The Business Studies Department comprises of two courses – OCR GCSE Business Studies and Edexcel A Level Business Studies.
All A level Business Studies students are offered the opportunity of attending a one day intensive revision course in Bristol for each of the separate exams. These revision days are well attended, with students really gaining from the expertise of top examiners.
Students also, where possible, have access to a range of topic specific on-line revision sessions, which prove invaluable to students during their revision period. With the many business contacts of the Business Studies staff, over the two years of the A level Course, we have a range of visiting speakers, who are specialists in their areas of business, again proving invaluable to extending the student’s knowledge.
During the GCSE Course, students participate in the Make your Mark Challenge in Global Entrepreneurship Week. One example of the brief to the students was to ‘open a Christmas stall in Shaftesbury’. The students had 5 hours to work in teams to create a business idea, plan the marketing campaign, work out a budget and cash flow forecast and then present their ideas to a ‘Dragon’s Den’ style judge. The winning team’s business idea was called ‘Stockings Filled for U’, which was a filled Christmas stocking for 3 different age groups. This team was particularly strong in both the creative side of advertising and the financial aspects of their business.
Each year, we also hold the Make your Mark with a Tenner Challenge for our Yr10 pupils. This is held for 4 weeks in March, with the students working in teams to come up with a business idea, make and sell a product or provide a service. Students gain a great deal of ‘real life’ experience from this challenge – thinking of the business idea, implementing it, producing a profit and loss account and cash flow forecast, working in teams, dealing with problems as they arise. Some of the business ideas have included a tuck shop, coffee morning, sponsored walk, sponsored cycle ride, car washing, pick and mix and guess the number of sweets in a jar.
The students then choose a charity for the money raised to go to – for example Cancer Research and Help for Heroes charities, to name a few.