Humanities is the study of History, Geography and Religious Education. At Cloughwood Academy students are taught a blend of these subjects through the academic year. Over the last year the Humanities department has worked tirelessly to increase the profile and value of the area to the whole school. One major factor in this being successful has been the engagement of our pupils in the subject areas.
Cloughwood Academy delivers a high-quality history education which helps pupils to gain a coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain’s past and that of the wider world. It inspires pupils’ curiosity to learn more about the past. We endeavour to equip our pupils with the tools to ask perceptive questions, think critically, weigh evidence, examine arguments, and develop perspective and judgement. The subject of History helps pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between different groups, as well as their own identity and the challenges of their time.
At Cloughwood Academy we provide our pupils with opportunities to study History in a variety of ways – in depth, through time, in a local context and from different cultural perspectives. This will help candidates appreciate the diversity of the societies studied, and the experiences of the people in those societies.
The department also promotes speaking and listening skills through activities contained within each topic area and level of study. This will ensure our students can ask different sorts of questions to extend thinking and refine ideas. As literacy is at the heart of our subject areas we also support the development of our pupils reading abilities; allowing them to appraise texts and sources quickly and effectively and identify what information is valuable. Additionally, we help to develop students writing capabilities by supporting them in structuring sentences and paragraphs to develop ideas and arguments, as well as ensuring correct spelling, punctuation and grammar. This will enable our pupils to progress both in Humanities and be successful in their other GCSE subjects.
It was a pleasure to plan and lead the Academy’s very successful first foreign excursion to Belgium in September 2014 in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the First World War. This was undertaken by the involvement of the whole school from the Board of Directors, Principal and Senior Management, along with the fantastic support of all teaching and support staff.
This year we have also introduced the Primary department to the subject of Humanities, through structured lessons in the secondary school. This has already proved to be a successful collaboration, which has developed the younger students understanding of the Humanities subjects. This will not only help students in understanding the subject, but also assist their transition from the Primary area into Secondary School.
The topic areas we study are chosen according to the students’ interests. This we believe allows our students to have an increased ownership of their learning, enabling them to become motivated learners and helping to develop a deeper understanding of the topics being studied. During each topic students complete a written assessment and a formative comment, national curriculum level and self-assessment sheet provides feedback to students after each piece of work is assessed.
History Trip
Some of our pupils recently enjoyed an immersive learning history trip to Weaver Hall Museum and Workhouse. This visit was very interactive and the boys learnt more about The Great Fire of London.
