Willowfield School – A Humanities College
 
What are Humanities Colleges?
Humanities colleges such as Willowfield are developing centers of excellence in their lead subjects. At Willowfield our lead specialist subjects are English, History and Citizenship. These subjects work with other departments across the curriculum, developing innovative strategies, to lead the way in teaching and learning and raise achievement and participation for all our students.
 
The humanities ethos promotes students’ understanding of human values and attitudes, both past and present, and how society is organized and develops. Our students learn about social issues, the diverse cultures in Britain and the world today, respect for others, tolerance and an active participation in society is encouraged. We are an inclusive school and regularly celebrate the diversity of our community. 
 
Willowfield has a distinctive vision based on humanitarian values and strives to be an influence for the good in our community through a range of outreach linked to humanities subjects. This outreach work may be through our active citizenship programme, our partnership work with local schools or through the opportunities we offer as an extended school. All students at Willowfield take part in active citizenship. This helps develop an appreciation for our local and global communities and shared environment.
 
Humanities colleges promote environmental issues, fair trade and strong international links. We have an active Go Green group and are working towards Eco Schools accreditation. Our students work to promote the importance of fair trade through citizenship challenges, Fairtrade Fortnight activities and through the work of our Amnesty group. We already have two International Schools Awards in recognition of our global links and hope to achieve the full accreditation during 2010 to 2011. We work hard to help our students develop an understanding of global citizenship and development.
 
As a Humanities College we have forged partnerships with many voluntary organisations and charities, such as Warchild, Action Aid and Water Aid, as well as local charities and community groups. We also work with the BBC on our annual School Report, and publish our own magazine, Willowfied’s World, which is written and edited by our team of student journalists. We hope that working with voluntary organisations, charities and employers deepens our students’ understanding of their place in the world and the positive impact they can make.
 
Humanities colleges also:
  • promote humanities research and study skills across the curriculum, including enquiry methods, evaluating evidence and assessing points of view
  • promote the humanities ethos through an enriched school experience which may include theatre in education, writers in residence, working with visiting authors and poets, links to local museums and historians, as well as fieldwork and study visits linked to the humanities
  • promote international dimension to the humanities specialism. Develop innovative linking projects through the specialist subjects, developing an appreciation and understanding of global issues.
  • promote learning in the local community: through our Extended Schools status, or working with local museums to develop special exhibitions or projects.
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