Humanities
Humanities is the study of the different ways in which people, from every period of history and from every
part of the world, process and document their human experience.
The Humanities Curriculum Area at Montgomery High School incorporates the following subjects:
KEY STAGE THREE
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Geography
History
Religious Education & Citizenship
KEY STAGE FOUR
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Geography
History
Religious Education
Public Services
Child Development
Health & Social Care
Travel & Tourism
The Humanities Team
Mrs L. Beardwood - History specialist
Miss A. Brown - Geography specialist
Mr D. Cairns - Subject leader for R.E
Mr N. Duckworth – Leading Practitioner, Subject leader for History, Citizenship and teacher of Public
Services
Mrs C. Fernandez - Health & Social Care, Child Development and R.E specialist
Miss L. Harrison – History specialist
Mr J. Houlihan – History specialist
Mr S. James – History specialist
Mr S. Keith - Curriculum Leader for Humanities and Subject leader for Geography
Mr C. McArdle - Teacher in charge of Travel & Tourism and Progress Leader
Miss S. Skiffington - Assistant Headteacher and Geography specialist.
Miss S. Spore – Geography specialist
Curriculum time allocation.
At Key Stage 3
Geography and History have 3 hours a fortnight each and RE has 2 hours.
It is optional for students to choose to study a humanities subject at Key Stage 4, but unless a student
chooses to study either Geography or History students cannot be awarded the EBacc qualification.
At Key Stage 4
Geography, History, Child Development, Health & Social Care, Public Services, Animal Care and Travel &
Tourism have 5 hours a fortnight each. GCSE RE is taught outside the curriculum timetable through
arrangement with head of subject.
What is Geography?
Geography is the study of the earth’s landscapes, peoples, places and environments. It is, quite simply, about
the world in which we live.
Geography is unique in bridging the social sciences (human geography) with the natural sciences (physical
geography).Human geography concerns the understanding of the dynamics of cultures, societies and
economies, and physical geography concerns the understanding of the dynamics of physical landscapes and
the environment
Geography overview of topic studied at KS3
Topic Order
Year 7
Year 8
Year 9
1
Geographical Skills
Settlement
National Parks
2
Rivers
Development
Population
3
Flooding
A country study
Coasts
4
Tourism
Globalisation
5
Mini projects/ re – cap of
geog skills – locational
work
Ecosystems
Natural
Disasters (a)
Tectonic
Weather & Climate
Mini projects/ recap of
geographical skills –
locational work
Mini projects/ recap of
geographical skills –
locational work
6
Geography overview of topics studied at KS4
Topic order
Year 10
Year 11
1
Changing urban environments
Weather &Climate
2
Population change.
Controlled Assessment
3
Tourism
Revision
4
The coastal zone.
Revision/ GCSE examination
5
The restless earth
Geography Homework
Geography homework is set on a two week cycle based upon a variety aspects based upon building upon and
extending the learning that has taken place in the classroom. Homework will be diverse in nature as reflect
the subject matter. At times, homework may be research, investigation into a particular aspect of study,
spellings of key words, answering extension questions, revision and reflection upon learning in class. In
years 7 & 8 students will have the opportunity to complete an extended project through a 5-6 week period.
This homework project will be checked at regular intervals for quality of understanding, and at the end of
the project it will be awarded a level.
Gifted & Talented, Special Educational Needs and Disabilities
All schemes of work for all years are designed to differentiate for students of all abilities and needs. Within
lesson plans are learning opportunities to extend and challenge the learning of all.
Resources. Key Words at KS3 & 4 Geography
Please see the breakdown below by topic and year group.
Web Links
There are numerous websites that offer support and guidance within the field of Geography. Some on line
encyclopaedias offer information which is complex, interesting and useful. Please note that this may be
beyond the demands of the course at KS3 and KS4.
Websites such as the BBC offer excellent research material within the main site. The BBC bitesize
programme at KS4 offers simply easy to follow guidance with end of topic tests.
The exam board that we follow at KS4 is AQA (specification A). On their website are both past exam papers
and mark schemes to guide students as to how to structure their examination answers.
‘National Geographic’ and ‘Geography at the Movies’ both offer a range of short ‘video’ clips on a range of
topics.