- Home
- Academic
- Departments
- Business
Business
Care: We aim to equip pupils to use business and enterprise skills to understand the importance of the nature of business in the real world. Business has deep links with mathematics, geography, and design technology. We want to allow students the space to share ideas with each other and support one another in class discussions with the knowledge that they are safe to do so from judgement or criticism.
Contribute: We support students who want to develop their interests in the field of business by holding talks, competitions and we hope to network with local businesses to try and create work experience opportunities. As Business is a new subject to LGGS we have been extremely pleased to see a good number of students selecting it at A-Level and we hope to see them perform well in their end of year assessments as well as going on to studying the subject in further education.
Challenge: collaborative, detailed and thorough curriculum planning lies at the heart of what we do in the department. We are committed to developing our schemes of work by using all available resources and different teaching strategies to ensure that students have a comprehensive knowledge of the specifications as well as being capable of going beyond what is taught in lessons. Techniques that help develop long-term memory and help students master subject content are embedded throughout the curriculum. These are focussed on inserting challenge, metacognition, memory techniques, numeracy, and literacy skills into our departmental curriculum.
A-level Business is assessed through a series of written examinations that are taken at the end of Year 13. A combination of multiple choice, short and longer, essay style questions make up the papers. The papers centre on the core course content, which is detailed below, and also one compulsory case study. Each examination is equally weighed.
Head of Department: Miss J Clapham
Exam Board: AQA
GCSE Requirements: Grade 6 GCSE English (to study A-level Business Studies)
Specification
Business Studies A-level is examined through:
Paper 1: Business 1 – A 2 hour written examination
Questions Three compulsory sections:
Section A has 15 multiple choice questions worth 15 marks
Section B has short answer questions worth 35 marks.
Sections C and D have two essay questions (choice of one from two and one from two) worth 25 marks each.
Paper 2: Business 2 – A 2 hour written examination
Three data response compulsory questions worth approximately 33 marks each and made up of three or four part questions.
Paper 3: Business 3 – A 2 hour written examination
One compulsory case study followed by approximately six questions.
Subject content
1 What is business? Understanding the nature and purpose of business, the different business forms and how businesses operate
2 Managers, leadership and decision making. Understanding management and leadership, decision making in business and the role of stakeholders.
3 Decision making to improve marketing performance: Setting marketing objectives, understanding markets and customers and making marketing decisions.
4 Decision making to improve operational performance: Setting operational objectives, analysing operational performance and making decisions to improve performance.
5 Decision making to improve financial performance: setting financial objectives, analysing financial performance and making financials decisions.
6 Decision making to improve human resource performance: Setting human resources objectives, analysing human resources performance and making human resources decisions.
7 Analysing the strategic position of a business: Mission, objectives and strategy, business SWOT analysis and analysing strategic options.
8 Choosing strategic direction: strategic direction and strategic positioning.
9 Strategic methods: how to pursue strategies: Assessing change in scale, assessing innovation, assessing internationalisation and assessing greater use of digital technology.
10 Managing strategic change: Managing change, managing organisational culture, managing strategic implementation and problems with strategies and why they fail.
What the exam students say:
'Business has been a huge opportunity to engage with the world and current affairs. By being a new subject to the school curriculum it has been interesting to learn how leadership, management and decision making are essential to running a business, and I can apply my business studies to my other A-level subjects.'
Alice, Year 13 Business Student
What the exam board say:
'Our content is designed to engage students through topics and issues that are relevant in today’s society – they will study key contemporary developments such as digital technology and business ethics, and globalisation is covered throughout the topic. Students will develop the knowledge and skills needed to analyse data, think critically about issues and make informed decisions – all skills that are needed for further study and employment. Real life case studies will be used wherever possible to make it easier for students to relate to and apply their knowledge and skills developed throughout the course.'