Welcome to our Humanities page!

question driven evidence collectors - ‘feeding’ inquisitive minds creatively

 

Intent – What are we trying to achieve?

Our intent for humanities is to develop children who are curious with a thirst for knowledge. Through our curriculum we inspire children to become independent, critical thinkers equipped to tackle big questions. We encourage a fascination about the world and its history that will remain with them for the rest of their lives.

In geography we intend to stimulate children’s interest in their surroundings and in the variety of human and physical conditions on the Earth’s surface; foster children’s sense of wonder at the beauty of the world around them; help children to develop an informed concern about the quality of the environment and the future of the human habitat and enhance children’s sense of responsibility for the care of the Earth and its people.

In history  we intend to develop a sense of time, placing events, people and changes within a chronological framework; develop a knowledge of the characteristics of people living in particular periods, including attitudes and beliefs and their social, cultural, religious and ethnic diversity; to identify different ways in which the past is represented and make thoughtful use of a variety of sources; to develop the skills of enquiry, investigation, analysis, evaluation and presentation; to develop the ability to describe and analyse reasons and results of events, situations and changes studied, making links between periods; have a lasting interest in, and enjoyment of, learning about the past.

The humanities curriculum offers a wealth of possibilities for contexts and tasks where our children can apply their knowledge, skills and understanding creatively. A variety of approaches are used to cater for differing learning styles: visual, auditory and kinaesthetic.

 

Implementation – How can we ensure our intent is put into practice?

At St James’ we have developed a bespoke humanities curriculum to ensure stimulating and motivating experiences.  ‘Big Enquiry Questions’ are clearly set out and offer possible teaching activities to cover the skills, understanding and knowledge of each subject area. Each year group has at least two history enquiries and two geography enquiries plus a local history heritage study and a geographical skills' enquiry.  The concept of the enquiry approach enables children to work through a principal ‘Big Enquiry Question’ which is answered through subsidiary questions.  Children are taught the key geography and history skills through these questions, which may also offer the opportunity for cross-curricular and creative work linked to Art & Design, Maths, English and Computing.  Each enquiry ends with a reflection of their learning, by answering the Big Enquiry Question. We expect that children complete at least two written reflections whilst the others can be more creative to reflect on and answer the Big Enquiry Question. For example: museums/art galleries; teaching group in another year; presentations to parents, governors or teachers; Reflections encourage children to make the most of their oracy and ICT skills.

In order to achieve these intensions in geography pupils are given opportunities to:

• • carry out fieldwork
• • learn how places are similar and different; how they are linked to other places and to the wider world
• • learn about the physical and human features of environments and how we are influenced by, and affect, environments.
• • carry out investigations which focus on geographical questions
• • develop geographical enquiry and skills.

In order to achieve these intensions in history pupils are given opportunities to:

• develop a sense of time, placing events, people and changes within a chronological framework
• develop a knowledge of the characteristics of people living in particular periods, including attitudes and beliefs and their social, cultural, religious and ethnic diversity
• identify different ways in which the past is represented and make thoughtful use of a variety of sources
• develop the skills of enquiry, investigation, analysis, evaluation and presentation
•  develop the ability to describe and analyse reasons and results of events, situations and changes studied, making links between periods
•  have a lasting interest in, and enjoyment of, learning about the past.

Humanities in the Foundation Stage

The Early Years and Foundation Stage children currently follow the Early Years Statutory Framework, with Humanities as part of ‘Knowledge and Understanding of the World’. In this area of learning, children develop crucial knowledge, skills and understanding that help them to make sense of the world around them. This forms the foundation for later work in Science, Design and Technology and Computing, as well as History and Geography.

Children in EYFS have opportunities to:

• talk about past and present events in their own lives and in the lives of family members.
• understand others don’t always enjoy the same things, and are sensitive to this.
• learn about similarities and differences between themselves and others, and among families, communities and traditions.
• explore similarities and differences in relation to places, objects, materials and living things.

• talk about the features of their own immediate environment and how environments might vary from one another.
• make observations of animals and plants and explain why some things occur, and talk about changes.
• undertake a local / heritage study in the final summer term  using books for a stimulus to learning

History and geography contributes significantly to the teaching of English in our school by actively promoting the skills of reading, writing, speaking and listening. Children develop oracy through discussing historical and geographical questions or presenting their findings to the rest of the class, school and parents. Children develop their writing ability by writing in a range of genres directly linked to learning within the humanities and reading across the curriculum is also hugely promoted by a range of texts and reading activities within weekly VIPERS sessions:

Examples of Vipers planning: 

We use computing in history and geography teaching where appropriate and we meet the statutory requirement for children to use computing as part of their work at Key Stages 1 and 2. Children use computing to enhance their skills in data handling and in presenting written work, children also research information using the Internet. Children have the opportunity to use digital cameras and iPads to record and use photographic images.

History and geography contribute significantly to the teaching of personal, social, citizenship and health education. Through our humanities teaching and learning, children are given the opportunity to develop self-confidence by having opportunities to explain their views on a number of social questions such as how society have changed and the impact that has had on the world today. Through links to our British Values and humanities enquiries, children discover how to be active citizens in a democratic society by learning how laws are made and changed; they learn how to recognize and challenge stereotypes and to appreciate that racism is a harmful aspect of society. They learn how society is made up of people from different cultures and develop tolerance and respect for others.

When teaching history and geography, we contribute to the children’s spiritual development. Children are encouraged to ask and offer answers to difficult questions. They have time to reflect on how their learning may have impacted on them personally and individually. We encourage discussion, debate, creativity, empathy, respect and tolerance of themselves, others and the world around them. Children learn about the role of the church in the past and they find out how British society has changed over time. Our history and geography programmes of study enables children to understand that Britain’s rich cultural heritage can be further enriched by the multi-cultural British society of today.

 

In the near future we will also be embarking on a new educational program called ‘Global Neighbours’.This initiative is designed for primary schools foster understanding and engage with global issues and cultural diversity. The program focuses on fostering a sense of global citizenship and will encouraging our pupils to think about their role in a larger, interconnected world.

Continuity and Progression

Continuity allows our children to build on their knowledge and understanding. At our school we ensure skills, knowledge and concepts are revisited. The humanities enquiries are carefully mapped and developed. In history, this approach ensures children understand chronology, continuity and change and encourage children to can make links between different ‘periods’ of time in KS2. In KS1, children’s historical understanding is taught as a ‘theme’. 

 • history is taught chronologically starting from the Stone Age in Year 3 to the Vikings in Years 5 and 6.

* historical ‘themes’ are studied in KS1 such a ‘discoveries’ and ‘the monarchy’

* historical skills and progression maps are provided for each history enquiry

map reading and geographical skills are practised and taught within one half termly enquiry per  year group

 • the local area or environment is investigated across the school within geography

Local History

Our local area has a wealth of opportunities for our children to learn about their sense of identity, their sense of place and the community in which they live.  Our school’s local history studies are designed to develop appreciation, value and respect for the quality of our local area within a historical context.

In our school, we decided to teach local history discretely, rather than incorporated into other history units, to ensure detailed and concrete ‘stories’ relating to events, people and places within the local area. As the children proceed through the school they will have completed seven local history studies – all of which start with a big enquiry question followed by a range of subsequent questions creating an intriguing ‘puzzle’ to be solved.

Every local history heritage study encourages children to use and evaluate a range of historical documents, images and experiences linking to previous and future learning within the context of British history and chronology. Through these historical enquires we are able to focus on particular places within our local area and begin to think about national and global influences and monarchy, but also develop a sense of historical curiosity about our local area and an understanding as to why it is worth knowing about. e.g. 

All children keep their humanities learning in separate subject exercise books in which they build upon each lesson to answer related questions - this can be written or pictorial evidence of their historical and geographical learning. All humanities enquiries are considered complete once the child has produced either an extended piece of writing (which pulls together their learning for that particular enquiry) or children have taken part in celebration of their learning, thereby answering their ‘Big Enquiry Question’ and completing the end of unit quiz. Evidence of learning may also be present in English writing books, reading books and classroom displays.

Creative Opportunities Within every humanities enquiry we provide an optional creative opportunity to complete t home which makes learning in humanities more engaging and enjoyable. Children that  participate in our History and Geography Heroes are presented with a certificate within our whole school achievement CollectiveWorship. We also celebrate their success by adding them into our weekly newsletter. All creative art projects are displayed in our school foyer for everyone to see. Assessment and Recording Assessment, recording and reporting of humanities is in line with the whole school policy. Teacher observations and scrutiny of work form the assessment of the pupil’s knowledge and understanding in relation to the relevant descriptors in the National Curriculum. Overall teacher assessments, including the coverage of all skills and knowledge taught, provide information about progress and help to inform planning and reporting. Children’s progress in all subjects, including the humanities, is reported to parents in the children’s annual report.  Committing Knowledge to Memory Through the implementation of Rosenshine’s Theories of Instruction we ensure pupils are able to remember, recall and discuss their learning within history by providing a comprehensive outline of what we expect children to know and remember from each historical enquiry. Our Committing to Memory documentations allow teaches to focus their teaching and ensure a range of opportunities are used for pupils to remember key facts throughout lessons and units of work. Enrichment and Cultural Capital Children have many opportunities to foster their love of the humanities as we endeavour to provide a range of school visits, trips, workshops, speakers and visitors. We believe that this enriches and enhance the children’s understanding and enjoyment in this area of the curriculum by providing valuable experiences that build upon and develop historical and geographical learning in exciting and memorable ways

Impact – What is the impact of our Humanities provision for our children?

 

All children will leave St James’ School with a strong understanding of how British and world history developed. They will be able to identify some key individuals and understand their significance in history and be able place them into the wider contexts of history so that they can compare them with those that they will learn about in KS3. Children will understand that there is a ‘narrative’ to history which is based upon our understanding of the past and how we must keep learning about it to understand the future. Children will enter KS3 with confidence in their abilities to identify certain periods of history in a timeline. They will be able to talk about the durations of certain periods of history and the causes of period start and end dates. They will also be able to identify a selection of key dates from a multitude of periods having a solid understanding of the concurrent nature of history and articulate why it is important to study history in the contexts of other periods, and not just in isolation. Children will able to identify both major and minor changes and continuities throughout history, demonstrating their understanding of the key themes that they have studied throughout KS1 and 2,  identify trends throughout periods of history and begin to articulate why some of these were limited to particular periods of history or crossed into different eras - knowing that certain individuals, events and civilisations have had an incredible amount of influence on history and the formation of the world we know today.

In geography children will have secure understanding of human and physical conditions on the Earth’s surface ensuring they are able to develop an informed concern about the quality of the environment and the future of the human habitat and enhance children’s sense of responsibility for the care of the Earth and its people. Children will be able to discuss and debate relevant environmental issues with sound knowledge of pollution, habitats, erosion etc.

Through our bespoke geography curriculum our children at St James’ develop a solid understanding of the world around them. They learn about different countries, cultures, and environments, which fosters global awareness and a broader perspective. It also foster’s an appreciation for environmental issues, such as climate change, conservation, and sustainability. This awareness leads to more responsible behaviour and attitudes toward the environment. Our geography curriculum prepares children for more advanced studies in secondary education and beyond. It also equips them with skills and knowledge applicable in various fields, including science, social sciences, and humanities.