Staff
Subject Leader
- Mr J Rose (Head of Business Studies)
Subject Teachers
- Mrs N Crouch (Assistant Principal)
- Mr M Kusi (Teacher of Business Studies)
An Introduction to Business and Digital Media
Our Business curriculum follows the AQA GCSE model and is designed to build secure knowledge first, then confident application and evaluation. We start by grounding pupils in Business in the Real World so they understand why firms exist, how they are owned and structured, and how aims, stakeholders and growth shape decisions. Once that foundation is in place, we move through the functional areas so pupils can see how work actually gets done in organisations. In Year 10 we establish the fundamentals with Business in the Real World, then develop practical understanding through Marketing and the essentials of Finance, using simple, routine calculations so that methods become second nature. In Year 11 we focus on Business Operations and Human Resources so that pupils can connect processes, quality, productivity, recruitment and motivation to performance. We then study Influences on Business and deliberately draw all prior learning together so pupils can weigh up ethics, technology, legislation and the economy when making judgements.
Throughout, we map teaching to the structure of the two AQA papers so pupils meet content in the combinations they will face in the exam: operations and HR with the core and influences for Paper 1, and marketing and finance with the core and influences for Paper 2. Pupils know from the outset that it is a linear qualification assessed by two written papers, each one hour forty-five minutes and worth ninety marks, so we teach with that finish line clearly in view.
Crucially, the course also lays the groundwork for progression to post-16 study. The emphasis on analysis, decision-making and applied case study work provides a natural bridge into A-level Business, Economics and BTEC Business. Pupils finish the course with the conceptual understanding and evaluative habits needed to succeed in these pathways, as well as an appreciation of real-world enterprise and organisational behaviour.