Humanities

The Aims of History:

At Arco Academy, our intent is to deepen the students’ contextual knowledge of significant historical evolution and their understanding of the narrative that has constructed the development of the world today.

• Know and understand the history of these islands as a coherent, chronological narrative, from the earliest times to the present day: how people’s lives have shaped this nation and how Britain has influenced and been influenced by the wider world.
• Know and understand significant aspects of the history of the wider world: the nature of ancient civilisations; the expansion and dissolution of empires; characteristic features of past non-European societies; achievements and follies of mankind.
• Gain and deploy a historically grounded understanding of abstract terms such as ‘empire’, ‘civilisation’, ‘parliament’ and ‘peasantry’.
• Understand historical concepts such as continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance, and use them to make connections, draw contrasts, analyse trends, frame historically valid questions and create their own structured accounts, including written narratives and analyses.
• Understand the methods of historical inquiry – including how evidence is used rigorously to make historical claims and discern how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed.
• Gain historical perspective by placing their growing knowledge into different contexts: understanding the connections between local, regional, national and international history; between cultural, economic, military, political, religious and social history; and between short- and long-term time scales.

The Aims of Geography:

At Arco Academy, the importance of educating our students about the world around them is paramount. Geography enables the students to not only define the geology of our planet, but to understand the impacts of human activity. This includes our interdependence on the share of resources amongst populations and how political and economic factors influence our survival.

• Develop contextual knowledge of the location of globally significant places – both terrestrial and marine – including their defining physical and human characteristics and how these provide a geographical context for understanding the actions of processes.

• Understand the processes which give rise to key physical and human geographical features of the world, how these are interdependent and how they bring about spatial variation and change over time.

• Are competent in the geographical skills needed to:
  –Collect, analyse and communicate with a range of data gathered through experiences of fieldwork that deepen their understanding of geographical processes.
  – Interpret a range of sources of geographical information, including maps, diagrams, globes, aerial photographs and Geographical Information Systems (GIS)
  – Communicate geographical information in a variety of ways, including through maps, numerical and quantitative skills and writing at length

Please see our Humanities Curriculum Map for more information.