Humanities Specialist Status

Geography | History | Religious Education

Geography

2009 looks to be as busy as ever for the geography department with new projects as part of the school’s Humanities Specialist Status. Many of last year’s projects will continue to run alongside a series of new and exciting activities that will give pupils, parents and other members of the community the opportunity to develop their interests in geography.

Some of our ongoing community projects include:

Further support in helping St Paul's C of E Primary School in Bury achieve the "Primary Geography Quality Mark".
The development of a fieldwork "kit" that can be used by both primary and secondary schools in the borough. The fieldwork "kit" will allow local schools to make the most of the fantastic local facilities at Burrs Country Park without having to undertake the planning from scratch. We hope it will help to raise the profile of local geography fieldwork across the borough. The "kit" will be launched to all Bury Schools in 2010.
Working with various primary schools helping them to develop, plan and deliver an exciting geography curriculum.
The hosting and running of the Bury Geography Teachers Network - keeping subject specialists from high schools across the Borough up to date with the latest subject trends and developments.

New developments to look out for in 2009

The successful launch of the new GCSE Humanities option in conjunction with the History and RE departments.
Come and join the department for an evening of Google Earth training. Learn how to design your very own Google Earth tour and dazzle your family and friends with a flying tour of your holiday adventures.
Look out for our ‘Family Fieldwork’ visit to the village of Malham in the Yorkshire Dales and enjoy the day exploring the wonderful limestone landscape as a family or with friends.

Recent Projects

In December 2008 we were delighted to welcome a number of residents from Epworth Grange Methodist home for the elderly. The residents, along with some of our Year 10 pupils, took part in a hotly contested Christmas quiz (partly Geography of course!). After some very competitive rounds the "Brain Boxes" triumphed! Refreshments were followed with a sing-a-long with the school choir/band - many thanks to Mr Battye for organising this.
Intervention work with a number of secondary schools in Bury, Bolton and Rochdale has seen Miss Sumner make visits to geography departments to assist in the development of new units of work and specialist revision sessions for Year 11’s.
China week at St Paul's C of E was a great success in summer 2008. The whole school from reception to Year 6 was involved. The week was organised by Miss Pickup (Geography Co-ordinator/Year 1 teacher at St Paul’s) and Miss Sumner. The pupils joined in with an amazing array of activities ranging from kite making, work on pandas, looking at "Slave labour", tangrams, music and language lessons with Mr Ng. We are looking forward to working with the dedicated team at St Paul's again in the near future.
Rainforest work with St Stephen's, Bury involved a visit from Miss Sumner to work on "Plant adaptations in the forest". The school was also presented with a mini weather station which we hope will help to improve their geography further.
Borough wide Primary Geography Competitions - Over 300 children from Bury entered our Geography competition. Winning children came from St Stephen's, Bury, St Paul's, Bury, Christ Church, Walshaw and St Lukes. Well done to all involved.

India Week at St Thomas Primary School

Geography quiz and music for residents of Epworth Grange

History

The History Department has contributed much to the work of the school's specialist status work.

Current On-going projects include:

- Promoting the lesson resource packs that have been produced by the Department in conjunction with Bury Museum and GMRO archives. ‘Cotton Threads ’ is a series of lessons based on the Hutchinson collection (held at Bury Museum) and the Safety in Numbers project is about Prestwich Asylum in the 1900s and Victorian attitudes. Chris Chambers, course leader of MMU’s History PGCE has commented that the lessons produced by Bury Church’s History Department are the best resource currently in existence using an archive collection. The educational resource pack for Cotton Threads can be seen by clicking the link below.

http://www.cotton-threads.org.uk/

- Maria Brothers, Head of History is leading a session in collaboration with Katharine Carter (GMCRO archivist) & Joanne Fitton (Bury Museum Archivist) on the MMU PGCE subject conference (31st March) for all History trainee teachers about the Safety in Numbers Project. The purpose of which is to not only promote these lessons but to actively engage trainees in the requirement of the new national curriculum at KS3 for providing opportunities to use archives and museums.

- The History Dept will be leading a session on July 10th at the North West History Teachers conference the focus of which is using archives to enhance the learning of all students in the History curriculum.

- Funding is currently being secured to produce further educational resource packs in conjunction with our partners the focus of which will be the ‘Jericho workhouse’.

- Offering a new GCSE Humanities course from September 2009 in conjunction with Geography and RE departments.

The Department is currently in the process of producing innovative resources for the new Key Stage 3 curriculum with the intention of self-publication. These resources are of a thematic nature.

Safety in Numbers Launch Event 2008