Social Sciences
Our vision is that Social Science students gain a holistic and critical appreciation of Sociology and Psychology through use of a range of teaching strategies that promote independent, student-led learning and active learning. Our aim is to encourage well-structured debates and discussions and practical activities to deepen students understanding and enjoyment, whilst building core skills. A key focus of the curriculum is active engagement in Sociological research, Research Methods and Practical Research. Students will complete independent research tasks, solidifying their research methods skills. Our aim is to give students the opportunity to apply their understanding to current events and topics in the real world. At the end, we want students to leave with deep Sociological and psychological knowledge and understanding, as well as strategic skills such as the ability to interpret different sources of data and weigh up the value of evidence, which are necessary for success in a broad range of careers and in Higher Education.
The intent of the Social Science curriculum is to enable students to participate in our interconnected and diverse world with understanding and humanity. Through the study of Social Science, students will examine social issues that affect people’s lives in profound ways. They will look at the impact of culture on education and religion, issues and debates in Psychology. They will discuss social issues while learning how to research and collect data. The course is designed and delivered to nurture thoughtful and motivated young people, who can act responsibly as active citizens, and who believe in their ability to change their community for the better. The Social Science curriculum is designed to challenge students to look beyond appearances and set aside their own personal beliefs to enable them to grow in kindness and compassion. It empowers students with intellectually challenging ideas and concepts and essential skills of critical thinking. The intent of the Social Science curriculum is to encourage students to make mistakes, and learn from them, so they succeed in being active citizens that are compassionate and resilient.
Our curriculum will be vocabulary rich as closing the advantage gap is about closing vocabulary gaps between word poor and word rich households. We mostly focus on Tier 2 and Tier 3 vocabulary. Tier 2 vocabulary is high frequency/multiple meaning words such as Deviance. Tier 3 vocabulary-low frequency, context-specific vocabulary such as Disneyization. Our schemes of learning and individual lessons will have set vocabulary which from the foundations of department’s approach to eloquence.
All of our schemes of work use questions to stimulate our students’ curiosity and develop their independent learning. These questions require developed responses from our students and each lesson provides part of a response to the enquiry question which is answered through acquired and applied knowledge. The question will support well structured debate which will give students the opportunities to apply their experiences and apply knowledge.
Key Stage 4
AQA GCSE Sociology (8192)
Paper 1: The Sociology of families and education
Paper 2: The Sociology of crime and deviance and social stratification
Key Stage 5
AQA A Level Psychology (7182)
Paper 1: Introductory Topics in Psychology
Paper 2: Psychology in Context
Paper 3: Issues and Options in Psychology
AQA A Level Sociology (7192)
Paper 1: Education with Theory and Methods
2: Topics in Sociology
Paper 3: Crime and Deviance with Theory and Methods
Curriculum Maps
Key Stage 4 Sociology Curriculum Map