Humanities

The Faculty of Humanities comprises three subject areas, Geography, History and Religion, Philosophy and Ethics (RPL). It is housed in its own teaching block with considerable audio-visual/ICT resources. All rooms are equipped with interactive white boards, visualisers and there is one computer suite.

The Faculty has an excellent record of success in examination performance at GCSE and A Levels and plays a significant part in whole school extra-curricular activities, e.g. Holocaust Memorial Day, talk from a Holocaust survivor, Ypres and the Isle of Wight and The Imperial War Museum: Duxford.

All students take Geography, History and Religion, Philosophy and Ethics (RPL) at Key Stage 3 and are taught in mixed ability groups. Our teaching aims to be engaging and enquiry led. History in Key Stage 3 follows a thematic approach covering topics both in depth and in breadth for example ‘How has warfare changed over time?’ and ‘Why was Slavery abolished?’ Geography has a varied Key Stage 3 curriculum that includes map skills, physical geography units such as: rivers, weather, coasts, plate tectonics and rainforests, the countries of Kenya and Italy, and human geography: the local area, tourism, settlement, developmental and environmental issues. Religion, Philosophy and Ethics (RPL) in Key Stage 3 covers ethical systems including the six world religions and a study of Humanism.  All beliefs and approaches to life are examined critically and open-mindedly.

The Religion, Philosophy and Ethics (RPL) full course in Key Stage 4 is taught in three periods a fortnight.  This course begins in Year 9 and ends in Year 10.  The two exams, therefore, are taken at the end of Year 10.  One concerns Religion, Peace and Conflict through Christianity and the second deals with Religion and Ethics through Buddhism. The student’s own opinion is equally as important for the examination.

In Key Stages 4 and 5 both Geography and History are popular choices and are now parts of the English Baccalaureate curriculum within HRS.