The Humanities

Developing a deeper understanding of people and places and the need to live in balance, with an increasingly fragile environment, is more important than ever in today’s world. We support children in understanding their role within their locality, their country and their world.  Although we follow a thematic approach, teaching is very much cross curricular and we do not lose sight of the skills essential in developing young historians and geographers.

We aim to inspire pupils to develop a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. We study a range of diverse places and peoples, from the United Kingdom and Europe to the wider world. Within this, children investigate different environments and learn about the Earth’s key physical and human processes. We develop the children’s investigative and interpretative skills.  We teach concepts of time and chronology, how to learn from the past and the part history can play in helping young people to make sense of the present, preparing them for the future.  Developing an understanding of our diverse heritage, the children will move towards achieving mutual understanding in our increasingly diverse society.

Children have the opportunity to recognise their contribution to, and responsibilities for, their locality, their country and the global community.  To support this, children explore their world using innovative software such as Digimaps. They use technology to research factual information on world events and historical figures. Using primary and secondary sources, they are able to make inferences about the past.  They also experience a wealth of field trips with key humanities themes.  Off-site trips develop an understanding of skills in both geography and history.  These are extended in key stage two to studies into the local area; a comparison of the river in Richmond with the foreshore of the Thames in Greenwich and a local area study related to the Industrial Revolution. Residential field trips to Swanage, Year 4, enable children to study the physical features of different localities. In year 6 a trip to Hooke Court enables them to use their historical skills to investigate the experience of life in the trenches  

In both geography and history the children are taught to respect their environment and those who live in it, values that we as school follow.

We learn from the past to secure our future.