Theme 1: Introduction to Markets and Market Failure

This theme focuses on microeconomic concepts. Students will develop an understanding of: ● nature of economics

• how markets work
• market failure
• government intervention.

Theme 2: The UK Economy - Performance and Policies

This theme focuses on macroeconomic concepts. Students will develop an understanding of: ● measures of economic performance

• aggregate demand
• aggregate supply
• national income
• economic growth
• macroeconomic objectives and policy

Theme 3: Business Behaviour and the Labour Market

This theme develops the microeconomic concepts introduced in Theme 1 and focuses on business economics. Students will develop an understanding of:

• business growth
• business objectives
• revenues, costs and profits
• market structures
• labour market
• government intervention

Theme 4: A Global Perspective

This theme develops the macroeconomic concepts introduced in Theme 2 and applies these concepts in a global context. Students will develop an understanding of:

• international economics
• poverty and inequality
• emerging and developing economies
• the financial sector
• role of the state in the marcoeconomy

Pupils should be taught:

Computational Thinking

• design, use and evaluate computational abstractions that model the state and behaviour of real-world problems and physical systems
• understand several key algorithms that reflect computational thinking [for example, ones for sorting and searching]; use logical reasoning to compare the utility of alternative algorithms for the same problem
• use two or more programming languages, at least one of which is textual, to solve a variety of computational problems; make appropriate use of data structures [for example, lists, tables or arrays]; design and develop modular programs that use procedures or functions
• understand simple Boolean logic [for example, AND, OR and NOT] and some of its uses in circuits and programming; understand how numbers can be represented in binary, and be able to carry out simple operations on binary numbers [for example, binary addition, and conversion between binary and decimal]
• understand the hardware and software components that make up computer systems, and how they communicate with one another and with other systems
• understand how instructions are stored and executed within a computer system; understand how data of various types (including text, sounds and pictures) can be represented and manipulated digitally, in the form of binary digits

Information and Communication Technology

• undertake creative projects that involve selecting, using, and combining multiple applications, preferably across a range of devices, to achieve challenging goals, including collecting and analysing data and meeting the needs of known users
• create, re-use, revise and re-purpose digital artefacts for a given audience, with attention to trustworthiness, design and usability

Digital Literacy

• understand a range of ways to use technology safely, respectfully, responsibly and securely, including protecting their online identity and privacy; recognise inappropriate content, contact and conduct and know how to report concerns.

All pupils must have the opportunity to study aspects of information technology and computer science at sufficient depth to allow them to progress to higher levels of study or to a professional career.

All pupils should be taught to:

• develop their capability, creativity and knowledge in computer science, digital media and information technology
• develop and apply their analytic, problem-solving, design, and computational thinking skills
• understand how changes in technology affect safety, including new ways to protect their online privacy and identity, and how to identify and report a range of concerns.

Teaching and Learning Approach

Explanations

Whilst a significant proportion of the specification will relate to students’ own experiences, the terminology and nuances in differences between key terms and scenarios requires clear explanation.

Key terms will be identified on the specification, with those key terms that can present challenge to students clearly highlighted.

Key terms are usually explained through worked examples in the form of business/national scenarios/case studies.

Definitions are usually written in folders/included in worksheets after the teacher has explained through worked examples. Whilst we may explain some of the keywords in more simple terms, it is important that students know the strict definitions as they may be assessed on their understanding of the differences between definitions e.g. unemployment and employment.

It is important therefore that clear routines have been established in class so that all students know that they are expected to listen intently.

Questioning

Lessons should start with a ‘Fast 5’ activity or similar, using whiteboards where appropriate. The purpose of the questions should be to recap work from previous lessons, link previous content that will link to new content and/or to introduce new content. Definitions and the differences between definitions should be checked routinely and be used to address misconceptions.

Discussion is an opportunity to assess the pupils’ retention of knowledge from previous lessons as well as understanding and past experiences with business. The expectations of discussions must be clearly explained prior to allowing the pupils the chance to do so. The pupils must be taught over time how to discuss effectively, who to discuss with, how to listen effectively, what the time should be used to do and what to do when neither partner remembers the answer. The teacher must hold the pupils to account should they fail to achieve these expectations. Where expectations are not met, teachers should not be afraid of targeting students for discussion with the class so  that they are aware that a lack of engagement is unacceptable.

While the discussion occurs, it is important that the teacher ‘circulate’ to assess understanding, but also to be able to select a pupil with an adequate response as a starting point to help move the lesson along and maintain a good pace which is vital to engagement. Additionally, where misconceptions have been identified in discussions, these should be addressed with the class, ensuring that business language is refined and in line with the expectations of the specification.

Discussion activities should be scaffolded through a series of questions on the board. Students should be encouraged to also debate with other pairs where appropriate e.g. which goods should be public goods? Why should we have a welfare state?

All students should be given the opportunity to feedback on discussion activities. It is important therefore that the classroom culture should help to breed confidence and acceptance of incorrect/inaccurate responses, with the teacher offering praise for participation and also guiding students towards correct responses.

The seating plan is an important tool to help aid the teacher. By using the seating plan effectively, stronger pupils can aid weaker pupils in different areas such as verbal responses, written responses or handwriting and presentation issues, which in turn deepens their own understanding. These seating plans should be derived from a holistic approach taking into account behaviour, verbal responses given, effort shown in written response, and progress made shown through the use of assessment data available. This is not an exact science, and teachers may choose to seat students next to others whom they ‘work well with’ and provide a competitive element.

Once the pupils show understanding of the basic concepts, the questions should increase in difficulty and the pupils should be expected to extend their answers. It is through the use of questioning that a teacher should assess whether the pupils understand and have retained the knowledge and skills required to move on to the next part of the lesson. This shows that these responses inform planning.

Economics provides the opportunity to ‘bounce’ questions and answers between students to help develop the necessary analysis and evaluative skills demanded by the specification. Teachers should consider which students are best suited to answer each question based on ability, ensuring that every student has the opportunity to contribute to lessons as well as listen to and learn from the developed answers given by other students. This helps to create a culture of ‘always on’, with students knowing that they could be asked or bounced a question at any time.

Modelling

Modelling helps to ensure that lessons follow the correct structure and routines are established within lessons. From how to discuss to even how to exit a room, all aspects of the lesson should be modelled when introduced. It is then the role of the teacher to enforce these routines and ensure that they are followed from that moment on.

Modelling can also be done to develop the pupils’ verbal and written responses. The modelling of outstanding responses and the content of good verbal and written responses should be outlined and clear to the pupils prior to engaging in the activity of discussing or writing.

Modelling of answers and expectations should be used throughout lesson activities. In the main, an ‘I do, we do, you do’ structure helps students to understand what is expected, what written structure to follow (exam questions), formulas to use (calculation questions) and minimum expectations for the completion of other lesson activities e.g. worksheets, tables etc. Students should be given a range of questions to practice and challenge their understanding, whilst also providing opportunity for the teacher to circulate and live mark in class. Again, common misconceptions can be addressed as a class and teachers should not be afraid to pause activities and remodel should understanding not be clear.

Students should be able to refer to the exam technique sheet and/or be modelled clearly on the board by the class teacher before each task. This is particularly relevant when explaining Economic concepts through diagrams.

Economic diagrams can be modelled through a number of methods to challenge the thinking of students. Where relevant, students should be challenged to illustrate the relationship between 2 variables e.g. Tax rate and tax revenue (Laffer Curve) before addressing the inevitable assumptions made by students, or through step by step modelling or plotting of curves based on data (e.g. Marginal Utility or Tariff diagrams).

Challenge and Adaptive Teaching

All pupils must meet the learning outcomes and objectives set out in the scheme of work. The teacher will skilfully devise activities appropriate to the ability level, but the scheme will remain the same with the outcomes being the same. These activities that the class should complete and any expectations of verbal and written work will need to be tempered accordingly in order to structure the lesson well enough for the less able and to challenge the most able. For pupils with SEND needs, it is important that the teacher ensure that the Pupil Passport is followed, but that the pupils are expected to conform to all expectations possible.

Powerful Knowledge

Where possible and relevant, teachers should take the opportunity to impart ‘Powerful Knowledge’, information and ideas that go beyond the specification that either provides challenge or helps students to understand the wider context of topics.

For example, there is no requirement for students to know what proportion of the government budget is spent on unemployment benefits, but by adding additional context students are able to show a wider understanding of the national economy whilst also adding to their understanding of the challenges facing governments from a political perspective.

Opportunities should be outlined in the Scheme of Learning and should not be delivered at the sacrifice of specification content.

Marking and Feedback

Any written work completed in class should be purposeful and give the pupils the opportunity to show their clear understanding of what they have been taught. Improvements can be made through discussion and verbal feedback from the teacher, but the main method used is through written feedback.

It is the teacher’s responsibility each time that the pupils write in their notes to specify the title and remind the pupils to add the classwork, date, underline it and to write neatly. This is best done through modelling. Failure to model the correct method will result in pupils failing to adopt the correct attitude and a lot more work for the teacher in getting the pupils to rewrite the work or complete handwriting and presentation corrections. Should the pupils fail despite these warnings, these pupils must be targeted in the future for specific regular book checks and questioning in order to realign their expectations. Folders should be regularly checked at KS5 to ensure that all expectations are met in regards to PLC’s, lesson notes and Cornell notes.

All written will be marked in accordance with the whole-school marking policy. A particular focus on handwriting and presentation from the start of the year is vital to the success of the pupil and the attitude that they display for the rest of the year. Content should be marked for accuracy and in order to check that the pupils have each part of the answer completed. Similarly, lessons and activities should be planned as to ensure that there is ample opportunity to correct misunderstanding in lesson. Diagrams should be drawn with a rule and pencil at all times to ensure accuracy and enable the correction of errors.

Pupils will be given an action point where they have failed to show their understanding. The starter activity of the following lesson should be used to guide students through their action points through a ‘Fast Five’ or similar activity. Literacy will be marked in line with the whole-school policy whilst only underlining misspellings of subject-specific keyword vocabulary.

The vast majority of written tasks will be a timed activity. The teacher should target students at the start of each task based on ability and attitude to learning to clarify understanding and expectations of the task, as well as provide sentence starters, for example, where necessary.

Where possible, teachers should use the visualiser to illustrate examples of high quality work as well as work that requires improvement, so that students are able to identify common errors and how to improve answers based on teacher guidance.

Feedback is incredibly important in order to drive improvement and so the pupils must act upon it. Once the teacher has completely marked a set of written work, an appropriate amount of the next lesson must be spent reflecting upon the work, discussing recurring action points as a whole class and improving work within them. Without this activity the impact of marking is lost. Where pupils have failed to complete action points or handwriting and presentation corrections, this should be dealt with by the teacher through academic intervention and break time/lunch-time detentions.

Following on from marking, the teacher should consider how the content was taught and improve the resources or their own explanations to better reflect what they intended the pupils to write in their exercise book. This will drive their own improvement for other classes and in the future and that the scheme of work is changed to reflect these changes. For the current class, however, it is important that any common misconceptions are addressed in the very next lesson and any topics where this is the case are retaught correctly.

Pupils that miss lessons will be expected to copy up work on return to class and will provided with the work from another pupils’ folder at the next marking cycle at the very latest should they not take initiative and complete the work themselves. Repeated failure to do so will require academic intervention from the teacher.

Teaching for Long Term Memory

The scheme was sequenced so that the topics interlink well in order to build and develop the pupils’ understanding over time. The order also allows for regular recapping of previous learning and key topics to further embed it within the pupils’ long-term memory. These recaps are indicated and explained prior to new learning being taught and teachers should use the skills of questioning and modelling to have the greatest impact. Regular recaps of what they discussed last lesson from early on in the year will develop resilience, whilst forming the basis of a recurring theme in computing lessons where each lesson builds upon the learning or at least recaps the learning of the previous one.

It is important for assessments and examinations that the content of the course, is remembered for the long-term and as such, every effort must be made to link the learning together where advised. Not doing so would inhibit the pupils’ ability to make progress over time. The methods used for revision can vary, but the one used most effectively in economics is teacher led mindmaps and ‘blurting’. Pupils must be taught by the teacher how to create an effective mindmaps and ‘blurt’ and how to use them for their revision to ensure that it has the maximum impact.

Homework

Homework must be set in line with the whole-school homework policy and timetable and will be appropriate for the ability level of the class. Homework should recap prior learning where possible or prepare the pupils for the future lesson and be of sufficient length and depth to challenge the pupils. These tasks help to embed and revisit content but also provide students the opportunity to receive either live feedback (Uplearn) or receive written feedback that can help students to develop their answers further through action points.

Occasionally, homework could be to research and prepare slides on, for example, inequality within an emerging economy. These tasks should follow a clear structure, with instructions easy to follow so that all students are able to access the task and produce high quality work that they may be expected to present to the rest of the class.

Assessment (whole school)

Summative assessments should be designed based on the content that has been taught to that point, the skills that have been developed (AO1,AO2, AO3, and AO4). It is usual that assessments do not test evaluative skills at in the first term and that question length increases as more content is covered given the synoptic nature of the subject. This means that only 1,2,3, 4, 6, 10 and 15 mark questions are assessed in term 1.

All assessments are based on exam questions from previous exam papers or exemplar material provided by the exam bored. This provides students with the necessary practice and feedback to develop the skills required to achieve in their final exams.

QLA performed by the class teacher should inform whole class feedback and planning, with a clear focus of the teacher being on the specific language used, the structure of answers and any misconceptions in understanding.

By the time all content from the specification has been taught, students should have been assessed on all skills and content.

The Head of Department ensures that assessments are checked and verified with line managers and that there is a clear and shared rationale for the awarding of progress grades for reporting to parents. This will incorporate the use of formative assessment, enabling teachers to use their daily feedback through questioning and marking, to inform decisions related to progress grades.

Reading and Literacy (whole school)

Reading and literacy is an essential skill in Economics. Exam papers require students to a) understand the demands of the questions and b) respond to scenarios in case studies.

It is important that students are able to regularly practice reading in lessons, identify information that is critical to answering a question and also consider the impact of the scenario on any given industry or economy and its population.

It is fortunate that in Economics teachers are able to regularly refer to current affairs in the news to help students to understand lesson content. It is important that, to maximise engagement, news articles are as up to date as possible. Reading ages should be used to help produce differentiated reading material where necessary so that all students can access material, using tools such as Diffit.

Students are expected to read in silence and respond to pre-prepared questions linked to the article. The teacher will then read through the content again with the class, either led by the teacher or through student participation. Keywords and critical information should be highlighted and discussed so that students fully consider the implications of the article/case study.

Similarly, when data is presented in a case study/news article, students should be encouraged to draw their own conclusions before these are then discussed at whole class level.

Course Overview

Theme 1: Introduction to Markets and Market Failure

Focus: Core microeconomic principles explaining how markets work, how resources are allocated, and why markets may fail.

Economic Problem and Methodology

• Scarcity, choice and opportunity cost
• Production possibility frontiers (PPFs) and efficiency
• Positive vs normative statements
• Economic assumptions and models

Demand and Supply

• Factors affecting demand and supply
• Movements along vs shifts of curves
• Market equilibrium and disequilibrium
• Price mechanism and rationing

Elasticities

• Price elasticity of demand (PED)
• Income elasticity of demand (YED)
• Cross elasticity of demand (XED)
• Price elasticity of supply (PES)
• Determinants and applications of elasticity

Consumer and Producer Behaviour

• Utility theory
• Law of diminishing marginal utility
• Consumer surplus and producer surplus

Market Failure

• Externalities (positive and negative, production and consumption)
• Public goods and quasi-public goods
• Information asymmetry
• Merit and demerit goods

Government Intervention

• Indirect taxation and subsidies
• Regulation and legislation
• State provision
• Price controls (maximum and minimum prices)
• Government failure and unintended consequences

Theme 2: The UK Economy - Performance and Policies

Focus: How the macroeconomy operates, how performance is measured, and how governments manage economic activity.

Measures of Economic Performance

• Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
• Inflation (CPI, RPI)
• Employment and unemployment
• Balance of payments
• Living standards and inequality

Aggregate Demand and Aggregate Supply

• Components of aggregate demand
• Short-run and long-run aggregate supply
• Keynesian vs classical perspectives
• Shifts in AD and AS

Economic Growth and the Trade Cycle

• Causes and consequences of growth
• Output gaps
• Boom, recession and recovery phases

Macroeconomic Objectives

• Economic growth
• Low inflation
• Low unemployment
• Balance of payments stability
• Conflicts and trade-offs

Macroeconomic Policies

• Fiscal policy: taxation and government spending
• Monetary policy: interest rates and quantitative easing
• Supply-side policies: labour market, product market, education
• Policy effectiveness and limitations

Theme 3: Business Behaviour and the Labour Market

Focus: Microeconomic analysis of firms, industries, labour markets and competition.

Business Growth

• Organic growth
• Integration: horizontal, vertical and conglomerate
• Mergers, takeovers and demergers

Business Objectives

• Profit maximisation
• Revenue maximisation
• Growth, survival and corporate social responsibility
• Impact of ownership and size on objectives

Revenue, Costs and Profits

• Total, average and marginal revenue
• Fixed, variable, average and marginal costs
• Short-run vs long-run cost curves
• Economies and diseconomies of scale
• Normal and supernormal profit

Market Structures

• Perfect competition
• Monopolistic competition
• Oligopoly
• Monopoly
• Contestability and barriers to entry

Labour Markets

• Demand for labour (derived demand)
• Supply of labour
• Wage determination
• Labour market imperfections
• Trade unions, minimum wage and discrimination

Theme 4: A Global Perspective

Focus: Application of economic theory to international trade, global development and the financial system.

International Trade

• Specialisation and comparative advantage
• Free trade vs protectionism
• Tariffs, quotas and subsidies
• Trading blocs and economic integration

Exchange Rates

• Floating, fixed and managed exchange rate systems
• Factors influencing exchange rates
• Impact of exchange rate movements on the economy

Globalisation

• Causes of globalisation
• Role of multinational corporations (MNCs)
• Impacts on developed and developing economies

Poverty and Inequality

• Absolute and relative poverty
• Causes of inequality
• Policies to reduce poverty and inequality

Emerging and Developing Economies

• Characteristics and constraints on growth
• Role of aid, trade and foreign direct investment (FDI)
• Development strategies

The Financial Sector

• Role of commercial and central banks
• Financial markets
• Regulation of the financial sector
• Causes and consequences of financial instability

Role of the State in the Macroeconomy

• Taxation and public spending
• Budget deficits and national debt
• Evaluation of government intervention