As a department, we would like our students to experience a sense of interest and delight in the health industry in the UK. We offer the Health and Social Care BTEC Level 1-2 Tech Award is for learners who wat to acquire technical knowledge and technical skills through vocational contexts as part of their Key Stage 4 learning.  The qualification recognises the values of learning skills, knowledge and vocational attributes to complement GCSEs.  The Qualification will broader the learners experience and understanding of the varied progression options available to them. The focus during these years is to gain an understanding into Life Stages and key health events, which may happen during this time.  Learners will also learn the importance of wellness, and their wellbeing and how this influences people’s daily lives. Put simply, we aim to offer a curriculum, which enables learners to have a view and gain a deeper insight into the world of health.  

 

Ambition of KS4/KS5 Curriculum: 

• Pupils will be stretched and challenged in order to gain the essential knowledge and understanding, through investigation in real situations, of how human development is affected by different factors and lifestyle choices that can influence an individual’s life circumstance and the impact this has on their health.  

• Pupils will gain knowledge and skills to explore practically, health and social care services and how they meet the needs of service users in supporting their health and well-being.  Pupils will understand the importance of Care Values and how these apply.  

• Pupils will be given a sense of freedom, when identifying solutions to problems linked to case studies, which supports independent thinking.  

• Health is an interesting board subject, which will influence them in their lives. Once pupils have achieved the qualification they can progress to further study in Health at KS5, apprenticeship or a job role in the sector.  As a result of completing this study, the pupils will be prepared for their next steps 

Aims, linked to the curriculum (national Curriculum and Specification criteria) 

The aims of the Health Department at UAH has been influence by the purpose and aims of the National Curriculum (DfE, 2013) and the BTEC/Pearson Specifications  and NCFE T level specifications that we follow at GCSE and A Level, which highlight areas that we feel are particularly important in the 21st Century.  These aims are: 

1. Encouraging Curiosity - ‘by developing sector-specific applied knowledge and skills through realistic vocational contexts’. Pearson, (2022). 

2. Exploring Life Events – by learning about ‘different life events and how individuals can adapt or be supported through changes caused by life events (Pearson, 2022).  

3. Problem solving – Learners will develop skills which enable them to problem solve, through learning about conditions people live with and how we can best support them. ‘… how they can be managed by the individual and the different health and social care services that are available (Pearson, 2022). 

4. Increasing knowledge of the world – Researching local areas, and key services to identify what services in health are on our doorsteps.  

5. Developing Mastery – Practical skills will be assessed and resilience and determination ‘threshold competence will be judged to ‘meet employer expectations’ along with developing skills to ‘manage and improve their own performance’ (Pearson, 2024). 

 

Implementation - How is the curriculum delivered? 

It is the assumption that learners will have some knowledge through science and how their bodies work at primary school and this is supported in P.E and Science lessons on arrival in Year 7. Students are asked to recall, knowledge of the body early on in their studies and which is used as a starting point in health. Self-reflection and recall of specific life events will be used to embed their own knowledge, before transferring this knowledge to case studies and discussions to commit to their long-term memory.  

The Health curriculum for KS3, is divided into three areas for KS4 these are known as components, which collectively makeup the qualification.  Component one – PSA -Human lifespan development. Component two – PSA - Health and Social Care values. Component three – Synoptic Assessment Health and Well-being. Together the marks are combined to give an overall grade. Links between units are made, as they naturally work their way up the Life Stages. Pupils have 2 hours a week contact time.  

The Health curriculum for KS4, is divided into Core learning- Healthcare and Occupational Specialism – Adult Nursing.  Learner are on a two year programme, with exams at the end of year one, known as Paper A and Paper B along with an Employer Set Project (ESP).  All marks combined will give an overall grade for year One.  

Year Two involves practical learning and learners are assessed on their practical skills, both at school and in their placements.  Placement reports are used, checked against and discussed with placement supervisors along with three monitoring visits a year, to check progress. At the end of year two, practical assessments take place. This marks from year one and year two are awarded and a grade is given with UCAS attached. 

Learners also are submerged in an industry qualification called the Care Certificate, which is their first professional development piece of work for industry, which is a great qualification to have, as this enables them to be employer ready along with a First Aid Qualification.