MEOPHAM SCHOOL
HUMANITIES DEPARTMENT
At Meopham School, the subjects taught within the Humanities Department are History,
Geography and Religious Studies. We have four full time members of staff, Mr Geoff
Matthews (Assistant Head Teacher and KS4 Geography), Mr Richard Hollingdale (KS3 to 5
History and KS3 Geography), Mr Toby Payne (KS3 and 4 History and KS3 Geography) and Mr
Glyn Williams (KS3 and KS4 Geography). The department is led by Mrs Pam Holmes who also
leads the MFL department. All teachers in the department teach Religious Studies.
The Humanities group of subjects provides students with a comprehensive grasp of the
society in which we live and the skills with which to analyse the issues of the day. Geography
encourages the study and understanding of our landscape while History teaches about the
events that have shaped our world. Religious Studies help to explain our cultural
differences.
The skills learnt in the three Humanities subjects are transferable to many other subject
areas. We spend time training students to act and think individually in pursuit of the
Humanities learning objectives. They learn to use resources effectively, to structure and give
reasons for their opinions and to analyse the evidence before them. Such skills are useful in
any field which requires considered judgements and this illustrates why success in the
Humanities subjects is so important.
In Key Stage 3, pupils study Geography and History as separate subjects, each one having
two 50 minute lessons a week. Religious Studies is taught by covering three week long
projects at three points in the year.
In Key Stage 4, Religious Studies is compulsory for all pupils and they study the OCR exam
board specification in Philosophy and Ethics as a full GCSE.
History is an optional subject. Pupils study Modern World History and follow the Edexcel
exam board specification. Pupils study four main sections: 1) The Cold War 2) Germany
1918 -1939 3) Britain 1951 to 1979 and 4) An Historical Enquiry – this part of the unit is a
controlled assessment.
Geography is also an optional subject. For GCSE, the course followed is the OCR exam board
Specification B Course. There are four key themes shared by the three units of the exam.
These are: Rivers and Coasts, Population and Settlement, Natural Hazards and Economic
Development.
In Key Stage 5 pupils can study the OCR exam board specifications for A Level History and/or
Geography. Currently only A Level History is being taken. The History course looks at
Elizabeth I and Germany in Year 12. In Year 13 pupils study Russia and its Rulers alongside
two pieces of controlled assessment. This course equips pupils well to go on to study History
and Politics at university.
Every teaching room in the department is equipped with an interactive whiteboard and
there is also access to the Humanities Learning Zone which is equipped with computers and
laptops where pupils can work more independently. The department is well equipped with a
variety of text books to cover all the elements of the schemes of work for all of the subjects
including exam specific textbooks for GCSE.
Mrs P Holmes
Head of Humanities and MFL