Business & Economics

At Harris Garrard Academy, the curriculum offer at Key Stage 4 and 5 provides students with the opportunity to either follow the academic route of GCSE and A Level or the vocational pathway of Tech Award and BTEC National.

This is to ensure that students are studying a curriculum that is best suited to their needs and maximises their potential.

GCSE and A Level

The GCSE and A Level curriculum pathway has been designed to integrate the transferrable skills and knowledge learnt across other Key Stage 3 core subjects and complement these with a strong foundation of business skills and knowledge.

The Business GCSE course provides a stimulating and contemporary look at the world of business.  Students will study the practical application of business concepts. The schemes of learning will provide opportunities to explore theories and concepts through the context of events in the business and economic world. The knowledge and skills gained from this subject will provide students with a firm foundation in business for further study.

The GCSE provides a natural route into either a Business A Level or the Economics A Level here at HGA. To successfully deliver the Economics A Level we work collaboratively with the Harris Federation sixth form to develop our schemes of learning.  We follow their curriculum design whilst adapting it to the needs of our students. The content of the Economics A level course will give students understanding of how economies allocate their scarce resources to meet the needs and wants of their citizens.

Students will develop a greater understanding of the economic problems which face individuals, firms and governments on a local, national and global level and the alternative ways these problems can be resolved. We work with the Federation to monitor quality of delivery and to standardise assessment as we see this as a critical element to improve learning outcomes for our students and professional development for the business teachers.

BTEC qualifications

The BTEC qualifications allows our students the opportunity to apply their academic knowledge to real life business contexts. The need for enterprising skills in the workplace has fast become a government focus to ensure students are given the chance to learn these skills. Our vocational curriculum gives the students that opportunity to acquire that knowledge and those key soft skills to progress into a number of roles in an organisation, or go on to further education. At Key Stage 4 students study the Tech Award in Enterprise. 

Students study three modules: Exploring Enterprises, including understanding of enterprise and entrepreneurs, how market research helps enterprises to meet customer needs and understand competitors, and how internal and external factors affect decisions made by enterprises; Planning and Pitching a micro-enterprise, including generating ideas, creating a business plan and culminating in a business pitch and review; and Understanding and Application of Knowledge of how SMEs promote and finance their business.

At Key Stage 5, students can choose to continue their study of business through applied learning with the BTEC National. The course is designed with mandatory and optional content that provides a balance of breadth and depth, while retaining a degree of choice so as to personalise our curriculum unit choices to the needs of our learners.

Throughout the delivery of the vocational courses we ensure students get exposure to real life businesses through live projects or educational visits to enrich their experience of the real working world. The schemes of learning deliberately consider transferable skills such as communication, teamwork, research and analysis, integrating activities that practice these skills and ensuring students understand the value of them, ready for higher education and the workplace.

You can download Knowledge Organisers for each year group from our Knowledge Organisers page.

For queries about the Business & Economics curriculum please contact Adam Lounici a.lounici@harrisgarrard.org.uk

Further details of the curriculum can be found below.

Careers