Welcome to Humanities
History and Geography are taught separately in all years by subject specialists. This is because we believe our students benefit by being taught by professionals who have their qualifications, expertise and passion in their specialist subject. We have planned the curriculum for both subjects together so that they support and complement each other.
Education is about the lighting of a fire.
We have to demonstrate, explain and emphasise through the teaching and learning of History and Geography how important the skills we teach and students learn about are to the quality of an effective education and for future career opportunities.
We are determined to make every student who walks into our classrooms love History. We aim to show every student the value, importance and relevance of past events and why a knowledge of the past is important to our future.
Our teachers are all passionate and skilled Historians with our own areas of expertise. We became teachers because we wanted to talk about History all day and that is exactly what we do.
Our philosophy is:
- History should be exciting and interesting. We will not teach anything that cannot be made exciting or interesting (thankfully, almost all of history can be).
- History should be relevant. It should teach students something about the world they live in and help them make sense of modern life as well as teaching them about past lives.
- History should teach skills. Students should leave us with not only a knowledge of the past but critical thinking skills, debating skills, the ability to weigh up arguments and the ability to spot bias and propaganda.
Students at NUSA enjoy History and the department has a large number of students opting to take it at GCSE.
Scheme of work
We follow the OCR GCSE History A Specification (A951/ A952) and our exam topics are Medicine Through Time and Nazi Germany 1918-45.
For detailed information about assessment objectives, the scheme of assessment, examination structure, coursework requirements and study specification, view/download extracts from the specification. The full specification can be found on the OCR website.
Course assessment components:
- Paper 1: 45%- 2 hours- Medicine and Nazi Germany source and essay questions
- Paper 2: 30%- 90 mins- Source analysis questions on Medicine (Public Health 1800-1918)
- Controlled Assessment: 25%- Written piece on Terrorism (done in September of Year 11)
This popular course offers:
- engaging and relevant content
- a broad, comparable and coherent student experience.
- inspiring interest in History
- An overview of a wide diversity of human experience.
Study of this course will give students of all backgrounds the opportunity to develop:
- communication skills
- Written communication
- technological skills including ICT
- interpersonal skills through debate and discussion
- literacy and numeracy skills
- problem-solving skills
- awareness of career possibilities
- Change and continuity
- Cause and Consequence
- Source evaluation and analysis
- Interpretations of the past
Welcome to Geography at NUSA. It is an exciting time for Geography at the school.
Geography is changing with fresh ideas and new courses to engage and inspire the next generation of Geographers.
Scheme of work
In the Geography department we aim to teach geographies that:
- Illuminate the geographies of pupils' everyday lives
- Are current and modern
- Reflect the real life situations of everyday people
- Develop a sense of place by recognising their uniqueness
- Discover the hidden geographies of the world
- Seek to give pupils/students a framework to help them make sense of the world around them
In the Geography department we aim to inspire geographers that:
- Question the information given to them and the world around them
- Want to investigate the issues that influence their everyday lives
- Develop a curiosity for all features of the world around them
- Have a desire to discover the hidden, real and everyday geographies they experience in their everyday lives