Social Sciences - Business

KS4 – GCSE Business curriculum intent:

Overview

Students of GCSE Business at Holmes Chapel have an inquisitive mind and an eagerness to embrace complex ideas and differing views of the world. The Business curriculum gives them an insight into how businesses around the world operate, thinking about the decisions that they make and the strategies that they employ. Students are encouraged to understand themselves based on the world around them and to understand others in local, national and global markets. The curriculum aims to give students the confidence to defend their beliefs and the ability to be open-minded about the beliefs of others, approaching business ideas with an objective but critical eye. This will allow understanding of the need for business as a means of providing goods and services. The course starts with looking at how small business operate, before comparing and contrasting the strategies employed by large businesses.

Sequence and Structure

We have carefully considered our approach to delivering this course. Topics have been sequenced logically and reorganised where necessary to allow learners to build on prior knowledge. They are also planned so that when coursework is happening with one teacher, the theory needed for the examination is also covered by the other teacher delivering their course. Clear links between the three units have been highlighted throughout this scheme of learning to ensure teachers take advantage of opportunities to revisit prior knowledge outside the unit currently being delivered. We also provide frequent retrieval opportunities in lessons to ensure knowledge and understanding of key topics are recapped to help embed understanding and ensure learners achieve their best at key assessment points for this course.

This scheme of learning outlines:

Learning outcomes– what are the key knowledge areas and skills we would like our learners to develop?
Teaching activities– how we are going to develop these key knowledge areas and skills.
Delivery – when we will first teach and when and how we will revisit each topic.
Links – what knowledge and skills learners are likely to arrive with, how the outcomes link to careers, life opportunities and other subject areas.
Assessment – how will each learning outcome be assessed?

The sequence and structure of our scheme of learning is supported by ‘Learning Journey’ documents that are shared with our learners and other stakeholders such as parents/carers with the aim of communicating our approach to this course in an accessible and purposeful way.

Cultural Capital

Cultural Capital refers to the knowledge and skills our learners require to become educated citizens with the ability to transfer and apply this knowledge and these skills in a range of different settings. The nature of Business does mean that our learners will attend our lessons with different life experiences and, where these are valuable and applicable to our scheme of work, they will be nurtured and shared readily in lessons. Our scheme of learning, teaching content and approach to this course means that these experiences will be developed for all learners, including those with limited prior experience of the business world.

There are inevitable links to many different subjects throughout this course, these are referenced within this document to ensure these are communicated to our learners and to ensure learners are able to make use of transferable skills where possible. Links to careers and other future life experiences are also highlighted throughout our delivery of this course to ensure we habitually take advantage of opportunities to develop the knowledge and skills required for our future educated citizens.

Useful study aids:

GCSE textbook

Edexcel GCSE (9-1) Business, by Helen Coupland-Smith. ISBN978-1-292-17984-1

GCSE Revision notes

Revise Edexcel GCSE (9-1), Business Revision Guide.

Pearson Edexcel GCSE (9-1) Business Revision Workbook.

Useful on line resources:

http://www.edexcell.org.uk

https://revisionworld.com/gcse-revision/business-studies

http://www.businessed.co.uk/

My child is struggling – what can I do?

Learn key definitions; ask for support from the teacher, attempt practice exam questions.