Humanities

Our vision for the Humanities Faculty is that all students experience a curriculum with breadth and depth, so they are equipped to be global citizens of the future. The Tile Cross Humanities faculty are committed to ensuring that all students make excellent progress in History, Geography and RE through excellent teaching that will motivate them to work hard and succeed. We aim for them to become independent global citizens through fostering awareness of the past, present and future of the world around them through the development of their subject knowledge and expertise. 

In our Humanities lessons we encourage depth and breadth by focusing on developing a strong knowledge and skills base which will give them a firm foundation for further study. Formal and informal assessments allow pupils to know how they are progressing and allow the teachers to plan according to the specific needs of their classes and individual pupils. We believe our approach to knowledge and skills development allows pupils to have the best possible chance to feel confident in their own abilities and will offer a springboard to success for further study. We also include in our lessons debates; spark passionate discussions and excitement so that all students are fully engaged in their learning. This will develop their ambition and thirst to learn in order to succeed and excel. In order to drive progress we pro-actively embed revision and learning strategies with a focus on a Knowledge Rich Curriculum within the faculty at KS3 & KS4.  

The Humanities Key stage 3 curriculum offers a Knowledge Rich Curriculum that covers British and World History. This includes bigger enquiry questions which are designed to help our students gain a sense of time and chronology and their place in world history. They will develop important skills of identification, analysis and evaluation through examining historical evidence and sources with a critical eye. Our enquiry journey takes students from Medieval Britain through to Present Day including both World Wars. The study of the Holocaust is an integral part of our cross curriculum offer in Humanities. As a Rights Respecting school we need to ensure that our students have a sound knowledge of the atrocities of the past if we are to engender a spirit of tolerance and understanding. KS4 History do the GCSE Edexcel History course, studying topics such as the Cold War, Weimar Germany and Medicine through time. Our Geography curriculum covers human and physical Geography.  In Geography pupils develop essential geographical skills, such as data analysis; interpreting geographical information; understanding of the interaction between physical/human processes and their formation. This is done via a journey around the world, beginning with the exploration of students’ local geographies, and then extending out to other continents, finally finishing at investigating geographical texts.  KS4 Geography follows the AQA curriculum. where they cover hazards, ecosystems, rivers, coasts, urbanisation in countries of contrasting wealth, development and global resources. 

Our timetable is arranged so that topics are studied in depth. As students transition from History to Geography, low stakes tests are set to ensure that learning is retained. They are given the tools to make sense of a complex and dynamically changing world. Students learn where places are, different landscapes and climates. Religious education is at the heart of our vision to prepare our students for their future. Students will learn about Christianity and the 5 other major faiths.  Students will learn about religion and from religion, developing their knowledge and expertise through the CORE skills. Students will employ a range of skills in the disciplines of Philosophy, Ethics and Social Sciences and study controversial topics, whilst being given the opportunity to debate within a classroom. At KS4, we follow the AQA A Specification for Religious Studies.  

The Humanities faculty consists of three full time qualified teachers who are creative and forward thinking. Our teachers teach in specialist subjects at KS4 but there is an expectation for teachers to be flexible across Humanities particularly at KS3. We often lead on new initiatives. For example, developing new strategies for assessment, feedback and marking. We are a strong team that believes in collaboration and regularly share ideas in order to develop our teaching and learning practice.