Humanities Department
General
The Department has made significant progress over the last 6 years and is building on this to further improve attainment both at Key Stages 3 and 4. In line with the schools’ results standards in
Geography, RE and History have improved. Schemes of work have been reviewed and written in line with the Key Stage 3 strategy and this remains an ongoing priority. The use of ICT has been extended to enhance learning in all three subject areas and particularly in History. Significant progress has been made in assessment and in the use of data to monitor progress and is a continuing area of priority. The highest standards of behaviour and work are expected. The
Department works together as a whole and there are no separate subject departments within it. All subjects are given equal worth in the curriculum and teachers in the Department are encouraged and do teach more than one subject. Everyone is expected to take an active part in the team sharing resources and ideas.
Curriculum
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The Humanities Department consists of RE, Geography, History and Humanities. All students study RE, History and Geography at Key Stage 3.
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At Key stage 4 students may opt to study Geography (AQA) and History (OCR).
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In year 10 and year 11 students currently study a Humanities GCSE (OCR). This fulfils the statutory requirements for both RE and Citizenship. Some students will also be given opportunity to sit the GCSE in RE.
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Students are taught the short course GCSE RE in year 9. A group of year 9 and year 10 students will sit the GCSE full course also this year.
Excursions
A growing number of trips have been organised to assist the learning of students at both Key
Stage 3 and Key Stage 4. These include year 11 visiting St Paul’s Cathedral and taking part in a discussion on the moral issues affecting the Church of England today, year 8 students visiting the museum of Docklands to re-e nact the Dockers’ strike of 1889 and year 10 visiting Canary Wharf to complete their Geography coursework. Excursions are valued as important learning experiences and are an area of continued development.
Staffing
The Department consists of:
Head of Humanities Juliet Horton
Second in Humanities John Oram
Teacher of Geography Robert Frederick
Humanities teachers Claire B inns, John O’ Shea, Jonathon Sobczyk
Resources
The Department is well resourced. There are 4 teaching rooms, all with interactive white boards. A range of textbooks is available for all subjects and there is a growing library of videos and DVDs.
The department shares the use of a class set of laptops and the use of a computer room.

Cross-curricular projects.
The department actively promotes cross curricular work and over the years have worked closely with the English Department. Also in the Department has worked with Music to produce a four screen video installation on the Reformation and worked with the Art department on a study on places of local worship. Promoting closer work and links with other departments continues to be a priority.
Juliet Horton, Head of Humanities