“We aim to send all young people into an ever-changing world able and qualified to play their full part in it.”

Curriculum

Business Studies

Faculty Leader – ICT, Computing & Business

Subject Staff

Mrs Cooper

Exam Board

Pearson

Revision

The Subject Way

Our subject has a ‘Subject Way’ at the heart of it. Our Subject Way is designed to help students become young subject specialists. The Subject Way has two main purposes:

Firstly, to teach students the vital skills they need to achieve their full potential and gain the very best grades they can. Secondly, to teach students how each subject relates to the wider world, incorporating the life skills they will learn.

It is our belief that knowing how what you learn links to the wider world brings a subject to life and therefore improves overall understanding and engagement.

 
Our Intent

The aim of the Business curriculum is to equip students with the appropriate knowledge and skills needed to develop their employability and identify business problems and opportunities. We encourage students to develop entrepreneurial Skills such as: Creativity, Risk Taking, Finance and Communication.

These skills are developed through the OCR Enterprise and Marketing Course. We do this by quality first teaching which ensures students understand underlying Marketing and Financial theory which students apply to a variety of familiar and unfamiliar case studies. We want students to be able to think analytically, reach logical conclusions based on data, and make judgements on future changes to markets and the economy. Our students are constantly introduced to a wide variety of viewpoints from some of the most influential entrepreneurs throughout history. We investigate the impact that their work has had on the world we live in and students are encouraged to make links between their studies and real life examples.

How we intend to remove barriers

Students are able to develop the main skills needed to remove barriers in the Business Curriculum. The business course is a heavy theory course and students are tested on their recall and their ability to write and construct their answers in assessments. Literacy is therefore plays a strong part in the curriculum where students are taught the key terms for the subject. Numeracy skills are also needed in the Business Curriculum where students will learn about business finances and the different mathematical sums needed to work out business concepts such as Profit/Loss, Breakeven and Sales Revenue. Students will then be able to analyse these financial figures and make judgements and recommendations about the business using this Finance data. 

How we develop skills for learning

Students are required to demonstrate key skills for learning in the Business Curriculum. These skills include: Creativity, Interpretation, Analysis and Evaluation. Students will demonstrate the ability to plan and design new products with the aim of marketing this new product to the public. Students will need to carry out a range of Market Research and analyse the results in order to identify “Gaps in the Market” and the needs of their potential customers, in order to market a success product. Students will need to be able to interpret and evaluate financial information in order to identify if their new product is financially viable.

How we foster personal attributes

The curriculum allows the “Rawmarsh Way” to be be demonstrated in various ways. Students will need to be independent in running their own business project. They will need to design and pitch their business ideas to other students and members of staff. Like famous entrepreneurs students will need to demonstrate a degree of resilience being able to identify issues with their ideas and make changes to their approach in order to be successful.  Students will have to develop communication skills this will be done through pitching their business proposal to their peers.

How we intend to enrich student experiences and broaden the horizons of students

Students will have various opportunities to broaden their horizons over the course of the Business Curriculum. Students will learn about famous entrepreneurs  in history, understanding their successes and failures. Students will be able to see what skills are needed to run their own business or develop a new product to market. Students will learn about companies that have successfully marketed new or innovative products, including the ones that were not so successful.

Students will learn about how businesses operate including how businesses recruit and hire new employees, this will give students a wide range of skills and knowledge that they will be able to use when applying for their future jobs. Overall the curriculum gives students the knowledge and skills in order to set up their own business or to successfully design and  market a business idea. 

Our Curriculum