Humanities

KS3 Humanities Curriculum at a Glance:

At Maplewell Hall School we believe that Humanities is for everyone. We want to give our students the right knowledge and skills to enable them to reach their future destination – whatever or wherever that may be.

The intent of the Humanities curriculum is:

  • For pupils to experience a climate of high subject expectations where a love of history, Geography and C&D can flourish.
  • For pupils to have the opportunity to learn about a wide range of topics to enable them to develop a wider schemata of these subjects through a broad and balanced curriculum.
  • For students to have an understanding about the world around them.
  • To promote career opportunities for each unit of study.
  • To promote students' cultural capital and help prepare students for life.

This is achieved through:

  • Implementing a rigorous and sequential approach to curriculum planning allows the teaching to be adapted to the context of the school and student’s needs. A stage not age approach combines the acquisition of knowledge and development of skills to create a purposeful and exciting learning journey for every student.
  • Providing all students with the opportunity to excel; teaching the same topics and adapting teaching methods and materials to suit the needs of the students.
  • Students will be assessed at the end of each unit of study on content taught, as well as knowledge checks completed mid unit. Assessments are used to gauge the level of understanding and to inform planning of the curriculum, as well as to ensure any necessary interventions are put in place to keep students on track within their pathway.
  • Teachers use retrieval practice to gain a clear understanding of the needs of all pupils and lessons are carefully planned to engage and support them. The teacher’s role is to monitor each child’s learning and to adjust instruction as necessary. Retrieval practice is embedded within the curriculum whereby lessons are structured to allow students time to practice retrieval and embed knowledge. Topics are also sequenced to allow for rehearsal of learnt knowledge and skills and to support students learning.
  • Teaching and support staff are deployed effectively to maximise each pupil’s potential and to allow them to achieve ‘success’. These staff members are part of the pupil’s tutor team and have in-depth knowledge of the pupils physical, social and intellectual development; making them an integral part of supporting adaptive teaching.
  • In the Humanities department, we take the National Curriculum and adapt it to the needs of our students. We recognise that each pupil in a class may be at a very different learning stage to their peers. Therefore, we have designed our curriculum with flexibility at the forefront; ensuring there is time for reviewing and adapting content that our pupils have found challenging.
  • Lessons are designed to allow the pupils to build schemata over time; students are taught in topics whereby they are provided enough knowledge to allow them to make judgements (for example, see Norman Invasion) and in Geography they learn about their local area before moving onto Britain, Europe and the wider world.
  • For pupils to progress, they must have knowledge of the complex features of past events and societies. In history, content selection includes following a chronological order, topics being taught in an order to maximise opportunities for content to be revisited and built upon and ensuring adequate scope across the curriculum, while in Geography the curriculum has been adapted to give more attention to human geography creating an even balance of physical and human geography; a solid base on which to go on to study GCSE.
  • Planning considers component content and sequencing to build knowledge over time and creates ‘readiness for future learning’.
  • Key vocabulary and concepts are introduced and built upon throughout the curriculums.
  • Extended texts are used to support vocabulary development as well as providing more complex and nuanced accounts of the past which allow pupils to develop more sophisticated historical arguments.
  • To emphasise career opportunities for each unit of study conducted within an end of unit lesson; to explore career opportunities within this topic. This is considerably easier for geography, however, history tends to be mostly lesser known jobs such as archivist, curator and of course, educator.
  • Enrichment activities and extracurricular trips and visits take place for all year groups. The Culture and Diversity curriculum meets the aims of Leicestershire’s agreed Syllabus and the National Curriculum for Religious Education in that it achieves the principal aim of religious education to explore what people believe and what difference this makes to how they live, so that students can gain the knowledge, understanding and skills needed to handle questions raised by religion and belief, reflecting on their own ideas and ways of living. While the agreed syllabus allows for a much greater degree of flexibility for special needs schools, the core tenets remain to meet Maplewell’s expectation of high aspirations and ‘can do’ approach; students learning that their special educational needs and disabilities are challenges to overcome and not barriers that stand in their way and a ‘stage not age’ approach combines the acquisition and development of skills to create a purposeful and exciting curriculum for each student.
  • Furthermore, the curriculum aims to achieve the school’s ethos that all students have the right to see themselves represented in our curriculum. For that reason, a range of texts and examples are included in our curriculum which reflect the diversity of our students' backgrounds and values, including representations of different cultures, different relationships, gender, LGBT+, disabilities and additional needs.

The Impact of the humanities curriculum can be seen by:

  • The uptake of students wanting to study GCSES in these topics
  • Students enjoying their lessons and looking forward to them
  • Students progressing on their pathway
KS3 History
  • History at Maplewell Hall School allows our students to develop a love of learning and allow curiosity to grow through the various challenging historical enquiries that are taught in year 7, 8 and 9. The curriculum allows students to explore interesting, relevant, sensitive and thought-provoking topics. This enables students to study the past from a variety of standpoints and to make connections and comparisons over time. We teach our curriculum in a chronological time frame to allow our students to make connections between events and further develop their knowledge and understanding of History. We have selected a curriculum that covers various periods of History to ensure that it provides relevance to our students as they learn about British history and that of other cultures.
  • Throughout the History curriculum students develop their understanding and application of key concepts using evidence, interpretations, significance, change and continuity and cause and consequence. These concepts are used as tools for students to make sense of, and understand the content that is delivered, thus preparing them for further study.
  • Our curriculum at KS3 embraces and celebrates the diverse History of our students at Maplewell. We want our students to embrace and develop a love of learning about History. This is at the core of our KS3 as we have selected topics that aim to develop curiosity and inquisition. Teaching through historical enquiries is at the heart of our curriculum as it builds knowledge and skills simultaneously, along with building in challenge and intrigue. Much of our curriculum follows an adapted National Curriculum as we want our students to have a broad understanding and awareness of where they live and what has helped to shape Britain, but we have also built-in enquiries that teach the History of different cultures. Students are taught skills that help them challenge their views and misconceptions on Historical events, for example through analysing Historical sources and interpretations. Written and oral literacy is developed throughout the curriculum which provides them the stepping stones needed for GCSE.
  • Topic knowledge, Chronological knowledge and knowledge of substantive concepts are all taught with knowledge and skills held with equal importance. For pupils to progress, they must have knowledge of the complex features of past events and societies. Content selection to support this includes the majority of topics following a chronological order, topics being taught in an order to maximise opportunities for content to be revisited and built upon and ensuring adequate scope across the curriculum. Wide ranging and substantive knowledge of past events, people and societies in Britain and wider world history are taught to ensure depth of knowledge.
KS3 Geography


“Geography explains the past, illuminates the present and prepares us for the future. What could be more important than that?" Michael Palin, Ex-president of the Royal Geographical Society

  • At Maplewell Hall School, Geography inspires in pupils a curiosity and fascination about the world and its people that will remain with them for the rest of their lives. The Curriculum equips pupils with knowledge about diverse places, people, resources and natural and human environments, together with a deep understanding of the Earth’s key physical and human processes. As pupils progress, their growing knowledge should help them to deepen their understanding of the world and their place in it.
  • Pupils are exposed to issues and environments outside of their everyday experience through providing opportunities for fieldwork and investigations, which allows them to consider our changing world, and their role within it.
  • The KS3 curriculum at Maplewell Hall School is designed to ensure that pupils are engaged and inspired, while gaining a wealth of knowledge and understanding of key concepts and processes in geography.
  • In addition to knowledge, pupils will gain and practise challenging skills through fieldwork, GIS, graphicacy and data investigations, which enable them to analyse and consider our changing world, and their role within it. Through their study of Geography, pupils will develop and practise essential critical thinking skills including relational thinking, classification and decision making, as well as quantitative and graphical skills such as statistical tests, map reading, interpreting graphs and diagrams.

Culture and Diversity

  • By the end of KS3 students will have gained an understanding of several of the world’s main religions by assessing their similarities and differences. This is achieved by studying the six main religions and their contribution to the UK as well as investigating religious festivals and Students will also explore Christianity in detail, learning how the religion shapes the politics, arts, culture and law in the UK.
  • Ideas going forward:

To make C&D more thematic - for example, winter festivals (to start from next week). The importance of food in religion (Halal, fasting, kosher, ramadan), holy places (temples, mosques, cathedrals), inspirational people etc.

KS4 - to implement the thematic studies for the GCSE qualification - religious attitudes to war and peace, to crime and punishment and ethical questions (abortion, euthanisia, animal testing, genetics etc).

 Oracy tasks:

    • Small-group “think-tank”: each group takes one issue (e.g., euthanasia), lists religious views, secular views, and then presents their “policy recommendation” to the class.
    • Socratic Seminar: Teacher asks open question: “Does belief in the sanctity of life mean that euthanasia can never be acceptable?” Students lead discussion, teacher as facilitator.
    • Mini-presentation & peer feedback: “Explain one religious teaching about stewardship of the Earth and evaluate its relevance today.”
    • Use “talk-moves” posters/prompts: e.g., “Can you re-state what your partner said?”, “What would you say if you disagreed?”, “Why do you believe that?”

    • Regular peer-assessment of speaking: use simple rubrics (clear voice, logical explanation, use of religious language, response to questions).
    • Record short video/audio of students’ speeches so they self-reflect on speaking clarity, pace, audience engagement.
      Encourage listening logs: after a peer talk, each student writes one strong point they heard, one question they have, and one thing they’d like clarified.
KS3 History MTP
KS3 Geography MTP