Business Studies

Curriculum

Year 7 & 8

Aspects of Business are covered within the L4L curriculum.

Year 9

Aspects of Business are covered within the L4L curriculum. Year 9 students who wish to take GCSE Business in year 10 can choose it as one of their options choices.

Curriculum Intent

The vision of the Business Studies Department here at WBCA is to provide opportunities through an ambitious curriculum, designed to give all pupils the necessary knowledge and skills they need to live in the business orientated society. The Business curriculum is planned to develop and embed an understanding of financial literacy concepts that link to real life scenarios. Pupils have opportunities to develop and explore their financial awareness, making links to post-16 life in order to master the skills needed to become financially prepared to manage their personal finances as well as link their understanding to business finance.

Our Business curriculum equips students with the skills and confidence to explore how different business situations affect decision-making. They develop their understanding of concepts, objectives and terminology, and the impact of contemporary issues on business operations.

We aim for our students to apply their knowledge and understanding to different business contexts. These include businesses ranging from small enterprises to large multinationals and businesses operating in local, national and global contexts. We also intent for our students to develop an understanding of how these contexts impact on business behaviour and the habits of customers.

Our Business curriculum requires students to apply their knowledge and understanding to business decision making. This includes:

the interdependent nature of business activity, influences on business, business operations, finance, marketing and human resources; and how these interdependencies underpin business decision making
how different business contexts affect business decisions
the use and limitation of quantitative and qualitative data in making business decisions.

Drawing on the knowledge and understanding above, we aim to equip our students to develop the following skills:

use business terminology to identify and explain business activity
apply business concepts to familiar and unfamiliar contexts
develop problem solving and decision-making skills relevant to business
investigate, analyse and evaluate business opportunities and issues
make justified decisions and recommendations using both qualitative and quantitative data including its selection, interpretation, analysis and evaluation, and the application of appropriate quantitative skills.

Being closely linked to Mathematics students will also learn calculations in a business context, including:

percentages and percentage changes
averages
revenue, costs and profit
gross profit margin and net profit margin ratios
average rate of return
cash-flow forecasts, including total costs, total revenue and net cash flow

Interpretation and use of quantitative data in business contexts to support, inform and justify business decisions, including:

information from graphs and charts
profitability ratios (gross profit margin and net profit margin)
financial data, including profit and loss, average rate of return and cash-flow forecasts
marketing data, including market research data
market data, including market share, changes in costs and changes in prices.

We aim for our students to be able to articulate and write knowledgeably about business, enterprise and the economy, using subject specific language accurately and confidently. They should be able to utilise Business specific skills such as making links between different units of work; analysing and interpreting business case studies and understanding financial information and language.

GCSE Assessment

The course is broken down into multiple chapters that are covered across the 2-year duration of the programme. Each chapter will be studied in detail and an in-class assessment will take place to review learning. Business 1 (Business Activity, Marketing and People) are completed in Year 10 and Business 2 (Operations, Finance and Influences on Business) are studied throughout Year 11.

Internal Assessment – Pupils will be given a wide range of opportunities for pupils to apply their business knowledge, skills and concepts through multiple choice, short, medium and long answer questions. Use has been made of the OCR Exam Builder tool which allows past paper questions to be used to make shorter internally used assessment material. Pupils will be assessed regularly throughout the course by a series of key term and topic tests and with more formal summative tests which take place in December and June in both year 10 and 11.

External Assessment is made up of 2 exams at the end of year 11 and pupils will sit two papers – both with only one tier of entry and will receive a grade from 1-9 in GCSE Business.

Enrichment Opportunities for Business

There will also be an opportunity for students to participate in enrichment activities such as being part of the WBCA Business Club.
There will also be a number of guest speakers scheduled to deliver talks / workshops with industry experience, which will help to highlight potential career pathways to our students.
After-school consolidation lessons and drop-in sessions to ensuring maximum progress

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

What websites are useful to look at for this subject?

BBC Bitesize: https://www.bbc.com/bitesize/subjects/zpsvr82
Quizlet: https://quizlet.com/subject/gcse-business-studies/
Tutor2U: https://www.tutor2u.net/business
https://www.businessed.co.uk/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business

Detailed specification is available at http://www.ocr.org.uk/qualifications/gcse-business-j204-from-2017/

Textbooks used: OCR GCSE (9-1) Business, Third Edition

Curriculum

GCSE Assessment

Useful Links

Where to find us