Key Stage 4

At Key Stage 4, Business Studies students learn all the knowledge required in Years 9 and 10 (one topic per term) and in Year 11, the focus is on exam preparation and revision.  

Through our curriculum we aim to provide students with a secure knowledge of the following:  

• how and why businesses are started and all the factors that an owner considers in that process;   
• explore the external influences on a business such as law and exchange rates and how businesses operate their production processes and functions;    
• how a business organises its staff and manages recruitment;  
• how it decides on a marketing strategy; 
• how it manages and analyses its finances including, for example, calculating income and costs, break even, cash flow, income statements and balance sheets.  

Subject specific vocabulary is a focus across Years 9 and 10 where students create a glossary of the key terms that are relevant to the unit of work they are studying and is set as home learning. Once they have worked through 3-5 weeks of creating the glossary, they will then use each word in a subject specific sentence as retrieval practice.  

News clips from the BBC news website (Company) are shown in order to engage students with current affairs and make the link between what they are learning in the classroom and the outside world; Tutor2U Biz Quizzes are also used to encourage students to engage with what is happening in the world of business beyond their classroom learning.  

Enrichment Opportunities

Visiting the Cadbury Chocolate factory is a highlight for students as they get to see and engage in all the key criteria in running a business from business plan, to production, human resources, finance and marketing and the piece de resistance: tasting and the importance of customer satisfaction. 

Assessment

Students who choose Business as an option study the AQA GCSE specification. Students are introduced to exam questions and mark schemes from Year 9 so they know how their answers will be marked. All assessments are carried out with the use of past exam questions, so students know from the start of their GCSE studies what to expect. 

There are 2 exam papers (each with a weighting of 50%) which are sat at the end of Year 11. The course covers 6 topics: Business in the Real World, Influences on Business, Business Operations, Human Resources, Marketing and Finance.