Secondary Humanities Curriculum
At North star 180, we recognise the importance of the humanities curriculum in helping students understand the world around them.
History
At North Star 180 we place great importance on history; with all of our pupils in key stage 3 having access to the history curriculum. The key intent is for our pupils to gain an appreciation of the link between the past and their own lives now. Comparing how lives were and looking at the journey to where we are today is crucial for developing pupils’ understanding of who they are today. It is important for our pupils to gain an understanding of how things have changed and what has played a role in getting to where we are today to gain a wonder of the past.
The history curriculum takes a chronological approach through the year groups, focusing on how Britain has developed within and how it has linked to the wider world. This allows for a curriculum that is more relevant to our pupils and creates more interest in the subject. Each term follows on from the previous in periods of time to allow for a clear understanding of how things have changed. This also allows pupils to make comparisons with the changes throughout history. This approach is supported and is based on the national curriculum for history.
Throughout the history curriculum, we ask our pupils to think critically about interpretations and sources of information to make judgements of what periods of time were like for them to compare. Seeking out the truth is a key historical skill for pupils to grasp as they go through the curriculum.
Through the curriculum we encourage all pupils to appreciate the role of a diverse set of characters and cultures to gain a deeper understanding and respect for the diverse nature of our British culture and how things have changed and developed to the modern country we are today.Our history curriculum offers a great opportunity for pupils to work on and develop literacy skills. Whether it is sentence comprehension or debating skills. All pupils can work on and improve literacy throughout lessons.
Each history lesson offers all pupils an opportunity to grow and develop their knowledge. All lessons are well planned and are differentiated to individual pupils’ needs to support and aid development. We are constantly reviewing and adapting teaching methods to ensure quality first teaching is always in place. Opportunities for assessment are carefully planned into the curriculum to ensure pupil progress is being tracked.
Geography
Our vision is for all
pupils to access a high quality and adaptive geography curriculum, which
inspires curiosity of the world around them. We aim to give pupils a knowledge
of places, people and environments from locally to internationally. Linked
together with an understanding of the Earth’s human and physical processes,
pupils can gain the knowledge that builds the world’s fascination. All pupils
follow a broad curriculum that follows the national curriculum for Geography.
As pupil knowledge progresses, this allows an ability to expand their
understanding of people, places and environments on a more global scale.
We want all pupils to develop key ‘geographical skills’
throughout the curriculum. From map reading skills to asking geographical
questions, skills are crucial for all pupils to gain as it will help them
develop their knowledge.
The North Star 180 geography curriculum is focused on bridging
gaps in the knowledge of our pupils and developing the learning as pupils go
through the year groups. The focus in
year 7, is for pupils to gain the fundamental skills and knowledge on a local
scale that sets a foundation for progression and development moving forward. As
we move through the year groups pupils use these fundamental skills to look at
Geographical knowledge globally.
We are constantly planning and reviewing teaching methods to
ensure that all pupils have access to the materials being taught. All lessons
are adaptive and differentiated to the individual pupils to support and aid
development. Opportunities for
assessment are carefully planned into the curriculum to ensure that we are
keeping up to date with individual progress.
Our intent is:
Identify and bridge gaps
in pupils’ knowledge.
Allow pupils to develop
and progress knowledge in all areas of geography.
Promote curiosity and
fascination of the world that we live in.
Appreciate the different
cultures and situations people live in from around the world.
Pupils to stay up to date
with geographical changes.
Develop all pupils’ key
aspects of cultural capital- (Personal development: self-esteem, self-confidence,
growth mindset, employability skills. Social development: part of a wider
community, citizenship skills and knowledge).
Promote a variety of
literacy and numeracy skills in lessons.
