Business and Economics
Ethos and Aims
As a department, we provide transferable life skills that students can utilise for future careers and potential entrepreneurs. Whether it is business or economics, both subjects help to shape society and understand the concepts behind why markets behave the way they do. Business and the economy have a large impact upon how we lead our lives and our role as educators is to ensure our classes understand the reasons as to why the government and firms make the decisions that they make. Use of relevant and contemporary case studies for both subjects ensures that students can resonate with businesses/modern issues that they can relate to. The classroom atmosphere is one that is welcoming and engaging for all members involved where classroom discussion is encouraged and there are opportunities for all students to succeed. By allowing students to express themselves enables all students to develop not only their knowledge, but also confidence and acceptance. By exploring topics which takes students out of their comfort zones stretches all abilities and will enable them to become more confident within themselves both verbally and in written tasks.
The impact that the economy and businesses have on society is extremely important. Our aim is not only to educate our students according to the specifications set by the exam board but also about how they can shape their future careers. The department want pupils to relate theoretical models to real business and economical situations through the analysis of case studies. We feel it is important for students to feel prepared for the wider world and aim to help achieve their ambitions whether it be further education, apprenticeships or future employment. The recent Covid-19 pandemic has made the daily challenges of businesses and the economy extremely challenging so it’s important for our students to appreciate what firms and government are doing specifically to help tackle this cost-of-living crisis. Students are provided an opportunity to participate in extra-curricular activities that they might not have had at home such as trips to Cadbury World and London City Finance Tour. Regardless of financial or social background, students should be allowed to be given opportunities to help shape their future through the topics of business and economics that will help enlighten their thought processes regarding careers and how business/economy works. As educators, our main aim is ensuring that the curriculum is taught effectively and is engaging for learners to access so they can achieve the highest grades possible.
Staffing
Mr J Willets – Head of Enterprise & Classical Studies
Mrs K Carpenter – Teacher of Business & Economics
Mr D Chauhan – Teacher of Business / Co-Headteacher
Mr P Phillips – Teacher of Business / Assistant Headteacher
Intention
The department believe that students deserve a curriculum which prepares them for the ever-evolving world of business and economics that they live in. Business and economics give young people the skills and abilities to engage positively with the business world and analyse the flaws surrounding many entrepreneurs and economists. They learn how products and business systems work, why government’s make certain economic decisions, how the market is driven by supply and demand, the skills that businesses require to thrive and improve IT skills required for practically any career in modern society. Pupils will develop new skills through a variety of interesting contexts to foster engagement and explore the depth of the national curriculum. Students will learn these skills and understand how they help improve the world around them and for them to become a valued member of an economic, digital society.
Skills developed within both departments will enhance students’ ability to extensively write longer answers and strengthen their mathematical skills. At the centre of the subject of business is creativity and enterprise. Business is a subject which draws, develops and implements a range of different disciplines including mathematics, science, engineering, geography and art. The subject embeds high quality literacy skills through analysis and evaluation techniques. The curriculum intends to teach students about modern day business and economical concepts that will help enhance their transferable lifelong skills and knowledge. We intend to provide opportunities which allow students to develop a knowledge of a range of business/economical terms, understanding and knowledge. Students will hopefully grow confidence through engaging teaching environments, provision of IT facilities and specialist teaching from welcoming practitioners.
To help ensure that all learners have access to high-quality education with engaging topics and a varied pedagogical approach from the department. Our pedagogy is supported by a range of visual, auditory and kinaesthetic resources to be used throughout the scheme of work. Teachers within the department will provide marking to end of unit tests and trial exams that informs future lesson planning and address any misconceptions made by students. End of unit tests will be marked using an online platform of Office 365 Teams Assignments which students and parents can access at any given time to help improve responses for future reference and also for revision purposes. Pedagogy is further supported by high levels of expertise where students can feel confident to use a range of digital applications and techniques to develop knowledge and understanding. During lessons, there will be regular use of teacher, technician and student led live modelling/scaffolding to demonstrate processes and applications both practically and theory based.
Our curriculum will give the students an opportunity to:
- know and understand business/economical concepts, business terminology, business objectives and the impact of business/economics on individuals and wider society
- apply knowledge and understanding to contemporary business issues and to different types and sizes of businesses in local, national and global contexts
- develop as effective and independent students, and as critical and reflective thinkers with enquiring minds
- investigate and analyse real business/economical issues to construct well-argued, well-evidenced, balanced and structured arguments, demonstrating their depth of understanding of business
- develop and apply quantitative skills relevant to business/economics, including using and interpreting data.
All lesson plans and activity sheets are kept within online folders that students and teaching staff have access to. Students have one that they can edit whilst teachers have lesson plans/activities they can use to teach. All data to be kept within an assessment folder (Excel spreadsheet for Mr J Willets to monitor frequently) to monitor progress of students of all end of unit tests and past papers completed. Teachers who feel that students are underperforming will be required to contact home about intervention sessions to help improve their progress. The organisational digital structure will help students develop their IT skills but also have their online activity worksheets saved under their own files for students who prefer working with computers in comparison to exercise books. Exercise books will be given to students for the different exams they will sit but these will be used primarily for note taking. Assessments will be given to students using a digital platform of Teams Assignments where they can edit their own copy in assessment conditions. Past papers/mock exams will be given as a hard copy and their designated teacher will also need to mark using a red/green pen but it is imperative that students have a chance to reflect on their answers. Common practice will involve students actioning comments made by teachers to help address any misconceptions made in a different colour (can be done online for end of unit tests or in exam paper using pen). Teachers also set numerous multiple choice questions throughout the curriculum to help with answering these types of questions as they come up frequently across both subjects.
Implementation
Teachers will use the appropriate Schemes of Work which should include challenging content, with sequenced learning and progression through each key stage of education provided by the department.
Year 9
At the Bewdley School, students will pick their GCSE options in Year 8 ready to start in Year 9 however these students will have an opportunity to drop the subject up until January should they decide that the subject is not for them. The main sequencing involved for the beginning of Year 9 will be to build on their skills ready for the start of GCSE curriculum taught in January. Whilst students will be opting to change subjects between the months of September to December, this would cause little disruption to those who change later on but also build upon a range of skills required for the GCSE course.
Key Stage 4
The National Curriculum and Key Stage Programmes of Study will be taught to all pupils. These will be used as the basis for long-term and medium-term planning, this basis allows expansion into interesting industry links, especially lower down the school in later key stage 3, this is further supported by the whole-school literacy and numeracy strategies and policies. Short-term planning will be brief. It will demonstrate a clear learning journey focusing on pupils’ progress, with strategies in place for adapted learning, remembering that all pupils are entitled to a challenging curriculum – adapting or scaffolding resources or through talk that facilitate learning for each pupil. The Lead Teacher for business and economics and any department staff are given responsibility for leading, managing, monitoring, evaluating and reviewing the curriculum. Teachers will be given good opportunities to use their subject expertise to enhance the curriculum. An extensive range of high-quality resources, including plentiful use of computers, will be used to underpin the curriculum. Opportunities will be taken to enrich the curriculum through subject specific workshops and relevant projects.
GCSE Business and Economics to be taught in the sequence provided by the exam boards of Edexcel Pearson and OCR. Going in numerical order from 1.1 Enterprise and Entrepreneurship through to 2.5 Making Human Resource Decisions for GCSE Business. OCR Economics will also be taught in the sequence provided by the exam board starting from 1.1 Main Economic Groups through to 4.4 Globalisation. Certain topics such as Market Research and the financial topics are taught for longer periods of time in comparison to other topics such as competitive environment. Same for GCSE Economics as each topic builds upon subject knowledge that will guide them nicely to understand next topic chapter.
In GCSE Economics, they are encouraged to write a PEEL writing structure for the 6-mark questions of analyse and evaluate but told frequently they must provide a conclusion for the evaluate question. Shorter-marked questions are BLT writing structure frames. Students are consistently reminded of the differences required for analyse and evaluate 6-mark questions so that they are aware of the different writing structures required. They will know for analyse questions, it is two separate impacts written in a PEEL paragraph addressing the question thoroughly so they can achieve the higher level marks. For evaluate questions, they will be informed frequently that they must show both sides of the argument and provide an overall conclusion that fully answers the question with plenty of discussion beforehand.
Key Stage 5
A-Level Business Studies is usually taught by two members of staff where both members will teach different units for consistency purposes. This has been the departmental approach for a number of years now which seems to work well for students and teachers alike. The two teachers will teach their respective units in numerical order that AQA scheme of work has provided, for example:
Term 1 – Teacher 1 teaches Unit 1 What is business? Whilst Teacher 2 teaches Unit 2 on Leadership and Management
Term 2 – Teacher 1 teaches Unit 3 marketing performance whilst Teacher 2 teaches Unit 4 on operational performance.
The aim is to complete units 1-6 by the end of Year 12 allowing four units to be taught in Year 13 with plenty of revision time in preparation for their examinations.
Impact
Students will develop their learning at different rates, meaning each lesson will need to have a powerful impact that can resonate with pupils. The department for business and economics will ensure that a range of techniques caters for all learning styles and provide all students with an opportunity to express themselves. Resources have been tailor made for our students and have been made relevant with up-to-date case studies that they can relate to in the world of business and economics. To ensure the department and students fully understand the course requirements, resources are created and shared to teachers and pupils to access whenever they wish to using Remote Access. Departmental meetings take place as regularly as possible to ensure reflection and improvement takes place within the department so this can benefit practitioners and students alike. To ensure our impact is as effective as possible, lesson plans are frequently analysed to see how they can be improved to suit the needs of the students we are teaching. Members within the department are free to use the shared resources, edit them however way they wish or use their own resources at their discretion just as long as the content from the exam board is being taught appropriately. We ensure that the learning is not just confined to one particular way of teaching, but allowing the opportunity for students to express their ideas and knowledge. This builds not only confidence and key skills but also allows the teacher to evaluate how well their lesson plans are successfully being taught and give reflective thought moving forward regarding teaching practice.
Children develop as learners through knowing more and remembering more, through the use of many techniques, building on prior learning and knowledge and developing the skills to become lifelong learners. The engaging curriculum that we provide will make sure all pupils develop their business/economical knowledge; enrich their time in school with better understanding of how and why businesses behave the way they do and how the economy works, this will enhance their problem-solving skills and develop traits such as being more determined, ability to persevere and show grit when pressure and stress is applied as they work their way through their school career. This will better set students up for a work career and industries they wish to progress into later in life. This safe application of workload stresses is essential for building these key skills.
Wider Impact
The curriculum goes beyond what is taught within lessons and although the priority is for all students to achieve the very best examination results, we also develop soft skills, which are not measurable, such as being able to use initiative, developing leadership skills and being able to articulate themselves clearly using business/economical vocabulary. The department will ensure that students support the Bewdley Values and are stretched and challenged by developing their leadership, organisation, resilience, initiative and communications skills in order to support their learning. Opportunities are given for pupils to read news articles and apply their understanding. The reading of case studies and business scenarios is a theme which spreads across all areas of the specification. Linking pupils with current news articles keeps them engaged and informed and helps them in preparation for their external examinations.
Currently working on ensuring that higher ability students achieve the best grade they possibly can. They are being given materials that Grade 9 students are writing from the exam board of Edexcel Pearson for Business and OCR for Economics. When the higher ability students are examined, they are given the same opportunities to progress as everyone else with extensive feedback and opportunities to action their work to improve it even further. SEND students will continue to opt for GCSE Business and Economics due to support and relationships with teachers within the department. Our new curriculum is designed to inspire and motivate all learners which will hopefully see a healthy return on number of students opting to pick the subjects for both GCSE and A-Level.
Quality of teaching and learning in business and economics has always been praised during learning walks by both external and internal observers. Business and economics has always remained a popular choice for GCSE and even though there are now greater options choices for students, the numbers remain healthy. We are also beginning to see a revival in the number of students returning to stay and study A level.
The Business and Economics curriculum look at a wide range of social issues that are contemporary such as cost of living crisis, recessions, unfair distributions of income and wealth and guide students to think of ways of tackling these crises. We also look at businesses who haven’t paid the national minimum wage such as Sports Direct, inheritance tax issues and how economical differences can bring about an increased rate of crime and anti-social behaviour.
Examination results have been on the rise since the introduction of the new GCSE in 2019 in comparison to previous years where we used to teach the BTEC Enterprise course. We have seen a gradual improvement in results in both GCSE and A level. Above all, students continue to express their interest in the relevance of business and economics and its skills in today’s world.