Humanities
Geography
At SJSC, we aim for our children to develop a real appreciation of geography and love for their world.
Our intent is that all children are able to learn from where they live and make links between landscapes and places as well as the people or animals that inhabit them, developing a secure understanding of their place within the world.
They will have no limits to their ambitions and have opportunities to grow up to be cartographers, ecologists, town planners, conservationists, or weather forecasters.
Our geography units not only provide learning related to significant or representative local and international spaces and environments but also provide the skills needed to understand these places and eventually fulfil their ambitions.
Geography In Action
Children see themselves as geographers and it provides the opportunity fieldwork to be used to draw conclusions as well as put into practice skills linked to observation and spatial understanding.
The geography strands are:
• Identity. This supports understanding of the Big Idea ‘Identity and Diversity’. It ensures children know about their own local area and how it is set within a wider context but also teaches children to learn from their local area and become life-long learners.
• Diversity. This supports understanding of the Big Idea ‘Identity and Diversity’. It widens the children’s knowledge of the global community and how different places interact.
• Changing World. This supports the understanding of the Big Idea ‘Sustainability’ as well as ‘Innovation’ and ‘Social Justice’. Not only are children taught to understand changes across landscapes but also the impact of these changes on populations.
Throughout the geography curriculum, emphasis is placed on children being given the opportunity to lead their own learning and consider, then formulate and answer, enquiry questions.
History
At SJSC, we aim for children to have no limits on their aspirations for their futures, growing up wanting to be archaeologists, museum curators, archivists or research analysts.
The children develop a love of history, learn it and make links between the history of different peoples and places, developing a secure understanding of their place within the world.
History at SJSC provides learning related to inspirational people and significant events from the past and also the skills needed to fulfill their ambitions.
We stimulate all children’s interest and enable understanding of the past by making links with other areas of the curriculum, building on significant local people and events as well as ensuring that events and people from a wide range of cultural backgrounds are studied to build on and expand children’s prior knowledge.
History In Action
Children are encouraged to become historians themselves, using their skills of inquiry, investigation, analysis and evaluation whilst also being prepared to question the reliability of sources of information they analyse. These skills are developed through carefully planned units of work that highlight particular historical skills while at the same time developing the breadth of the children’s knowledge in the form of Weekly Celebration Scrolls.
The history strands are:
• Archaeology. This supports understanding of the Big Idea ‘Legacy’. It ensures children know how to use, interpret, analyse and challenge sources of evidence as well as their understanding how evidence may be collected.
• Migration. This supports understanding of the Big Idea ‘Identity and Diversity’. It widens the children’s knowledge of the global community and how different histories interact.
• Social Justice. This overlaps with the Big Idea of ‘Social Justice’ as well as supports understanding of ‘Democracy’. Children learn about how societies have historically been structured and how individuals have made a difference to changing unfair power balances.