The Humanities Faculty comprises three core subjects, History, Geography and Religious Studies. Vocational Travel and Tourism is also offered at KS4. Collectively these subjects aim to create global citizens who have a secure understanding of the world around them and the relationship between our past, present and future.
Across all Humanities subjects, the curriculum aims to inspire pupil’s curiosity and fascination about the world, its people and its past. Pupils are encouraged to study the complexity of the Earth through the study of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and places, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time. As pupils progress, they should develop a sophisticated understanding of the relationship between the Earth’s key physical and human processes and explain how this has been shaped and changed over time. The curriculum is rich with SMSC opportunities which allows students to develop a greater level of tolerance, alongside understanding and empathy towards people, cultures and the environment.
The aims of the curriculum are to allow students to:
Think, write, communicate and read as well as experts in their field.
Study a range of geographical topics which broaden and deepen their understanding of the world around them and the influences on human’s behaviours.
Collect, analyse and communicate with a range of Geographical data, including the ability to conduct fieldwork that deepens understanding of key geographical processes.
Develop a sophisticated understanding of the physical and human characteristics of some if the earths most globally significant places and how these are how these are interdependent.
To reflect on their position as Citizens of the UK and the wider world in order to develop a sense of identity and belonging which underpins the core British values.
Understand the key concepts of Geography and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends and frame valid questions
Grow cultural capital through a range of opportunities and experiences both within and outside of the classroom.
Be prepared for adult life, employment and lifelong learning through the development of transferable skills, self-regulation and independent study.
KS3 Curriculum Overview
Key Stage 3 Curriculum Overview:
HT1
HT2
HT3
HT4
HT5
HT6
Y7
How have towns and cities changed over time? Students will study Oldham and how the human and physical features led to changes with Oldham’s population. We will then look at Mumbai and the process of rural-urban migration. Key skills in map reading and grid references.
How has the UK climate been changing? Students will learn about the UKs weather and conduct an enquiry into the reasons the changing climate and the human and physical impact of this. Students will develop their decision-making skills.
How have our working industries changed in the UK? Students will focus on the way in which the UK economy has changed overtime. Students will be encouraged to interpret key geographical data by creating bar charts based on their own data collection
How do processes change our landscapes? Students will investigate how natural processes change our landscape. Including plate tectonics and the impact of the ice age, coastal and river processes. Fieldwork opportunities will include investigating how stages of the river are different.
Y8
Why do inequalities exist around the world? Students will investigate how we can measure how developed countries are. Students will then consider how and why countries around the world are at different stages of development including countries in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Russia
How can we survive contrasting environments? Students will contrast the characteristics of hot and cold deserts followed by temperate and tropical forest areas. This will include the opportunities and challenges of both environments. Students will also have the opportunity to develop their GIS skills.
How does our population contrast? Students will begin with investigating how the population is different and changing around the world. Students will then study a range of populations and their impacts around the world including overpopulation, shrinking population, migration and urbanisation.
What are the effects of contrasting hazards? Students will spend this unit as a fact-finding unit creating hazard profiles. Hazards will include climate change and their effect on ice caps, coasts and drought. Students will then study how tropical storms form and how monsoons and plate tectonics impact Asia.
Y9
How can we live more sustainably? Students will investigate the concept of sustainability and the personal to global scale of this. The quaternary sector and investigate sustainable jobs. Students will finish by looking at how human activity can be more sustainable including an enquiry into deforestation and mining.
How can we manage inequalities around the world? Students will recap on how we can measure how developed a country is. Students will then look at how we can manage the inequalities within HIC countries, England and also areas within the Middle East. Students will consider how resources can increase a countries development. Skills include reading flow maps
How can we live with the challenge of natural hazards? Students will investigate how humans are living with the effects of natural hazards that we studied in year 8. Hazards will include floods, extreme weather, tropical storms, earthquakes and volcanoes. Students will perform a geographical investigation on drought.
How do we manage the challenges of changing population? Students will study how we are solving issues related to population. This will include challenging the migration crisis, water crisis, hunger crisis, energy crisis, over and shrinking population, urbanisation and diseases.
Climate Change and weather hazards Students will investigate the natural and human causes of climate change. Students will also study the social and environmental effects of climate change and how these can be managed. Skills include measuring scale. Students will learn about the formation, impacts and management of tropical storms. Key case studies will include Typhoon Haiyan and extreme weather in the UK
The Changing Economic World (Theory) Students will learn about how measure economic development. Students will study the causes and consequences of uneven development before moving on to the way in which countries can close the development gap. Students will study Kenya as an example of a country that uses tourism to close the development gap.
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Living World Students will gain an understanding the interrelationships in ecosystems. Students will study in-depth the characteristics of tropical rainforests in the Amazon, deforestation and how we can manage them sustainably. Students will then study the characteristics of hot deserts including the opportunities and challenges for development
Resource Management Students will investigate why food, energy and water are vital for survival before going more in-depth into food including strategies to increase energy supply, sustainable energy supply and case studies. Skills include describing the distribution
Fieldwork (trip) Students will attend a fieldtrip to Ainsdale Beach and Liverpool where they will collect data relating to a hypothesis. Once back in class students will analyse the data, make conclusions and evaluations. This knowledge will be assessed on Paper 3
Y11
Fieldwork and coasts (trip) Students will attend a fieldtrip to Ainsdale Beach and Liverpool where they will collect data relating to a hypothesis. Once back in class students will analyse the data, make conclusions and evaluations. This knowledge will be assessed on Paper 3 Students will learn how coastal processes shape the UK. Students will study the formation of landforms through the process of erosion and deposition. Students will then evaluate how coastal flooding can be managed though a management scheme.
River landscapes in the UK Students will learn how coastal processes shape the UK. Students will study the formation of landforms through the process of erosion and deposition. Students will then evaluate how coastal flooding can be managed though a management scheme. Fieldwork includes investigating how effective coastline management is.
Tectonic hazards Students will learn about the causes, impacts and management of natural hazards in contrasting areas of wealth.
Changing Economic World (Case studies NEE case study/ India and UK) Students will consider the impact of economic change in a NEE (Nigeria) and a HIC (UK). A variety of reasons will be considered for example the impacts of changing economies and how trading relationships are changing.
Urban Issues Manchester and Mumbai case studies Students will study the global pattern of urban change before investigating Mumbai; its important and how urban growth has created opportunities and challenges. Students will then study Manchester and how urban change has created opportunities and challenges within this city.
Revision Students will consolidate learning on Paper 1, 2 and 3 in preparation for the GCSE’s.
SMSC and British Values play an integral part of the Geography Curriculum at Hathershaw College. From the moment students begin their study in Year 7, their lessons are filled with the lives of people, cultures and traditions from real places around the world. Within the Geography classroom all students sit alongside their peers from different religious, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. Students are regularly encouraged to work collaboratively with their classroom partners through activities such as Think-pair-share. All students know that a mutual respect and tolerance for those around them is essential to the classroom environment.
The curriculum is planned to maximise student interest with subject specialists collaboratively creating medium term plans in order to utilise areas of expertise. This enables students to develop a love and fascination of Geography. For example, in Year 7 students are able to learn about how cities are changing, why our climate is changing climate and how our landscape has been constantly changing due to Ice Ages, plate tectonics and human interference. As students’ progress through their 5 year journey they are faced with further challenging issues such as the human trafficking and the spread of diseases such as Ebola, each of which increases student interest and value of Geography.
Students are able to develop their understanding of other cultures, religions and values throughout their day to day study of Geography. For example the concept of ‘contrast’ runs through the Year 8 curriculum. This allows students to develop an appreciation of the similarities and differences between the UK and contrasting localities such as Africa and Asia. Through the theme of ‘challenging world’ in Year 9 students are asked to critically examine the world around them with a focus on topics such as population and sustainability in order to recognise the interdependencies of populations around the world, as well as recognising and accepting cultural differences. Throughout Geography, topics like this enable students to reflect and share their own experiences and make comparisons between other populations around the world. By studying real people, and real places students are constantly making links and able to develop spiritually.
Alongside this, the study of Geography intends to develop students moral understanding. Much of the Geography curriculum focuses on investigative issues, with students being encouraged to create evidence backed solutions to key geographical issues around the world. Examples of this include the impact of Human settlement on hazards and the ongoing affects of drought in areas of Africa. Furthermore this encourages students to investigate, debate and a take into consideration different viewpoints. For example when considering physical topics such as rivers, flooding and coasts consideration is given to how much these issues that arise are man-made and is because of exploitation. Similarly when studying issues such as the development gap, students are encouraged to consider why there is a huge gap in development of different countries around the world.
Throughout the curriculum there is a strong appreciation of the influences that have shaped the students’ own cultural heritage ranging from links to the development and emergence of settlement in UK and Oldham. Students are also encouraged to make comparisons to British democratic values and rule of law. For example, students make parallels to the UK rule of law when looking at the distribution of government support on issues such as the Syrian migration crisis and the demographic crisis in Russia.
SMSC and British Values play an integral part of the Geography Curriculum at Hathershaw College. From the moment students begin their study in Year 7, their lessons are filled with the lives of people, cultures and traditions from real places around the world. Within the Geography classroom all students sit alongside their peers from different religious, ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds. Students are regularly encouraged to work collaboratively with their classroom partners through activities such as Think-pair-share. All students know that a mutual respect and tolerance for those around them is essential to the classroom environment.
The curriculum is planned to maximise student interest with subject specialists collaboratively creating medium term plans in order to utilise areas of expertise. This enables students to develop a love and fascination of Geography. For example, in Year 7 students are able to learn about how cities are changing, why our climate is changing climate and how our landscape has been constantly changing due to Ice Ages, plate tectonics and human interference. As students’ progress through their 5 year journey they are faced with further challenging issues such as the human trafficking and the spread of diseases such as Ebola, each of which increases student interest and value of Geography.
Students are able to develop their understanding of other cultures, religions and values throughout their day to day study of Geography. For example the concept of ‘contrast’ runs through the Year 8 curriculum. This allows students to develop an appreciation of the similarities and differences between the UK and contrasting localities such as Africa and Asia. Through the theme of ‘challenging world’ in Year 9 students are asked to critically examine the world around them with a focus on topics such as population and sustainability in order to recognise the interdependencies of populations around the world, as well as recognising and accepting cultural differences. Throughout Geography, topics like this enable students to reflect and share their own experiences and make comparisons between other populations around the world. By studying real people, and real places students are constantly making links and able to develop spiritually.
Alongside this, the study of Geography intends to develop students moral understanding. Much of the Geography curriculum focuses on investigative issues, with students being encouraged to create evidence backed solutions to key geographical issues around the world. Examples of this include the impact of Human settlement on hazards and the ongoing affects of drought in areas of Africa. Furthermore this encourages students to investigate, debate and a take into consideration different viewpoints. For example when considering physical topics such as rivers, flooding and coasts consideration is given to how much these issues that arise are man-made and is because of exploitation. Similarly when studying issues such as the development gap, students are encouraged to consider why there is a huge gap in development of different countries around the world.
Throughout the curriculum there is a strong appreciation of the influences that have shaped the students’ own cultural heritage ranging from links to the development and emergence of settlement in UK and Oldham. Students are also encouraged to make comparisons to British democratic values and rule of law. For example, students make parallels to the UK rule of law when looking at the distribution of government support on issues such as the Syrian migration crisis and the demographic crisis in Russia.
