Business Enterprise & ICT
The Business, Enterprise and ICT Curriculum Area is a dynamic and progressive department that has happily embraced many changes over the last few years. We haveexpanded rapidly, piloting six new courses in the last four years, but have also successfully managed to maintain an upward trend in examination results across all subjects and attainment is above the school average.
Being enterprising is very much at the heart of our departmental culture. As a team we are upbeat and positive. We think creatively about our approach to teaching and learning and are unafraid to take calculated risks. There is an ethos of learning from mistakes and open sharing of experiences so that staff feel they are well supported by colleagues.
There are 12 fulltime members of staff who teach across all subjects and ability ranges and who provide ICT teaching assistant support in many lessons. The members of the team have a diversity of interests but are all unified in their desire to maximise achievement and help students become enterprising and independent individuals. The team work collaboratively and share good practice on a regular basis.
Curriculum changes have meant that all students study discrete Business and Enterprise and discrete ICT at Key Stage 3 and that all students at Key Stage 4 take at east one Business, ICT or vocational subject. Subjects offered are:
| Key Stage | Business | ICT |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Business and Enterprise | ICT |
| 4 | OCR National in Business* GCSE Business Studies* GCSE Business Communication Systems* | Diploma in Digital Applications DIDA) GCSE ICT* |
| 5 - L2 | OCR National in Business OCR Certificate in Retailing COPE Award in Enterprise | OCR National in ICT CLAIT |
| 5 - L3 | A Level Business Studies Young Enterprise Award | A Level Applied ICT CLAIT plus |
* opportunities to gain a further half or full GCSE are offered and taken by 30% of students
All classes are taught as mixed ability with average class sizes of 23, depending on the Key Stage and the subject. Good uptake in the sixth form allows two classes of A Level in each subject.
Teaching and learning centres around project based work to offer students the opportunity to be autonomous, independent and creative. Projects will have a work related/enterprise theme.
The 2006 headline figures for Business and ICT subjects combined were:
Key Stage 3 ICT: 72% Level 5+ with 28% Level 6+
Key Stage 4: 69% A* to C
Key Stage 5: 100% A to E and 54% A to C at A Level
The Area offers a range of Extracurricular activities to students of all ages. In the sixth form there are two Young Enterprise groups and a Young Cooperatives Group which focuses on Social Enterprise, fund raising for our partner school in GorGor, Kenya. There are a number of enterprise activities organised for students in Key Stages 3 and 4 including Web Design, Computer Club for Girls and Clay modelling. Students make full use of the retail units situated in the reception of the school where they can buy and sell products and learn how to use an electronic till.
As part of our role as a specialist status college for Business and enterprise we work closely with Year 6 students from all our feeder primary school and staff participate in annual projects in Business and Enterprise and ICT.
Our specialist status is held jointly with Beacon Hill special school. Staff in the Area have developed excellent working relationships with colleagues from Beacon Hill to integrate students into lessons and extracurricular activities.