel & Tourism
- Level 2 OCR Nationals in Health & Social Care
The student uptake of our courses at both KS4 and post 16 is consistently high.
Our results at both KS4 & post 16 are good and improving. Overall Humanities A-C in 2006 was 52% with some subjects considerably higher than this (Sociology and RE full course). A Level results are consistently good.
We are always looking for new ways to enrich our curriculum so therefore we constantly evaluate our practise and make changes where appropriate. Currently, we are completing projects to allow KS4 students to achieve their COPE award and we start GCSE RE in year 9. ICT is firmly embedded within the curriculum and its use is constantly reevaluated. We consider ourselves to be extremely enterprising and this year has seen numerous enterprising activities including field visits, themed study days and the use of guest speakers to name just a few examples. We feel the local community has much to offer the curriculum and utilise this as much as possible.