Humanities at Russell House School combines History, Geography and Religious Education. It is taught as a termly, theme-based programme. The cross-curricular approach promotes continuity between subject areas, enables pupils to make effective links in their learning and lends itself well to embedded, project-based ICT.

Geographic knowledge develops from an understanding of the children's environment - where they live and their community through to more tricky map reading skills. Our pupils make comparisons of the geography, people and cultures of different countries around the world. They study what makes the weather, the impact of extreme weather and climate change. As part of their study of rivers, they visit the River Darent at Horton Kirby to experience river features first-hand.

From simple and famous stories in history, such as the Greek myths, our children learn about influential people who have helped shape history over the centuries. We consider early cultures such as the Aztecs, the Ancient Greeks and the Romans. In Form 7, the pupils learn about major 20th century events, including the Great Depression and the World Wars. As part of the study of the Victorian era, we spend a day experiencing what life was like as a Victorian child. We spend time considering what it means to be British and our place in the modern world.

We believe it is important for the children to understand the major religions (Christianity, Islam, Sikhism, Judaism and Buddhism) and their impact on the way in which the world is shaped. Children are introduced to stories from different religious texts and they learn about many of the main religious festivals. More widely, our Religious Studies lessons aim to provoke challenging questions about the meaning and purpose of life, issues of right and wrong, to understand that having no particular faith is perfectly acceptable and so what it means to be human. We encourage children to explore their own beliefs, whether they are religious or non-religious, and teach pupils to develop respect for others, encouraging empathy, generosity and compassion.