Humanities - Health & Social Care

It is suitable for students who wish to work with people in the future, usually within a caring, social care, or medical profession, especially at a time when the demographics of the city and country are becoming more and more dependent on health services. It encourages students to examine issues such as quality of life, the importance of support when improving health, personal development and relationships which ties into the school’s ethos of Stronger together, creating better futures.

Intent

The aim of the Health and Social Care curriculum at Tor Bridge High is to equip students with specialist knowledge, understanding, and skills for everyday use and to meet the needs of individuals across a range of health, social care and early years settings. Health & Social Care is one of the Social Sciences subjects, delivered within Tor Bridge High and we aim to help students understand the different experiences that impact on people living in society.

Health and Social Care as a subject has never been more important as it is now in modern society. Students will look at a range of different health, social care and child care settings, and activities will be both theoretical and practical. The curriculum develops an understanding of the skills and qualities required to influence care and empowers students through encouraging independence and creativity; providing tasks that engage with the most taxing aspects of the National Curriculum (including Values of Care and the current legislation requirements) and the importance of softer skills such as communication to ensure individuals right to independence and dignity. Health and Social Care equips our students to discover the impact of positive and negative human development and to critically analyse how these factors affect our day to day lives. Health and Social Care enables students to explore areas that influence how we develop throughout life stages and in turn raise expectations of how we can live successful and healthy lives now and in our future.

Implementation

Health and Social Care at Tor Bridge High is a small department taught by specialists in both Key Stage 3 & 4. In an age where our health and social care services are in crisis and crying out for health care professionals, it is even more important for us to ensure that the next generations of young people are well equipped and ready to make like changing decisions in order to impact the society we live in and make lives better by the care that they give to service users. This is echoed in our extensive ‘real world’ curriculum approach which can be seen below:

KS4 - The principles and features that characterise our approach are:

Development of key skills that prove your aptitude in health and social care such as interpreting data to assess an individual’s health and wellbeing;
Process that underpins effective ways of working in health and social care, such as designing a plan to improve an individual’s health and wellbeing;
Attitudes that are considered most important in health and social care, including the care values that are vitally important in the sector, and the opportunity to practise applying them;
Knowledge that underpins effective use of skills, process and attitudes in the sector such as human growth and development, health and social care services, and factors affecting people’s health and wellbeing;
The development of core knowledge and understanding of human growth and development, how people deal with major life events, health and social care services;
The development and application of skills such as: practical demonstration of care values, together with the ability to reflect on own performance;
Reflective practice through the development of skills and techniques that allow learners to respond to feedback and identify areas for improvement using relevant presentation techniques.

KS5 - The principles and features that characterise our approach are:

Understanding equality, diversity and rights in different health and social care settings and unpicking how legislations are made and enshrined by law and the Government.
How to build positive relationships in health and social care, including special methods of communication and psychological theories of communication.
Knowledge that underpins health, safety and security in health, social care and child care settings, with the potential impacts of hazards for individuals who require care or support, employees and employers.
A breadth and depth of knowledge in anatomy and physiology, which includes the malfunctions, diagnosis, treatment and lifestyle changes.
Understanding the different food groups and the nutrition of different individuals, including the interpretation of data.
Attitudes about sexual health, reproduction and early development stages, which links very closely to sex education and PSHME and personal and healthy relationships.

Lesson approach and teaching methods at KS4

The qualification has three components that focus on the assessment of knowledge, skills and practices. These are all essential to developing a basis for progression and therefore students need to demonstrate attainment across all components in order to achieve the qualification. The components are strongly interrelated and they are best seen as part of an integrated whole, rather than totally distinct study areas. Normally, students will take these qualifications over a two-year period. This means that they must be given the opportunity to build their confidence in understanding the sector, vocational contexts and vocational attributes over a long period during the course of study before they are assessed. Internal assessments will normally be assessed through written coursework, these will contain some practical elements that they will be required to write about. The internal assessments are carried out in exam conditions and in an exam window which is stipulated by the exam board every year. The external assessment is likely to be a mixture of long and short answer exam questions based around case studies and comprehension.

Impact

Students will have a wider understanding about the ‘real world’ and our health and social care services.

Students will have a better understanding of our National Health Services, how they came about and how they function in today’s society. Students will also compare this to other countries and how their health care systems work.

Students are independent learners who are inquisitive and understand this sector of work.

Students will be engaged in their learning and will achieve at least a Level 2 Pass, Merit or Distinction at KS4, and level 3 Pass, Merit or Distinction at KS5

KS3 Curriculum Content

No Course Available

Year 7

Year 8

Year 9

KS4 Curriculum Content

What Will I Study?

Yr9 the students cover the underlying principles of health and social care such as growth and development across the growth stages and the factors that affect it. In Yr10 we have learning about factors that affect health and wellbeing, interpreting health indicators, as well as person centred health and wellbeing improvement plans which continues through to Yr11.

How Will I Be Assessed?

There are 4 controlled assessments; two completed in Yr10 and two in Yr11. Students also need to be involved in a role play activity where their application of the care values is assessed. In addition to this, they need to complete an external exam which is marked by the examining board.

Other Health & Social Care Experiences

Visits to local university days which encourage students to learn more about the topics and develop their interest in working in health and social care environments. For work experience, students are encouraged to find out more about working in a health and social care environment, if they wish to pursue a career in this field, through first-hand experience in a ‘real world’ environment such as a nursery.

Year 10

Year 11

KS5 Curriculum Content