Scarisbrick Hall School Winter Newsletter 2014 | Page 26

Humanities & Language
Faculty
Head of Faculty: Mr Lee
As ever, there has been no settling in period this year and as I sit
down to write this in November, I can barely believe Christmas is upon us.
The year so far has been very much focussed on introducing
the new College and Middle assessment criteria to our
students and trying to simplify assessment for pupils, parents
and teachers! It is vital that our students know where they are
at in terms of their progress and hopefully the new criteria are
helping them to push on and progress into the independent
learners that the world is demanding more and more.
It has been a very busy and fast paced autumn half term in
History, with all students getting to grips with the skills and
new topics that have been introduced. College students have
been continuing their work on the 20th Century World, with
Year 11 focusing on their first controlled assessment which
allowed them to delve into local history and research
recruitment in the two World Wars. Year 10 have been
examining the ‘Roaring Twenties’ in America and have been able to develop their opinions when
discussing the issues surrounding organised crime and the changing status of women. The discussions
that they have had have been very thought provoking and will aid in their written exam in year 11.
Middle School have been covering a wide range of topics this term, ranging from the Battle of Hastings
up to the present day with Year 5 solving a murder mystery. As well as learning about important
historical events and figures, students have also been practicing their historiography and developing
their historical skills. For example, Year 8 have learnt about the First World War, only from a variety of
primary and secondary sources and have been learning how to test a source and decide if it is accurate
and reliable.
Remembrance Day was a particular feature this year as it was the centenary of the outbreak of WW1.
Pupils had the opportunity to learn about the Great War all through middle school, making poppies and
culminating in a moving assembly led by Miss Rawstron.
In Spanish, Middle School have been looking at school life and describing our
school here. I would imagine that there are few schools where the students
need to look up the words for tower and lake! In the College, the Year 9s have
been getting to grips with GCSE study whilst the Year 10s have had an
admirable first attempt at a spoken controlled assessment. The whole class
deserve credit for their diligent preparation and will be able to use this
experience to do even better in the future. The year 11s have almost finished
their controlled assessments and once we are back in January, they will
certainly be in the home strait and making sure that every second counts. The
pupils had the opportunity to learn about the Mexican festival ‘El día de los
muertos’ or ‘The Day of the Dead and they produced some amazing artwork in
decorating skulls which is an important part of this festival.
In Geography the Year 11 pupils have been working on their controlled assessment based on fieldwork
on the Sefton coast between Seaforth and Southport which was carried out at the end of the Summer
Term. They have been assessing the different types of coastal management techniques used along this
stretch of coast and how successful these are.
Year 9 are coping well with the demands of the GCSE course having recently completed a unit on the
Coastal Zone whilst Year 10 have been amazed to find themselves tackling mathematical formulae and
wondering how on earth statistics can be part of the geography curriculum!! (They actually quite
enjoyed it).