Humanities

Head of Faculty: Mrs C Maloret

In Key stage 3  students are taught the three Humanities subjects (Geography, History and Religious Studies) Student study each subject for 1 hour a week and home learning tasks are usually set half termly.

The vast majority of students pick at least one humanities subject at GCSE, with a large number choosing more than one.

Subject: Geography

Head of Subject: Mrs C Haggan

In Key stage 3 assessments are completed every half term to track and monitor the progress of students. Feedback is provided to students in terms of the skills they are working towards or have mastered. Targets for further improvement are then shared with students.

At Key Stage 4 Geography is a subject that is taught as a GCSE option and is a subject that is counted towards the English Baccalaureate. Students that opt to take Geography in Key Stage 4 have 3 hours a week and are working towards one GCSE qualification. They follow the WJEC EDUQAS GCSE Geography B. They will be awarded a grade 1-9 following their GCSE examinations in the summer of Year 11. Assessments to track progress are set regularly throughout each half term. Feedback is related to GCSE criteria to highlight areas of strength and development throughout the course.

Throughout their time at Kirkby, students are taught the following key skills:

• Demonstrate knowledge of locations, places, processes, environments and different scales. Demonstrate geographical understanding of concepts and how they are used in relation to places, environments and processes, and the inter-relationships between places, environments and processes.
• Apply knowledge and understanding to interpret, analyse and evaluate geographical information and issues and to make judgements.
• Select, adapt and use a variety of skills and techniques to investigate questions and issues and communicate findings.

Overview of the Geography Curriculum

The topics students cover throughout Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 are outlined in the table below:

Year	Autumn 1	Autumn 2	Spring 1	Spring 2	Summer 1	Summer 2
7	Theme:  Settlement and local area Introduction to geographyBaseline What is a settlement? Settlement needs and wants. Growth of Liverpool New towns Local Area	Theme:  Ecosystems Introduction to ecosystems World ecosystems Case study UK Ecosystems Case study Rainforest Case study Hot desert Assessment: Hot desert	Theme:  Places at risk Climate Change Svalbard Coral reef Las Vegas Thailand	Theme:  Places at risk (continued) Assessment: Antarctica	Theme:  Tourism What is tourism? Reasons for growth Newquay case study Advantages and disadvantages of tourism National Parks Tourism in Europe Assessment:  Tourism in Spain	Theme:  Rivers The water cycle The drainage basin Erosion, deposition and transportation Upper, middle and lower course Assessment: Rivers test
8	Theme : Tectonics What happens at plate boundaries? Earthquakes– How? What ? Why,? Where? Nepal/Iceland Tsunamis– 2004 Boxing Day or Japan tsunami Volcanoes– How? What? Why? Where? DME—Hazard management	Theme:  Tectonics continued	Theme: Population What is population? Population density Population structure—Pyramids Overpopulation Ageing population Population policy Assessment  – Exam question	Theme:  Migration Origins of the UK population Changing UK population European Migration Immigration and the influence of the media British citizens Assessment—Lampedusa	Theme: Globalisation What is globalisation? TNC’s Trade Game Fair trade Primark Pro’s & Con’s Assessment—Milk prices	Theme: Coasts Importance of the coast Coastal processes Landforms of erosion and deposition Coastal management Human uses Assessment: Coasts Test
9	Theme: Development What is development? Measure of development Development Gap India slums—Dharavi Aid Assessment—Future development	Theme: Africa Development Indicators/ Millennium Development Goals Africa—Where? Africa misconceptions Diversity of Africa ‘Blood Diamonds’-Sierra Leone South Africa Assessment—Impacts Blood Diamonds	Theme: Extreme Weather UK weather—Flooding Hurricane Tornadoes Drought Assessment—Katrina Vs Haiyan	Theme: Extreme Weather (continued)	Theme: Resources/ ‘What’s the Use’? What is a resource? Renewable Non– Renewable Assessment—DME Sustainable energy	Theme: Mapping Festivals Map skills: OS/Satellite images Flooding Sustainability Assessment—Design a festival in local area.
10	River processes and river management	How ecosystems function	Ecosystems under threat	Global cities Fieldwork 1	Coastal processes and landscapes and coastal management	Water supply and demand Issue of desertification Fieldwork 2
11	Extreme weather patterns and climate change	Changing patterns of retailing and leisure	Distinctive features of UK cities and rural and urban change	Development issues	Revision and exam practise	Revision and exam practise

Links to GCSE Exam Board Specifications

Link to Spec

Additional Information

KS3 students have the opportunity to take part in Geography trips and fieldwork.

Homework support is available for all Geography students.

At KS4, students will take part in two local fieldwork activity days, to prepare them for Component 3 of the GCSE course (Applied Fieldwork Enquiry).

In Y11, students have the opportunity to attend regular revision classes and they receive intervention before their examinations.

 

 Teaching Staff

Mrs C Haggan	Head of Geography
Mr J Woods	Head of Humanities

Subject: History

Head of Subject: Mr J Woods

 

At Key Stage 4 History is a subject that is taught as a GCSE option. Students that opt to take History in Key Stage 4 have 3 hours a week and are working towards one GCSE qualification. They follow the Edexcel GCSE history

They will be awarded a grade 1-9 following their GCSE examinations in the summer of Year 11. Assessments to track progress are set regularly throughout each half term. Feedback is related to GCSE criteria to highlight areas of strength and development throughout the course.

Throughout their time at Kirkby, students are taught the following key skills:

• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the key features and characteristics of the periods studied.
• Explain and analyse historical events and periods studied using second-order historical concepts.
• Analyse, evaluate and use sources (contemporary to the period) to make substantiated judgements, in the context of historical events studied.
• Analyse, evaluate and make substantiated judgements about interpretations (including how and why interpretations may differ) in the context of historical events studied.

 

Overview of the History Curriculum

The topics students cover throughout Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 are outlined in the table below:

Year	Autumn 1	Autumn 2	Spring 1	Spring 2	Summer 1	Summer 2
7	Theme: What is History? Baseline Assessment of basic history skills. Evidence skills Chronology Anachronisms Historical terminology	Theme: Conquest Foundation of Rome Romulus and Remus Roman army and conquest Verus the life of a gladiator	Theme: Conquest Claimants to the throne in 1066 Battle of Stamford Bridge Battle of Hastings Why did William win?	Theme: Conquest William’s problems and solutions after 1066 The Feudal System The Domesday Book Castles	Theme: Everyday life in the past Medieval Villages Medieval Towns Religion Entertainment Murder of Thomas Beckett	Theme: Everyday life in the past Black Death Medieval Medicine Peasants Revolt
8	Theme: The Tudors & Stuarts Religious differences Henry V111 & the Reformation Did Mary deserve her nick-name (assess) Elizabeth 1	Theme: The Tudors & Stuarts Stuarts; Gunpowder plot Causes of the English Civil War The trial and execution of Charles 1  (assess) Restoration Witchcraft ; crime and punishment	Theme: Industrial revolution How did Britain change between 1750-1900 Why was British industry so successful? Who was Josiah Wedgewood ? (assess)	Theme: Industrial revolution What were working conditions like? Conditions in towns (assess) Voting reform	Theme: Victorian England Jack the Ripper (assess) London in late nineteenth century Victims Suspects	Theme:  The Americas Slavery The Triangular Trade The Middle Passage Life on the Plantations Abolition (assess)
9	Theme :International Conflict THE FIRST WORLD WAR The British Empire Causes of World War One Assassination at Sarajevo (assess) The Schlieffen Plan	Theme: International Conflict Battle of the Somme  (assess) Trench Life Conscientious Objectors Home Front The Treaty of Versailles	Theme: Democracy & Dictatorship What made Hitler evil?(assess) Rise of Hitler Why did so few Germans  stand up to the Nazi’s?	Theme: Democracy & Dictatorship Life in Nazi Germany What happened to Jewish people in Nazi Germany? The Holocaust	Theme: GCSE (USA Civil rights) America in the 50s and 60s (assess) Civil rights in education Key personalities—Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, JFK, etc. Assassination of JFK.	Theme:  GCSE (Vietnam) Why did the USA involved in Vietnam? Guerilla tactics? USA tactics Peace protests  (assess)
10
11

Links to GCSE Exam Board Specifications

Link to Spec

Additional Information

Include details of any extra-curricular activities including:

• Interventions
• Revision sessions
• Homework support
• Trips
• Teams

 

Teaching Staff

Mrs J Woods	Head of Faculty and Subject
Mr I Campbell	Teacher of History

Subject: Religious Studies

Head of Subject: Mrs C Maloret

Assessments are completed every half term to track and monitor the progress of students in each subject. Feedback is provided to students in terms of the skills they are working towards or have mastered. Targets for further improvement are then shared with students.

At Key Stage 4 students opt to study Religious Studies.  Religious studies students follow Eduqas  exam specification component A.  They will be awarded a grade 1-9 following their GCSE examinations in the summer of Year 11. Assessments to track progress are set regularly throughout each half term. With feedback being related to GCSE criteria to highlight areas of strength and development throughout the course.

Throughout their time at Kirkby, students are taught the following key skills:

• Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of religion and belief, including:
  beliefs, practices and sources of authority
  • influence on individuals, communities and societies
  • similarities and differences within and/or between religions and beliefs
• Analyse and evaluate aspects of religion and belief, including their significance and influence

Overview of the Religious Studies Curriculum

The topics students cover throughout Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 are outlined in the table below:

Key stage 3

Topics studied	Year 7	Year 8	Year 9
Half term 1	Community and founders	Relationships	Rules and laws
Half term 2	Responsibility and commitment	Worship	Human rights
Half term 3	Crime and punishment	Creation	extremism
Half term 4	forgiveness	Life after death	Good and evil
Half term 5	Nature of God	abortion	Prophethood
Half term 6	Festivals and celebrations	Science versus religion	Islam and Christianity beliefs in action

Key stage 4

Components	Topic	% of exam	Topics
Component 1	Religious, philosophical and Ethical studies in the modern world	50%	Issues of Relationships Issues of Life and Death Issues of Good and Evil Issues of Human Rights
Component 2	Study of Christianity	25%	Candidates will study the beliefs, teachings and practices of Christianity
Component 3	Study of a World Faith	25%	Candidates will study the beliefs, teaching and practices of Islam.

Links to GCSE Exam Board Specifications

The specification code for GCSE Religious Studies is Route A3 – including Component 3 Option 3: Islam C120P3

http://www.eduqas.co.uk/qualifications/religious-studies/gcse/

Include details of any extra-curricular activities including:

• Debate club (Thursday lunch time)
• ‘drop in’ revision sessions
• Revision packs

 

Teaching Staff

Mrs C Maloret	Head of Subject
Miss J Smith	Teacher of Religious Studies