Humanities

Head of Faculty: Mr D. Payne

Contact Email: drp@penglais.org.uk

Overview

Humanities will provide opportunities for all students to learn about their heritage and promote an understanding of how the people of Wales, its communities, culture, landscape, environment, resources and industries interrelate with the rest of the world. The Faculty aims to develop students as ambitious, enterprising, capable learners, ready to learn throughout their lives and to contribute to their communities as ethically informed citizens. Humanities encompasses Geography, History, Religious Education and the Social Sciences. The learning experience aims to engage, motivate and help to develop learners’ resilience, build independence, and raise levels of self-confidence and self-esteem. Learning will foster ambition with clear links to further and higher education, together with the world of work.

History

Subject Leader: Miss T. Leighton

Contact Email: tal@penglais.org.uk

We aim to make the study of History an interesting and inspiring experience for all. History will engage learners’ thinking and communication skills through a wide range of exciting topics and period. These include the Middle Ages in Year 7, with a focus on topics like the battle of Hastings and the Black Death. In Year 8 we study the Tudor and Stuart periods, with special units of work on Henry VIII and the Civil War. The main focus in Year 9 includes the major conflicts and developments of the Twentieth Century. The Department runs a popular and successful annual trip to the Battlefields of the First World War to support our GCSE students in their learning.

Geography

Subject Leader: Mr D. Johnson

Contact Email: dxj@penglais.org.uk

We are passionate about the importance of Geography in the 21st Century. It is a subject that develops an understanding of the complex and inter-related issues that we face in our lives such as climate change, poverty and deprivation, global shifts in economic power and the challenge of sustainable resource use. It is a subject that delivers a diversity of transferable skills and breadth of knowledge that equips students so well for life during and after school. The Geography Department aims to develop in all students a fascination and interest in the world around them and an appetite for investigating geographical issues, through a wide variety of learning experiences. The Department has run a range of very successful trips for students that help the Geography to ‘come alive’, including a trip to Iceland.

Religious Education

Subject Leader: Mrs J. Jacques-Butterworth

Contact Email: j.jbutterworth@penglais.org.uk

Religious Education promotes the spiritual, moral, social, cultural and mental development of students. It helps prepare them for the opportunities, responsibilities and experiences of later life. Religious Education provokes challenging questions about the ultimate meaning and purpose of life, beliefs about God, the self and the nature of reality, issues of right and wrong and what it means to be human. It offers opportunities for personal reflection and spiritual development. It enhances awareness and understanding of religions and beliefs, teachings, practices and forms of expression, and of the influence of religion on individuals, families, communities and cultures. It also promotes discernment and enables students to combat prejudice.

Social Sciences

Subject Leader: Mrs Rachael Allen

Contact Email: raa@penglais.org.uk

Psychology, Sociology and Health and Social Care are all offered as GCE courses in the sixth form. Health and Social Care is also offered as a GCSE option in years 10 and 11. All of these courses are extremely popular and lead to many exciting and fascinating career opportunities. The courses are conceptually interlinked; some students choose to take all three Social Science options, others one or two. The choice is entirely up to you. One common feature of all Social Science courses is that you will be expected to work hard, do lots of reading and meet course work requirements by writing essays.

Click here for our Curriculum Booklets.

Staff List

Faculty Leader- Mrs R Allen

History

Tasmin Leighton (leader of History)

Darren Payne

Andrew Fisher

Hayley Griffiths

 

RE

Jasmine Jacques Butterworth

 

Geography 

Dan Johnson (leader of Geography)

Rachael Allen

Janet Elgood

Phil Jones

Sue Evans

Sarah Johnson

 

Social Sciences

Darren Payne

Sophie Griffiths

Hayley Leighton