Humanities

Staff

The Faculty

The Faculty comprises of the subjects: history, geography, politics, economics &,business studies. 

Geography

In First Year the students are given a baseline test at the start of the year to assess how much 

Geography they have studied in their primary schools. This is followed by a general introduction to Physical, Human and Environmental aspects of the subject. All of the topics in the first three years are interactive lessons using the minibooks linked to the school network. In First Year we look at the UK and Europe, map reading, weathering and erosion, settlement and coastal landforms. 

In Second Year we look at Africa, coastal landforms, weather and climate and tourism. In Third Year the students are preparing for their GCSE course and will look at Energy resources, Pollution, Shopping patterns in Hale Barns, Rivers, the Geography of sport and Earthquakes and Volcanoes. We follow the AQA Syllabus A at GCSE and this covers Earthquakes and Volcanoes, Ecosystems and coastal landforms. 

Fieldtrips 

In First Year all students go to Ingleton. In Second Year students opting to do Geography at GCSE go to Malham. 

The boys in Third Year go to see the limestone features at Malham in the Yorkshire Dales. The highlights of the trip are climbing up the dry waterfall at Gordale Scar and the fantastic views from the top of Malham Cove. In Fourth Year students visit the ‘Gem of the Peaks’, Castleton to collect data for the coursework component of the GCSE. 

In Fifth Year students visit Snowdonia to study global and fluvial processes and then study costal processes and sand dune ecosystem on Newborough Warren, Anglesey. In the summer term they visit the Eastlands Sportscity Stadium complex in the north of Manchester, studying urban regeneration and fieldwork techniques.

History

The History curriculum starts with a general introduction on how to be an historian. 

This involves developing detective skills based on a range of evidence. All students study the Romans, the Middle Ages, the Tudor period, Industrialisation and aspects of change in the twentieth century due to the impact of war. Students are encouraged to complete their own research on the Romans, on the developments of military technology during the First and Second World Wars and the importance of an individual from the North West, of their choice, and to present their conclusions in a project. 

At GCSE students study a wide range of topics from the twentieth century, including the war in Vietnam, Civil Rights in America, the Russian Revolution, the Irish Situation in the sixties and seventies, the causes of World War One and Two, America in the twenties and thirties, the Weimar Republic and Hitler’s Germany. 

Students from all age groups enjoy a weekly History Society, run by the Sixth Form. Recent topics covered have included the Korean War, the assassination of John F Kennedy and Manchester United in the thirties. The department also organises a range of visits to sights of historical interest and have recently visited New York and Washington.