St John’s Curriculum Overview – Business A Level Year 13 Introduction

Subject title

Business A-Level

Setting arrangements

Not set by prior attainment

Time allowance each fortnight

9 hours

Business at St John's is studied at A-Level and we cover the AQA specification 7132.

e Topics, Skills and Assessment covered during the course Term Topic

Syllabus Unit/Theme

Subject content

Assessment details

Term 1

Unit 7: Analysing the strategic position of a business: Is profit the most important measure of business performance? Why have so many businesses issued profit warnings?

Mission statements, Corporate Objectives and Strategies; Measuring the financial performance of the business, other ways of measuring business performance, SWOT analysis. Analysing economic data, social and technological changes and the changing competitive environment. Investment appraisal and sensitivity analysis.

Timed essay questions, multiple choice tests, on- going assessment of homework based around past paper questions, teacher assessment

Unit 8: Choosing a strategic direction: What are the main strategic options available to business? Term 2

Ansoff’s strategic matrix, strategic positioning

Unit 9: Strategic methods: How can businesses grow in a rapidly changing and uncertain environment?

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Unit 10 Managing Strategic Change: Does implementing change always cause resistance?

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Internal and external growth of businesses, issues with rapid growth, problems and benefits of growth. Mergers, takeovers and acquisitions. Assessing innovation-how organisations can become more innovative. Assessing internationalisation and digital technologies. Managing change, the value of change, barriers to change, overcoming barriers to change, creating flexible organisations. Managing Organisational Culture-the reasons for and problems of changing an organisations culture. Managing Strategic Implementation

Timed essay questions, multiple choice tests, on- going assessment of homework based around past paper questions, teacher assessment Timed essay questions, multiple choice tests, on- going assessment of homework based around past paper questions, teacher assessment

Term 3

Unit 10; Problems with Strategy and why Strategies fail: Why do firms have a Brexit strategy and why might it fail?

Strategic gaps, strategic drift, planned and emergent strategies. Contingency planning and Corporate Governance. Start revising and revisiting Units 1-4

Timed essay questions, multiple choice tests, on- going assessment of homework based around past paper questions, teacher assessment

Term 4

Start revising and revisiting Unit 5-7

Timed essay questions, multiple choice tests, on- going assessment of homework based around past paper questions, teacher assessment

Term 5

Start revising and revisiting Units 8-10

Timed essay questions, multiple choice tests, on- going assessment of homework based around past paper questions, teacher assessment

Term 6

Public Exams

End of year exam

Resources Recommended for Revision and where they are available:

Additional support and help for the course: Revision mornings prior to the exams

These resources are available on loan from the 6th form library and from the Business department

Extra-Curricular: • Visits to business operations • Guest speakers including senior business leaders

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My Revision Notes for AQA A-Level Business (Hodder education) third edition ISBN 978-1-3983-1190-9

https://www.hoddereducation.co.uk/subjects/business-andaccounting/products/16-18/my-revision-notes-aqa-a-level-business-third-edi •

AQA A-Level in Business: formal specification, course materials, published resources and assessment advice: https://www.aqa.org.uk/subjects/business/as-and-a-level

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Lesson materials, activities, practice questions and PPTs are available to students in Sharepoint

Homework Homework is set every week and once a fortnight an assessed past paper essay question is set on the current topic being studied.