Vocational Learning
- Mr G Lambert Head of Vocational Learning
- Miss C Carter Hair and Beauty
Why Vocational Learning is Important
Our area provides students with the opportunity to experience vocational subjects at a GCSE level. It allows each student to gain hands on experience together with the knowledge to underpin their skills.
It exposes each student to the industry they are interested in and develops their knowledge and skills and prepares them for a potential career.
These subjects are primarily developed for schools and colleges and are delivered to KS4 learners with an interest in these fields:
Business Studies GCSE
Young people are growing up in a globalised and dynamic world. New opportunities and challenges will emerge in their lifetimes that are virtually unimaginable today. Developing technologies, environmental and societal challenges, demographics, global competition and changing consumer demand will drive these changes. Studying business helps to equip students with the understanding, skills and attitudes to participate fully in an interconnected world.Business studies encourages students to develop an appreciation of how their lives are shaped by economic and social factors. They are enabled to make informed decisions, to better manage their personal financial resources and to be adaptable, creative, and enterprising. Business studies also improves their knowledge and understanding of good business practice and of business as a productive activity.
Entrepreneurship enhances the quality of our collective and individual lives, often changing the way we work, communicate and live. Business studies provides an awareness, insight, and positive attitude to entrepreneurship , demonstrating how it can improve our goods, services, and institutions.
It encourages students to develop skills for learning, skills for work and skills for life. It supports the development of analytical and critical thinking skills, encouraging students to be problem solvers. It reinforces the development of students’ numeracy, literacy, and digital technology skills by providing a real-life context for their application.
Business studies explores the interdependence of economic prosperity, societal well-being and the environment and encourages students to think and act as responsible and ethical citizens. They will be provided with a set of foundational skills, understandings, and personal attributes, which will help them to engage with the dynamic business environment and fulfil their potential in their personal and professional lives, now and into the future.
Hair and Beauty
Teaching an extensive and balanced curriculum that is tailored to the diverse cultural heritage of our school community creates well-rounded, socially aware citizens of our global community. The Hair and Beauty curriculum is fully inclusive, enabling all students to access the knowledge and skills regardless of their starting points. Our curriculum is designed to promote academic excellence through a structured spiral journey which builds upon prior learning to explore the many issues which affect our lives today and will so in the future. Topics reference previous knowledge to link and make connections throughout this journey. An emphasis on leadership through stewardship and social integrity allows pupils to reflect upon current issues and consider the actions they may take.Students are required on an ongoing basis to effectively apply and integrate appropriate knowledge, understanding and skills from across the breadth of the vocational area to key tasks that form the assessments of units.
This curriculum has been designed to use the context of hairdressing and beauty therapy as a vehicle to support young people to develop broad and comprehensive understanding of the sector but more importantly of core academic knowledge and study skills that will support progression within hair and beauty therapy or more broadly
The use of hair and beauty as a subject is to develop core knowledge and general study skills is an attractive concept to keep learners engaged and enthused. the structure of this curriculum, along with its rigorous assessment approach, will enable learner progression to a broad range of study areas, to an apprenticeship or the workplace.
Child Development and Education
The early years sector focuses on the learning, development, and care of children from birth to five years. In the UK, there are approximately 2 million childcare places for children under the age of five: and many different types of early years settings, ranging from childminders and nannies to nurseries, crèches and preschools. This qualification has a broad focus on the application of child development principles in various occupational settings, for example, teaching special educational needs, occupational or speech and language therapy. The intention of Child Development is to ensure that each learner can understand the wide range of vocational opportunities and entry routes within this field, and to challenge stereotypes such as entry routes and gender roles. Child Development equips our learners to discover the impact of positive and negative human development and how to critically analyse the impact these factors have on our day to day lives. The vocational pathway enables learners to be immersed in multiple approaches to learning, such as practical opportunities and real-life scenarios, which will support students to develop their applied knowledge and practical skills.
Additional Support for Vocational Learning
- Evening and weekend revision sessions GCSE exams final session.
