Health and Social Care Curriculum Aims and Intention

We understand the importance of providing a rich and varied curriculum for our students in Health and Social Care; linking to the second of the school’s four strategic cornerstones. We use the prescribed curriculum from Pearson BTEC, as it is designed with a strong industry input /visits such as nursing, biomedical scientists and teachers, which links to the teaching content. Our department uses the Health and Social Care curriculum to empower students to recognise their own skills and abilities, thus allowing for development of their own interests and aspirations. With the use of industry contacts we are able to signpost students to resources, work experience and courses related to these careers.

We aim to deliver up to date subject knowledge and information to our students, drawing on teachers’ professional industry backgrounds including nursing, sociological understanding and psychological practice. We have a thorough understanding of pedagogy in our discipline within our department, to ensure our very specialist subject knowledge, which is not addressed as a formal subject in KS1, 2 or 3 is accessible to our students.

In Health and Social Care we deliver a three year KS4 programme of study, ensuring all our students have the opportunity to participate in an induction year. This introduces them to the curriculum demands and shows them how previous learning from a range of different subjects and their own life experiences can contribute towards their learning within Health and Social Care. We as a department strive to encompass all our students’ abilities inclusive of EAL and SEND students. We use our subject specific teaching assistants’ translation skills to ensure our EAL students access the necessary content in lessons. Our SEND students are supported with one to one guidance in lessons and also differentiated work and support on Firefly. Without this critical additional year at KS4 our students would not be able to acquire the high levels of subject themed academic literacy and oracy that is a fundamental requirement for them to deepen and broaden their subject knowledge and understanding in Health and Social Care.

The curriculum intends all our students to become:

• Successful learners, who acquire subject specific knowledge and skills that allow them to produce outstanding applied work in many forms of assessment. Our students become determined to always achieve their absolute best in their work. This framework of analysis stands them in good stead for their careers and future life as learners.
• Confident individuals who are able to meet the challenges of an increasingly changing health and social care environment. Continuously leading safe, healthy and fulfilling lives; and making successful transition to employment, training and higher education.
• Responsible citizens who make a positive contribution to society and uphold “British values” through discussion of current affairs within our Health and Social Care lessons.

The rationale in Health and Social Care:

• Developing a rich body of knowledge and a deep understanding of Health and Social Care concepts across the Health and Social Care curriculum, simultaneously allowing for enrichment opportunities.
• Equipping each learner with the cultural capital to become a “well rounded individual” with positive British values and attitudes that ensure their physical and emotional well-being.
• Stretching every learner to achieve the higher grading criteria by – promoting a culture of self-belief through providing clear explanations and models to scaffold learning; and targeting questioning and feedback to improve learning outcomes.
• Equipping learners to face the challenge of an increasingly globalised world with confidence in essential transferable skills such as oracy, reading, writing and numeracy.
• Providing learners with opportunities to work independently and to work in a multi-disciplinary manner so they acquire new knowledge in a logical sequence to ensure a deepened knowledge so application can be demonstrated through their skills.
• Building continuity and progression from KS4 to KS5, providing every learner with the opportunity to move successfully onto aspirational pathways (that meet their needs and ambitions) post 16 and post 18.

BTEC Level 2
Year 10 & 11

BTEC Level 3 Extended Certificate
Year 12 & 13

BTEC Level 3 Diploma
Year 12
Year 13

Year 10
Year 11

Year 12
Year 13