Humanities  - History and Geography

Intent:  

Our Humanities curriculum is taught through our in-depth cross curricular topics.  These topics are chosen to ensure that there is a broad balance of humanities subjects taught each term in school – for example one topic may have a Historical theme (such as Nurturing Nurses), and the next may have a Geographical theme (such as Marvellous Maps).  

The National Curriculum entitlement is delivered through the topics, and the topics have been aligned to ensure that they build on previous learning. 

This approach means that the children make many links in their learning between subjects and therefore have a deeper understanding of the subjects studied. 

How often should it be taught and for how long? 

Topics last either half a term or a term, or less for children in Reception.  There will be at least three topic lessons per week, and this will be increased if the English work is planned around a relevant text. 

How is Humanities assessed? 

Teachers assess the children against the learning objectives for the lesson, which are taken from the National Curriculum schemes of work or the Early Years Foundations Stage curriculum.  End of year reports to parents indicate how the children have progressed against age related expectations in each subject.  In addition, we use KWL grids in Year 1 and 2 at the beginning and end of each topic, this helps both the teacher and the children understand what they have learned in the topic.

How does Humanities link to other subjects including PSHE? 

This is intrinsically linked through our topic work.  Our PSHE curriculum also supports some of the themes the children come across in Humanities, such as changes through time. 

How you will see this policy in action: 

Impact: 

The children will have a passion for history and will be keen to research information about different historical events. They will develop their understanding of significant events and individuals and recognise why and how these have shaped Britain. The children will have an understanding of their locality as well as the countries and capital cities of the United Kingdom. They will be given opportunities to develop their geographical skills to interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, symbols and aerial photographs. The children will be able to articulate the topic they are studying. They will use a range of key vocabulary relating to the passing of time or relating to human and physical geography as well as topic specific vocabulary.  Their curriculum for the term/half term will be designed around this topic.  The children will be enthusiastic about their learning and will understand where various subjects fit into the topic as a whole – for example studying Intrepid Explorers links music from other cultures, building boats in DT, countries of the UK in Geography and significant people in History.