Key stage 3 Business Studies

In Business Studies, we aim to develop a greater understanding and interest in how businesses and the economy work so that our pupils will be well prepared for the complex, technical, business orientated world they will enter as young adults.

We want our pupils to find out what they would have to do to run their own businesses and learn what it would take to be a successful Entrepreneur. We want them to learn about the world of work so that they will know what will be expected of them. We want them to be well informed consumers so that when they buy goods and services, they get what they want and know what to do and where to go when they are dissatisfied. In essence, we want our pupils to be active, global citizens.

Business Studies is fun, relevant and challenging. We encourage our pupils to have opinions and ideas and to be able to communicate them in the most effective way. Through maintaining strong links with Ulster and Young Enterprise, our pupils also develop more general business, presentation and team working skills.

We offer Business Studies from Year 11, as an optional GCSE.

AQA GCSE Business Studies

Students follow the AQA Business Studies course. The course is divided as follows:

Unit 1 – Setting up a Business At the end of year 10 students will sit the first examination. This will last for 1 hour and is worth 40% of the final GCSE grade. This unit introduces students to the issues surrounding setting up a business and the reasons for success or failure

The Controlled Assessment In the Autumn term of Year 11, students will complete the Controlled Assessment which is worth 25% of the total mark. Students are required to write a 2000 word assignment under examination conditions. Students will be given 12 hours of preparation in class and at home and then 3 hours of class time to write the assignment. This assignment changes every year and is supplied by the exam board.

Unit 2 – Growing as a Business The final assessment will take place in the Summer term of Year 11. This examination will last for 1 hour and is worth 35% of the final GCSE grade. This unit builds on the topics studied in Unit 1 and allows students to investigate businesses as they grow and the issues that expansion raises.

During the two years students will learn about:

• the different forms of business
• finance
• marketing
• human resources and industrial relations
• production and quality
• the impact of the business environment