Curriculum Area: Business Studies

Curriculum area: Business Studies

It’s my pleasure to welcome you to the Business Studies department. As a school we pride ourselves on providing students with a range of opportunities to develop existing skills and knowledge that are transferable for the world of work. As a department the subject lends itself well to this. We have a range of external partnerships to enable those links to be made and facilitate consolidation of knowledge and learning. That business is fun and exciting, how enterprise skills fit into the world of business and understand how businesses operate.

This is a GCSE pathway option.

Year 9 / Year 10 / Year 11
Autumn term / Spotting a business opportunity – customer needs, primary and secondary market Research, qualitative and quantitative research, customer buying habits a showing enterprise, market segments, identify a market gap
Analysing competitor
strengths and weaknesses - analysis of the competitors, analyse competitor strengths and weaknesses and the comparing a business offering
Understanding the need to
add value - ‘added value’ and explain its
importance in business survival and success, sources of added
value
What options exist for starting
up a business? - principles of franchising, advantages and
disadvantages of using a
franchise, identify a suitable startup location.
Showing Enterprise
What is enterprise?
risks, showing initiative, and a willingness to undertake new ventures
Difference between
providing goods or a service / Forecasting cash flows:
role and importance of cash
Determine net and cumulative cash flows
How cash flows are affected by stock levels and credit terms
Role and importance of a business plan
Obtaining finance
Main sources of finance for a small business start-up
Short-term sources
Customer focus
Identify and
meet customer needs
The marketing mix
Price, product, promotion and place
The importance of limited
Liability
Principle of limited
and unlimited liability
Differences between sole
trader and private limited
company status
Start-up legal and tax issues
VAT, income tax, National Insurance and Corporation Tax
Effective on-time delivery and
customer satisfaction
Effective customer
Service
Customer satisfaction
Repeat purchase / Barriers to good
Communication
Main barriers to
successful communication
importance of language used, technical content, emotional interference
inappropriate medium, lack of trust/honesty, cultural differences, position/status of the source
The effects of good
business communication
Impact of good
communication with
stakeholder groups
The effects of bad business
communication:
The impact of poor
communication with
stakeholder groups, alienate, cause conflict
Stakeholders
The stakeholders in a
Business – internal and external
Methods of communication
with stakeholders
Different media
Types of written
Communication
The variety of written
forms of communication
Types of electronic
Communication - email, the web, fax and loyalty cards
Types of oral
Communication - face-to face meetings, telephone
calls, appraisals and annual general meetings (AGMs)
Images used in business
Communication - logos, designs and adverts, celebrity endorsements,
slogans and straplines
Spring Term / Thinking creatively
why thinking creatively is
important in developing both
competitive advantage and a
new business
Role of lateral thinking
and deliberate creativity
What questions do
entrepreneurs ask?
Important questions to
ask when coming up with new
business ideas
Invention and innovation
– generating new business
ideas:
How new business ideas come
about
Difference between innovation and invention
Patents and copyright
Taking a calculated risk
Principle of taking a calculated risk
Risks and the rewards
Judging outcome and viability of a start-up / Recruiting, training and
motivating staff
Processes involved
in recruiting staff to work
Market demand and supply
Prices of commodity
markets are determined by the balance between supply and demand
Difference between
commodity markets and normal markets
Impact of changes in interest
Impact of changing interest rates on consumer spending
rates on small businesses
Impact of changes in
exchange rates
How changes in the £/$ or £/€ affect small firms that trade abroad or face competition from abroad
how to calculate exchange rates
on product prices / The principles of using word
processing skills - advantages of using
templates
The value of presentations in a business - use of different presentation techniques
The use of desktop publishing (DTP) in
Businesses - use of a basic facility with a desktop publishing (DTP) package
The use of video and
Teleconferencing - reasons for the growth in the use of video and teleconferencing
Organisational charts and
their purpose - use of ICT in identifying
and constructing, different
types of organisational
chart (including hierarchical, matrix, circular and flat)
The value of email systems:
Main purposes of email
systems in a business
The internet - advantages and disadvantages of the
internet
Business websites - having an online presence
Creating a simple website - key factors in creating
a website
Domain names and hosting –
Legal obligations of websites - main legislation,
directives and regulations
Successful business
Websites - ways of measuring success
Summer Term / Other important enterprise
skills:
Importance of planning, thinking ahead, seeing opportunities, having drive and determination
Collect thoughts and see opportunities
Objectives when starting up
Financial objectives
Non-financial objectives
The qualities shown by
Entrepreneurs
Determination and initiative, the willingness to take risks and make decisions, the ability to plan and persuade showing leadership the role of luck in business
success/failure
Estimating revenues, costs and profits
Businesses forecast sales
volumes and selling prices to estimate revenue
Fixed and variable costs
Concept of profit
Impact of profits and losses / How do business cycles affect small businesses
Economic activity
What effect do business
decisions have on
stakeholders
Controlled Assessment Unit 2
Communication Unit 4
The communication model
Concept of communication
The purpose of communication
Transfer of information
Different audiences
The process of
Communication
Method used by the sender to send out information
Advantages and
disadvantages of the
different methods
Different types of business
Organisation communicating
Feedback from the receiver

Opportunities

Interaction and integration with local businesses and external agencies

Opportunity to apply knowledge to everyday life

Galleries