Humanities

This term, our Humanities classes are ensconced in history, and learning the requisite skills that accompany the discipline. The Year 7 classes have looked at the original development of democracy in ancient Athens. They are now discovering the Greco-Persian Wars of the 400s BCE, including the origin of the modern Marathon, the last stand of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae and the clever tactics the Athenians used to defeat the massive Persian navy at Salamis, near Athens. For our Key Figure investigation, we will be looking at Themistocles, the skilful Athenian admiral in the Persian Wars. As they study the course of the wars, the students are learning how the battles encouraged stronger democracy, and how the Greek victory over the Persian kings ensured the survival of democracy into the modern age. The students will be using their knowledge of the Greco-Persian Wars for paragraph writing, as they learn how to effectively create claims, support them with evidence, and craft them into written paragraphs.

Concurrently, the Year 8's are deep in medieval Europe, learning about the structure of villages in the Middle Ages, the various religions worshipped across the region at the time, contemporary crime and punishment and the responsibilities and code of chivalry of the medieval knights. The students have learned OPVL source analysis, and have been doing very well with their OPVL chart work, mastering how to question the origins and reliability of different sources of information. They are moving on to learning how to read and articulately respond to source analysis short answer questions, including how to write opening statements, contextualise sources, embed quotes in their writing and complement information in the sources with their own knowledge. They are learning how to respond to different command terms in questions.

We are looking forward to our Medieval Day in Week 8! Students will spend the day rotating between six different activities from the Middle Ages and use a variety of different equipment. Please do not forget to complete payment on Compass as soon as possible for this exciting incursion. The Year 7's will not be missing out! They will be able to participate in a Term 4 incursion from Melbourne’s Hellenic Museum, during which they will practice hoplite formation with Greek shields, learn about ancient battle tactics and play board games which were popular in different ancient civilisations, including Greece, China and Mesopotamia. Look out for the event on Compass!