The skills covered in Humanities encourage students to constantly question and evaluate the world around them and promote stewardship of the environment as global citizens.

The four topics that will be studied are:

Civics and Citizenship – Democracy and law in action.  

Students will learn about the freedoms that enable active participation in Australia’s democracy within the bounds of law, including freedom of speech, association, assembly, religion and movement.

Key areas of study include:

• How citizens can participate in Australia’s democracy, including use of the electoral system, contact with their elected representatives, use of lobby groups and direct action.
• How laws are made in Australia through parliaments (statutory law).
• How laws are made in Australia through the courts (common law).
• The types of law in Australia, including criminal law, civil law and the place of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander customary law.
• Different perspectives about Australia’s national identity, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives and what it means to be Australian.

Economics – Participation and influence in the market place

The main aspects of this course are as follows:

• The way markets operate in Australia and how the interaction between buyers and sellers influences prices and how markets enable the allocation of resources
• How the government is involved in the market, such as providing some types of goods and services that are not being provided for sufficiently by the market (e.g. healthcare)
• The rights and responsibilities of consumers and businesses in Australia 
• Types of businesses (e.g. sole trader, partnership, corporation, cooperative, franchise) and the ways that businesses respond to opportunities in Australia
• Influences on the ways people work (e.g. technological change, outsourced labour in the global economy, rapid communication changes and factors that might affect work in the future).

Geography – Landforms, Landscapes and Changing Nations

A wide ranging focus on landscapes and landforms around the world from how they are formed to the adaptations of living things to these landscapes. A case study landscape becomes the focus for a detailed investigation, this part of the course include an excursion to a local coastal landscape.

The second section of the course looks at urban landscapes, the cities we live and their sustainability. Geography inquiry skills are developed using a variety of spatial and digital materials. 

History – The Ancient to the Modern World

This topic further develops inquiry based History skills with a focus on broad aspects of societies. There will be a broad overview of the time period 650 AD to 1750

The first main area of study will be based on Medieval Europe. This includes the changing relationships between Islam and the West (The Crusades) and the changing structure of society in regard to crime and punishment or the military and defense systems. The second main focus area will be the Black Death and its effects on the living conditions, beliefs and medical knowledge of the time.