Our flexible lower secondary humanities curriculum helps learners develop a lifelong curiosity about our world and its people. Through their studies of people, the past and places, learners build knowledge and skills to engage empathetically and insightfully with history, their physical world and their communities.
What will students learn?
Learners will explore the world, its people and places, locally, nationally and globally, in the past, present and future. They will be introduced to humanities topics by building knowledge and developing discipline-specific skills, which will help them actively engage with the subject. This will help them understand the world better and improve their ability to think critically and work with others.
How is the programme taught?
Cambridge Lower Secondary Humanities is divided into three strands: People, Past and Places. The three strands are connected through common themes, but are distinct, as they each develop discipline-specific knowledge and skills.
People
Learners explore identities, communities, diverse worldviews, and concepts of power, rights and economics. The People strand relates to humanities and social science subjects such as psychology, sociology and economics.
Past
Learners explore how the world has changed over time, how we construct the past, why there are different interpretations of the past and how this can inform us when making decisions in the future. The Past strand relates to history.
Places
Learners explore places, spaces and environments, locally, nationally and globally. The Places strand relates to geography.
Learners actively engage with humanities topics in one or more strands of the humanities curriculum through enquiries to develop a deep understanding.
Support to help you deliver the course
Visit our Cambridge Lower Secondary support site to download a wide range of resources to help you plan and deliver the course including:
- Curriculum Framework
- Learning objective and exemplifications
- Enquiry Approach Guide
- Teacher guide
- Assessment guidance
- Example enquiries
- Videos for each skill
- Subject forum
- Training
We also work with a range of third party publishers to produce high-quality endorsed resources to support this framework.
How is Cambridge Lower Secondary Humanities assessed?
There are no Cambridge Lower Secondary Progression Tests or Cambridge Lower Secondary Checkpoint tests for this subject, but we do provide assessment guidance. In our example enquires we also signpost opportunities where you can monitor learners' progress and suggest success criteria to use with your learners.
You can find this on our Cambridge Lower Secondary support site.