Our Curriculum

The delivery of the World Studies curriculum consists of a mixture of RE, History and Geography. We want to enable our young people to go out into the world with an understanding of their own beliefs and values and a tolerance and acceptance of the beliefs and values of others both in the immediate, wider and global community.

World Studies helps to inspire pupils to have a wider look at their world. They will have a greater understanding of other cultures and how we can learn from them as well as they from us. Pupils will become better humans for our planet by learning about sustainability, understanding how their individual actions can have an impact on our planet and how this will ultimately help them make informed lifestyle choices as they enter adulthood.

The RE learning coincides with the wider school curriculum to elicit a sense of awe and wonder in the pupils for the world around them; it aims to give pupils a deeper understanding of local faith communities and the role they have in the wider community through visits to local places of worship and welcoming members of local faith communities into the school for assemblies and community activities.

In History pupils cover the key concepts of “historical thinking”.  These are the big ideas and understandings that we want to remain with our pupils long after they have left school. Pupils look at “significance” where historians weigh the importance, durability, and relevance of events, themes, and issues in the past. Pupils also study “continuity” and change. Pupils’ debate what has changed, what has remained the same, and the impact of these changes

Through Geography we help pupils make sense of the human, physical world. We want pupils to develop contextual knowledge of their locality and of globally significant places as well as develop an understanding of the processes that give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world.

At Key Stage 4 a curriculum has been chosen that builds upon the knowledge and understanding gained throughout Key Stage 3 and enables pupils to start talking about some of the ‘Big Questions’ in life and encouraging the pupils to recognise that some questions do not have answers and that people will have different answers to these questions.

Through studying topics such as Capital Punishment and Prejudice and Discrimination pupils will be encouraged to identify when it is necessary to respectfully challenge the beliefs and actions of others and be given examples of how damaging beliefs have been challenged in society through the study of individuals such as Nelson Mandela and Malala Yousafzai.

World Studies Department Subject Rationale

World Studies Department Learning Journey