Humanities is a valuable and engaging subject that all students can relate to, offering a variety of practical skills that support both literacy and numeracy across the curriculum as well as highlighting and explaining our lives in Britain today and teaching us more about our own roles as citizens and the values we share.

At Queensway we believe that through the Humanities our children will learn to develop a deep and meaningful appreciation for the world in which they live. Education in Humanities should be high quality, which ‘should inspire a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people which aims to remain with them throughout their lives.’ (National Curriculum DfE 2014). Pupils will study a knowledge rich curriculum, with both geography and history delivered as separate timetabled subjects which are inextricably linked. In Geography, pupils will be taught a wide range of locational knowledge, extending and consolidating and deepening understanding. Place is central to understanding our place in the world. Our similarities and differences, and links between physical and human geography of places. A key concept of geography is the relationship between physical and human geographies, using a range of relevant and interesting case studies. Students will leave Key Stage Three with a good grounded appreciation of the world they live in. As, according to Michael Palin, ‘Geography is, in the broadest sense, an education for life and for living.’

In History pupils will be taught the skills of chronology, continuity and change whilst developing the skills of empathy, engulfed in our unique history stemming from the Roman Empire, through Medieval conquests, impacts of the Black Death and the Industrial Revolution through the 20th Century of conflict to the present day.

History and Geography at Lower School, years 6, 7 and 8, is taught in mixed social groups over a 3 year period. It is taught on a 3 year rolling programme which is broad and balanced using the National Curriculum as a starting point. We cover some aspects of KS2 and KS3 and have developed a learning journey which encompasses a myriad of historical and geographical knowledge and skills which enable learners to become confident members in an ever-changing world. We study an interdependent curriculum with skills and knowledge embedded into each stand-alone unit. As the programme comes to a completion, it is thought that learners would be able to integrate their learning into all parts of school life and life beyond education.

‘A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.’ Marcus Garvey