Humanities

Introduction

The curriculum and teaching of Humanities consists of History and Geography but we also incorporate Business Studies. Throughout the school the content of the curriculum and the style of its delivery is driven by the interests and needs of the individual pupils, whilst also enabling them to complete examination courses.

Aims

Humanities at Breckenbrough aims to:

• develop skills to acquire information at first hand from the environment
• encourage pupils to take a genuine interest in the causes and effects of events of the past
• help pupils understand how development varies across the world
• generate an understanding of the role of humans in shaping the environment
• increase the ability to discuss information and learn from each other in lessons
• enthuse pupils to research widely from both primary and secondary sources
• help pupils develop learning materials for each other

Programmes of study

In Year 10 pupils usually take the GCSE short course in Geography. They produce a course work project on traffic problems locally which involves collecting data including conducting a questionnaire with the general public. Those pupils who do not want to take Geography are given the opportunity to take GCSE Business Studies. Here the course work is based on producing a feasibility study on running a tuck shop.

Taking an Exam in Year 10 is beneficial to pupils as they learn about the nature of GCSEs. They have to develop the self discipline to produce a lengthy piece of course work and find out how much work including effective revision is required to succeed. The results from the Year 10 pupils are used to assist in developing strategies to be applied in Year 11.

In Year 11 the majority of pupils study GCSE History. This is a popular option even though many pupils find the open nature of the GCSE exam difficult and in some cases threatening. Some boys who feel they will have great difficulty with the exam take the course but do not enter the examination in the summer. The majority of pupils take an additional exam instead of doing course work. This reduces the amount of the pressure on the pupils with the large demands for course work from other subject.

Successes

Many boys obtain good exam results. They also gain a sense of achievement from the course work which leads to increased self confidence.