Humanities
At Cambois Primary School we follow a two-year cycle for our mixed aged classes underpinned by our two key drivers; possibilities and initiative. We raise aspirations, develop positive learning attitudes and provide a purpose and relevance for learning through our curriculum. Children deserve a balanced curriculum that enables them to develop a deep understanding of all subjects and the interconnections between them. This will ultimately help every pupil at Cambois to find and develop their own personal strengths and interests. Humanities is delivered using our key drivers, the National Curriculum and the Cornerstones curriculum to ensure learning is progressive, systematic and sequential. Within the Early Years Foundation Stage, humanities is taught as part of Knowledge and Understanding of the world.
We want to deliver a curriculum that is creative, enriches vocabulary and improves knowledge and skills. We have built our curriculum on the research from cognitive Science and how a mastery curriculum can be achieved by thinking about how children remember and learn. As a result, our Humanities curriculum is taught through Knowledge Rich Projects (KRPs), ensuring a subject-driven and knowledge rich approach to Geography and History. Each term is driven by a new KRP, underpinned by one of the humanities subjects (Geography or History) and taught alongside ‘companion projects’ linking directly to other subjects, skills and knowledge of the National Curriculum.
Lessons are sequential, ensuring a progression of skills and knowledge from EYFS to Year 6. Each KRP follows a familiar four stage learning pedagogy; Engage, Develop, Innovate and Express, as well as including a memorable experience and an introductory knowledge lesson to equip children with the information they need before studying a new topic in depth.
At Cambois Primary School, we believe a high-quality geography education should engage and challenge children. Geography in primary school should ignite a spark that inspires a lifelong curiosity and fascination about the world around them. Our intention is to teach our children about the physical and human features of the Earth, encourage our children to appreciate the wonders of the world and how to protect our environment and its living things. Geography provides a focus within the curriculum for understanding and resolving the issues concerning the environment and sustainable development. It allows pupils to encounter different societies and cultures leading them to realise how nations rely on one another, as well as encouraging pupils to think about their own place in the world, their values and their rights and responsibilities to other people and the environment. Pupils will experience a variety of teaching techniques to help them to develop their knowledge and geographical skills, including at least one memorable experience per project to allow children to make the connection between their knowledge and real-life experiences.
At Cambois Primary School, we believe a high-quality history education should engage and challenge children. History in primary school should inspire pupil’s curiosity about the past and equip pupils to ask questions, think critically and develop perspective and judgement. Children at Cambois Primary School will gain coherent knowledge and understanding of Britain and the wider world. Teaching History will also help our pupils to understand the complexity of people’s lives, the process of change, the diversity of societies and relationships between groups, as well as their own identities and challenges over time. History raises and answers questions about the past and the study of the past. It shapes the customs and beliefs of the communities to which we belong. Learning about the past and the methods used to study it allows pupils to make sense of the world in which we live. History focuses on real people and real events and it is important that we can find out what has happened through the use of actual evidence. Historical evidence comes from many sources and presented in many ways, which pupils will become familiar with. Through the teaching of history, pupils will develop the concepts of continuity and change which are frequently part of everyday life. Pupils will furthermore gain knowledge and understanding about some of today’s situations when looking at them within a Historical context and have access to at least one memorable experience per project to allow children to make the connection between their knowledge and real-life experiences.