Humanities

At Morningside, we aim to give our children a humanities curriculum which enables them to become confident, creative and independent learners who can explore the use of different knowledge and skills throughout their learning. We seek to broaden children’s real-life experiences both inside and outside of school through educational visits, visitors, experimentation, exploration and discovery. We have worked very hard to design a curriculum which reflects our children’s heritages, expands their horizons and makes them carefully consider key themes and debates. Within lessons, our children acquire a range of knowledge and skills in both history and geography which they can then apply to other subjects and in a variety of situations. Furthermore, it is our aim that through historical and geographical learning, children will become accountable citizens, understanding their role in protecting our world and environment and knowing how they can cause positive change and development as they grow.

Curriculum

Across the course of a year, each year group studies a variety of humanities topics. These are either history or geography focused to allow our learning to focus on core subject specific knowledge and skills. Links across and between subjects give children a broad base of knowledge, facts, vocabulary, real-life experience and contexts to use for learning. Both history and geography have identified key themes which support children to make connections and links across the topics covered. Some key topics are re-visited throughout children’s school-life in varying forms in order that they may deepen their skills, knowledge and understanding. A precise tiered approach to vocabulary enables children to build a shared working vocabulary. Each topic is linked to a famous person; each topic, and the people chosen, carefully reflects our school community and helps to raise children’s aspirations.

In Geography, children focus on 5 key areas of geography: location, place, human geography, physical geography, and map skills and fieldwork. When children leave Morningside, we expect them to have a sound knowledge of a range of different countries, to have considered key concepts such as immigration and trade, and well-developed geographical mapping skills. They should be able to locate key world countries and features and use a map efficiently including using 6-figure grid references.

In History, in Key Stage 1, children focus on the core skills of chronology and sequencing. They also look at a range of different evidence in order to find out about the past. In Key Stage 2, the units selected enable children to build on previous knowledge and make links across the periods and events they have studied. Children learn about the four key themes of: belief, government, empire/economy and culture which enables them to build a firm knowledge base in order to make links and comparisons across the periods studied. They learn the main historiology skills of chronology and examining evidence and these build in complexity from Year 1 to Year 6. When children leave Morningside, we expect them to have a sound understanding of the chronology of major periods in world history, a knowledge of key people, events and our four themes, and well developed historiology skills.

Within each topic, lessons follow carefully planned sequences which support children to build on their previous knowledge and skills whilst learning new content. Both history and geography lessons take various forms. Throughout each topic there is a balance of practical, hands-on learning, research reading and written recording of knowledge.

Please click on the link below to see an overview of our humanities curriculum:

Curriculum Overview History and Geography 2021-22