Curriculum intent

An excellent education is not a privilege, it’s a birth right. In Business we strive to provide an aspirational curriculum to all students, no matter the barriers some may face; we have incredibly high expectations of all students. The Business curriculum is rigorous, ambitious, exciting, driven by challenge and delivered by passionate expert teachers. It is knowledge rich and underpinned by our belief that all students experience the best that has been thought and said to facilitate them becoming masters of the subject: knowledge is taught to be remembered, not merely encountered and forgotten. The curriculum is logically sequenced to build on prior knowledge and understanding. We respect the importance of retrieval practice in securing knowledge in students’ long-term memory so that they can continue to build on it, and use it, in the future. For this reason, every lesson begins with a knowledge retrieval Do Now and students complete weekly high stakes quizzes after spending time preparing (prep).  

Our curriculum is far more than a GCSE specification; it will not only secure excellent GCSE outcomes in the subject, opening doors and providing future opportunities, but it will give students the best possible foundation to positively contribute to the economy and society irrespective of future career decisions. We are confident that when our students leave St Martin’s they will be financially literate, more culturally aware, will celebrate diversity, challenge injustice and promote equality, and as a result, allows for students be more creative and innovative: two characteristics of successful entrepreneurs. To demonstrate only some of the curriculum content that promote these qualities are:  

  • Ethical considerations to include: treatment of key stakeholder groups (child labour and exploitation); how products and services are marketed to us and where and how businesses source materials from. 
  • Environmental considerations such as sustainability and climate change. 
  • Globalisation: risk vs reward. 
  • Employment law exploring discrimination and the need for equality. 
  • Employability skills as part of recruitment and selection. 
  • The economic climate: cost of living crises; the impact of war; the impact of a global pandemic; BREXIT. 
  • International branding: understanding cultural differences and their importance. 

Of course, a curriculum is not once written and never reviewed, it is constantly evolving to not only accommodate the fast-paced and ever-changing world we live in today but to ensure it is fit-for-purpose and the springboard to success for all our students.  

Curriculum outline

Business Curriculum Outline

Year 9

Topic 1: Business Activity

  • 1.1 The Role of Enterprise & Entrepreneurship
  • 2.1 Business Planning
  • 5.3 Revenue, Costs & Profit
  • 1.3 Business Ownership
  • 1.4 Aims & Objectives
  • 1.5 Stakeholders
  • 1.6 Business Growth

Topic 2: Marketing

  • 2.1 The Role of Marketing
  • 2.3 Market Segmentation
  • 2.2 Market Research
  • 2.4 The Marketing Mix

Year 10

Topic 3: People

  • 3.1 The Role of the Human Resource Function
  • 3.2 Organisation Structure & Different Ways of Working
  • 3.4 Recruitment & Selection
  • 3.5 Motivation
  • 3.3 Communication
  • 3.6 Training & Development
  • 3.7 Employment Law

Topic 4: Operations

  • 4.1 Production Processes and Influence of Technology
  • 4.2 Quality
  • 4.3 The Sales Process & Methods of Selling
  • 4.4 Consumer Law
  • 4.5 Business Location
  • 4.6 Working with Suppliers

Year 11

Topic 5: Finance

  • 5.1 The Role of the Finance Function
  • 5.2 Sources of Finance
  • 5.3 Revenue, Costs & Profit (revisit)
  • 5.4 Break-even Analysis
  • 5.5 Cash & Cash Flow

Topic 6: Influences of Business

  • 6.1 Ethical & Environmental Considerations
  • 6.2 Economic Climate
  • 6.3 Globalisation