The Humanities faculty covers a diverse range of subjects: History, Geography, Humanities, RE, and PSE. RE is the only subject that is a compulsory GCSE subject (in the form of a short course, although pupils may take a longer course in it if they wish), whilst PSE students do not do a GCSE course in years 10 and 11, but rather a course called Challenge 21.
Our excellent History staff are something of a source of pride to us here at CHSB. Not only are they all excellent teachers, inspiring confidence and a desire to learn in our pupils, they are also celebrities! Mr Pulley, the head of the department has written a history textbook which is used in school, whilst Mr Turner is an accomplished harmonica player, who runs the school's harmonica club and has been on tour with Bad Manners! GCSE marks for history are gained through a combination of coursework and exam results. Incidentally, when we recently did a survey of the boys who opted not to take GCSE history, asking them why they decided not to, only ten out of the 240 pupils in that year said that they found it boring.
Religious education is one of the most important subjects that a pupil can be taught in school; far more valuable than mathematical skills and an understanding of forces (although these are both extremely important) is an understanding and respect for the beliefs and customs of others. This is why an RE short course is compulsory at GCSE. We have an excellent RE staff here at CHSB. They are so dedicated that one teacher declared that if a boy were having trouble getting a place in the RE GCSE long course, he'd pay for it himself!
Humanities can only be taken as a GCSE subject, and is a combination of History, Geography and RE in one. This is a useful course for people who want to take all three but can't, because there are limitations on the number of GCSE courses that you can choose. We of course offer our Humanities students the same high standards of teaching that we offer to students taking any one of the other courses.
Personal and social education is also an extremely important subject,which concentrates on preparing pupils for and helping them cope with the real world. Topics covered in this important subject include: drugs, financial matters and the world of work (it is the PSE department that organizes the year 10 work-related activities week), and our excellent staff make sure that the boys approach the subject in a sensible and mature manner.
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