Trust Curriculum Intent

Our mission is to provide a cradle to career education that allows our children to enjoy lives of choice and

opportunity. By the age of 18, we want every child to have the option of university or a high quality alternative.

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Subject Curriculum Intent

The Social Sciences at Brigshaw Sixth Form teaches pupils to understand and build upon more general

knowledge of the individual mind, society at large and fundamental norms and values. This may be

achieved via analysis and dissemination of more complex theoretical ideas that enshrine criminogenic,

sociological and psychological approaches.

Criminology allows students to prove, disprove and exercise analytical frameworks in evaluating criminal

behaviour and activity. The multi-faceted approaches currently espoused by the most prominent criminal

investigators are discussed synoptically, and students have the opportunity to embrace this through a mix

of pragmatic and theoretical work.

The A level Psychology curriculum empowers students with a strong foundation to pursue a career in the

field. By the end of the course, students have the ability to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of

psychological concepts, theories, research studies, research methods and ethical issues within Psychology.

Students develop a broad array of scientific and linguistic capability through a challenging programme of

topics that provide a skillset unique within A-Level study.

Sociology empowers students to develop a rounded understanding of the principles that shape society.

They gain an appreciation of the different perspectives that formulate people’s opinions on what society

is and should be in the future; ultimately becoming confident in suggesting how it may continue to evolve.

Ideologies such as Marxism, Functionalism, Feminism, the New Right and Postmodernism are core ideas

that are developed, explored and applied all of the way through the course; creating a powerful depth of

understanding that takes students to a broader perception of the world around them.

Curriculum Principles

Teach to the top/backwards planning is approached in the Social Science curriculum by

providing ample advisory to vocabulary, learning outcomes and requirements to achieve the

highest mark bands. This is achieved through the sharing of subject specific knowledge from

subject associations, exam board mark schemes and examiner reports. This is carefully enacted

into lesson plans. Teaching aims to develop upon carefully planned flipped-learning resources

and prior information sheets that enable HAPs to gain insight ahead of the lesson, allowing said

lesson to be tailored for all students to reach that plateau. In Social Science this may be through

smaller group teaching, discussion or adapted resources.

Long term memory is achieved in the Social Sciences through chunking, interleaving and

retrieval tasks that carefully extract relevant and appropriate knowledge at the correct

moments. Students may revisit theoretical perspectives of sociology, or issues and debates in

psychology, and this will appear regularly in all aspects of the curriculum. Formative assessment

in day to day lessons and summative assessment is conducted in a way that always attempts

synopticity with previous knowledge.

Cognitive psychology principles are embedded naturally throughout the Social Sciences, aided

predominantly by the nature of Psychology itself. Thus, the subjects are organised through a

combination of short-answer or “chunked” questions that are supported later by lateral and

deep-thinking pieces of extended writing. Lessons will achieve their objectives by applying a

number of plasticity strategies that both stretch and scaffold, utilising the likes of ZPD and other

psychological developments to ensure all student needs are catered for well.

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