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Business and Economics
Business Studies is a popular foundation option choice for many students at Leventhorpe. It can first be chosen in Year 9, where lessons are tailored to give students a taste of Business GCSE, which runs in KS4. Business Studies can be taken as a GCSE (AQA Specification) and as an A Level (Edexcel Specification) at Sixth Form.
Within the Social Sciences Faculty, we aim to give learners the opportunity to be independent thinkers, creative and develop an entrepreneurial spirit that will serve them well in either further study of Business and Economics-related courses, or could be useful education with life skills that may be invaluable in setting up their own enterprise.
Enterprise at Leventhorpe exists to allow students to experience real business and improve their employability skills ready for when they leave. Enterprise can be chosen as a more practical, coursework-based alternative to A Level in Sixth Form, where the Diploma offered is equivalent to two A Level qualifications.
Year 9 Business
In Year 9, students can get their first taste of Business at Leventhorpe. The course is partly given to lessons that give a taste of how GCSE Business Studies will be run, with teaching mirroring how the course will be taught at KS4. Some units are also planned in a more project-based manner and some are assessed using GCSE-style assessments, to give an indicator of how our KS4 will work, whilst also encouraging the Entrepreneurial spirit of the students.
The Scheme of Work is broken down into the following sections:
· Autumn Term 1: How are Businesses set up?
· Autumn Term 2: Market Research - Including Apprentice-Style Project
· Spring Term 1: Cereal Box Project
· Spring Term 2: Personal and Business Finance
· Summer Term 1: Business Ethics
· Summer Term 2: You're Hired - Careers and Recruitment including Interview Skills
GCSE Business
AQA GCSE Business allows students to study Business and learn more about its functional areas. The course is broken down into six units, and each unit will be assessed via an end-of-unit assessment, with a student’s grade calculated entirely from exams sat at the end of Year 11.
The six units of study are as follows:
1. Business in the Real World
2. Influences on Business
3. Business Operations
4. Human Resources
5. Marketing
6. Finance
There are two exams at the End of Year 11. Both papers are 1 hour 45 minutes long and account for 50% of a student’s overall grade.
Paper 1 consists of questions derived from Units 1, 2, 3 and 4.
Paper 2 consists of questions derived from Units 1, 2, 5 and 6
Level 3 BTEC Enterprise & Entrepreneurship
The Level 3 National Diploma in Enterprise and Entrepreneurship is equivalent to two A Levels and is a mixture of externally assessed units, taking the form of examinations and controlled assessments (timed writing of partially prepared reports in exam conditions) and internally assessed units of coursework, similar in function to what students may have experienced studying for the Level 1/2 Award in Enterprise.
Information on units studied at Leventhorpe can be found below:
| UNit | title | type | how assessed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Enterprise and Entrepreneurs | Mandatory | Internaldators |
| 2 | Developing a Marketing Campaign | Mandatory and Synoptic | External |
| 3 | Personal and Business Finance | Mandatory | External |
| 4 | Launch and Run an Enterprise | Mandatory | Internal |
| 5 | Survival and Growth | Mandatory | Internal |
| 6 | Business Decision Making | Mandatory and Synoptic | External |
| 7 | Social Enterprise | Optional | Internal |
| 8 | Innovation and Enterprises | Optional | Internal |
Units of work are graded as Pass, merit and Distinction and points are awarded based on which grading per unit a student achieves. Learners must gain a Pass, or Near Pass, in all mandatory units to pass the course.
Grades can range from a Pass Pass, equivalent to two Es at A Level, to Distinction* Distinction*, which is equivalent to two A* grades at A Level.
A Level Business
The Edexcel A Level in Business (From September 2019) is split into four broad themes:
Theme 1: Marketing & People
Theme 2: Managing Business Activities
Theme 3: Business Decisions and Strategy
Theme 4: Global Business – Case Study/Research
Examinations will take place at the end of Year 13, and students will sit three papers:
• Paper 1: Marketing, people and global business (35%)
– Themes 1 & 4
– 2 hours
– 100 marks available
• Paper 2: Business Activities, Decisions and Strategy (35%)
– Themes 2 & 3
– 2 hours
– 100 marks available
• Paper 3: Investigating Business in a Competitive Environment (30%)
– Assess across all four themes
– 2 hours
- 100 marks available
A Level Economics
AQA Economics is examined across three papers at the end of Year 13 and the course is generally split into Microeconomics (The study of individual markets) and Macroeconomics (Which looks at the economy as a whole).
The topics studied are broadly as follows:
Microeconomics:
1. Economic methodology and the economic problem
2. Price determination in a competitive market
3. Production, costs and revenue
4. Competitive and concentrated markets
5. The market mechanism, market failure and government intervention in markets
6. Individual economic decision making
7. The labour market
8. The distribution of income and wealth: poverty and inequality
Macroeconomics:
1. The measurement of macroeconomic performance
2. Economic performance
3. How the macroeconomy works
4. Macroeconomic policy
5. Revisiting and developing macroeconomic theory
6. Financial markets and monetary policy
7. Revisiting fiscal policy and supply-side policies
8. The international economy
Students are assessed at the end of the course as follows:
Paper 1: Market and Market Failure (Micro) (33%).
– All Microeconomic content
– 2 hours
– 80 marks available
Paper 2: National and International Economy (Macro) (33%).
– All Macroeconomic content
– 2 hours
– 80 marks available
Paper 3: Economic Principles and Issues (Micro and Macro – Synoptic) (33%).
– All content – a Synoptic Paper
– 2 hours
– 80 marks available
