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Canons High School

Humanities Faculty

Head of Faculty: Christos Theodoulou 

The Humanities Department at Canons High School encompasses three subjects, geography, history and politics. As a department we strive to create a curriculum which supports the school’s vision of:

  • Standards for an inclusive community of excellence for hearts
  • Standards for an inclusive community of excellence for minds
  • Standards for an inclusive community of excellence for futures

Our curriculum offer is intended to be one of excellence where we promote the development of powerful knowledge for all our students while allowing all of our students to access that powerful knowledge irrespective of ability, in an inclusive fashion.

GEOGRAPHY

By the end of each Key Stage, we want students to:

  • Understand the breadth and relevance of geography in their present and future lives.
  • Understand the importance of a good balance between human and physical phenomena.
  • Look at the world through several lenses and critically evaluate their observations.
  • Comfortably use academic terminology when discussing and writing about geographical concepts and use all the knowledge they have gained to inform their future opinions.
  • Our curriculum deliberately includes a balance of units from human and physical geography, which often overlap and layer knowledge within topics.
  • Enhance students’ ability to thrive in their understanding of the key geographical concepts of place, space, scale, interdependence, physical processes, environmental interaction, sustainable development, cultural understanding and diversity.
  • Understanding the wider world around them, how it functions, and the implications human actions are having on the natural world.
  • Become a successful geographer and to make the most out of GCSE and A ‘level. The curriculum has been written with challenge in mind with the ambitions and expectations that students will take geography further.

 Why-Study-A-Level-Geography?

Geography Curriculum Maps

KS3 Geography Curriculum Map

KS4 Geography GCSE Curriculum Map

KS5 Geography A Level Curriculum Map


HISTORY

By the end of each Key Stage, we want students to

  • Be ambitious, enjoyable and knowledge rich; sparking students’ curiosity and passion for learning about the past.
  • Become articulate and deeply knowledgeable subject specialists.
  • Write, speak and adopt the habits of historians, for example making substantiated judgements, having a deep respect for evidence and using academic vocabulary confidently.
  • Ensure students develop the crucial subject-specific knowledge and disciplinary understanding needed to succeed at Key Stage 4, 5 and beyond by providing a solid foundation, embedding critical knowledge and skills and providing opportunities for students to problematise the discipline’s second-order concepts: change and continuity, causation, significance, interpretations, evidence and diversity.
  • Understand that each unit is framed by an overarching, challenging enquiry question and lessons are sequenced and designed to ensure pupils make progress by acquiring the knowledge needed to answer that question effectively as a means of assessment.
  • Understand the significance of studying history, its relevance for understanding the world today and its importance in key areas such as developing tolerance, respect and understanding towards others.

History Curriculum Maps

KS3 History Curriculum Map

KS4 History GCSE Curriculum Map

KS5 History A Level Curriculum Map

 POLITICS

  • Students will develop knowledge and understanding of the role politics plays in relation to current local, national, and global issues, as well as studying key thinkers and political ideas.
  • Although Politics stands alone as a subject, it builds upon knowledge and key concepts learnt at both KS3 and KS5 particularly in History for example key terms such as: socialism, political spectrum, hierarchy, tolerance, democracy, right-wing, left-wing and election.
  • Develop knowledge and an informed understanding of contemporary political structures and issues, in the United Kingdom (UK) and globally and a critical awareness of the changing nature of politics and the relationships between political ideas, institutions and processes
  • To have an informed understanding of the influences and interests which have an impact on decisions in government and politics
  • Develop knowledge and understanding of the rights and responsibilities of individuals and groups
  • Cultivate the ability to critically analyse, interpret and evaluate political information to form arguments and make judgements
  • Develop an interest in, and engagement with, contemporary politics.

To conclude, we feel that humanities subjects help us to build a strong and sustainable community both within the school and its wider community. We aim for excellence because we demand that all students progress to the best of their ability while recognizing that as teachers of enquiring minds that we hold ourselves to the same standards of excellence. We feel that our subjects are inclusive because of their breadth and diversity and because we want all students to feel that our topics can be accessed by all students. No more than three paragraphs, linked to the vision with big picture thinking, a handful of bullets to convey specifics, and then a positive ending that includes ‘community’, ‘inclusive/inclusivity’ and ‘exent/excellence’. 

Politics Curriculum Map

KS5 Politics A Level Curriculum Map