Junior School Humanities

Humanities is the study of human culture, such as literature, philosophy, and history.

At St Mary's Junior School, Cambridge we embrace this cross-disciplinary definition in our approach to Humanities. This year we introduced new topics, including the Atlantic slave trade and trade and economics - to name but a few.   

Tackling Climate Change

The highlight of this year was our first Climate Change Conference Week in February. 

In recognition of the most pressing threat to our planet it was the girls themselves who called for this conference.  

We were delighted to be able to have in school speakers from Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Cambridge Econometrics and the Student President from SOAS, the University of London. Each speaker focused not on the problem, about which the girls are very knowledgeable, but the solutions, including what they can do as individuals to help combat climate change. 

To end the conference week, we invited Year 5 children from St Albans RC Primary School to work with our Year 5 girls to debate the issues. The debate was led and introduced by Cambridge Friends of the Earth volunteers. 

It was wonderful to see effective collaboration between the children from both schools on this important topic and the real and mature way that the girls engaged with each other to find sensible solutions. This should give us all hope about the future of our precious planet!   

As we develop our Humanities curriculum we will continue to foster a cross-curricular approach and also hope to further embed the idea that topics are not learnt in isolation, nor historical obscurity. We must always ask ourselves what we can learn from the past and what action we can take now.  

We hope to engender a spirit of active citizenship in the girls, being true to the legacy of Mary Ward, a women who fought injustice throughout her life.

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