Social Studies Department

Social Studies at PHS is focused on developing the students knowledge, skills and understanding. In M1, M2 and M3 the focus is regional, encouraging the students to learn more about the world. Social Studies isn’t only about knowledge though, at PHS we work hard on developing skills, map reading, graphing, the students are asked to be involved in decision making presenting solutions to social issues and problems at national, or international level.  As social media has become more important in our society, the ability to use critical thinking has become more important and in M1 and M2 they are introduced to more critical thinking methods to make better judgements of the information available to them.

In high school, Social Studies is more specialist and collaborates with other subjects in cross-curricular projects, including fieldwork and project reports. M4 students develop skills in data presentation alongside their geographical understanding. Through M5 students build their economic and business skills, and apply this in their fundraising for disadvantaged students. Collaboration with Work-Education  help the students to develop products, while linking with Health education classes enabled the students to develop empathy for blind students and create activities that can be used for teaching the blind. The final M6 project test the students creativity and critical thinking, encouraging them apply their skills and understanding to a project which can be from any or many of the Social Studies subjects.