The Business Department
Welcome to the Business Department headed by myself, Mr Rock and assisted by Mrs Dillon and Mrs Smith. At Presdales we aim to provide students with a high quality learning experience which fosters a genuine interest and enjoyment of the business world around them.
This is achieved by keeping the content up to date, relevant and fresh. Students are encouraged to take responsibility for some of their own learning by studying independently but will be supported by staff who will follow a specified scheme of work, arrange support workshops, relevant business trips, external speakers and of course provide regular formative feedback so that they can improve their knowledge and understanding of important concepts and be able to answer examination questions well.
This department offers a popular option for Year 10 GCSE students where we generally have 3 groups of about 22 in Year 10 and the same in Year 11. The results are consistently good over with 80% of students achieving an A* to C and significant numbers achieving beyond their FFT target grade.
The course offers a unique combination of Economics and Business taught by applying theory to current topical material.
The new GCSE course we have opted for is the Edexcel/Pearson Business GCSE (9-1) 1BS0.
The course is split into two broad complementary themes called Investigating Business and Building a Business. Theme one develops the concepts of entrepreneurship and the practicalities if setting up a new business including external economic influences. Theme two then explores how businesses grow and looks at operational and financial decision making along with human resource management and recruitment. Both themes are examined with two 90 minute terminal examinations split into 3 sections, A,B & C and requiring skills of calculations, multiple choice, short answer and extended writing.
The course is a good base for progression to Year 12 where we offer Business A level and Economics A level separately. It is also useful to prepare students for the concepts and knowledge required for vocational study such as BTEC. Those considering their own business one day in the future will find the grounding that this rigorous GCSE gives useful.
