Humanities

At Maylands, our Humanities curriculum aims to inspire pupils to further explore the world around them in the past, present and future. Through our wide variety of topics the children are exposed to diverse places, people and environments which allows them to gain a rich understanding of the world.  Through combining the Early Years and National Curriculum with our core values, our ambitious curriculum equips all our children with the necessary skills in historical and geographical enquiry. 

Our curriculum follows the Geographical strands of: locational knowledge, place knowledge, human and physical geography and geographical skills and fieldwork. We begin our Geographical journey from the child and expand outwards as they move throughout the school. In EYFS and KS1 the children develop a knowledge about their immediate environment and their locality, building a secure foundation of human and physical features relevant to them including our school, Harold Hill, London and the United Kingdom. They also begin to compare their locality to that of one in a contrasting location to begin to make comparisons across the world. When the children move into KS2 they will begin to extend their knowledge and understanding beyond the local area to include Africa, Asia and North and South America. This will include the location and characteristics of a range of the world’s most significant human and physical features.  

The History curriculum at Maylands is based on a coherent understanding of the history of Britain and the wider world. Children will be encouraged to develop a chronological understanding of British history that will enable them to make sense of the new knowledge they acquire and the process of change helps them to see how we arrived ‘here’ and helps them to make sense of the present. Our history curriculum is sequenced so that our children’s historical knowledge, understanding and skills build over time. Our children will understand the concepts of continuity and change, cause and consequence, similarity, difference and significance to make connections. We place great importance on their understanding of historical vocabulary ensuring they can use it effectively and accurately. They will understand how and why contrasting arguments and interpretations of the past have been constructed. Our pupils have a secure understanding and respect for diversity, social responsibility and have a sense of how the past has shaped their future. They will leave with an understanding of how their locality has changed and how the past has very much shaped where they live today. 

We have selected and designed our units carefully so that our humanities curriculum includes diverse narratives and voices, ensuring that Geography and History are closely linked to give the children a broader and deeper understanding of our topics.