Subject Overview
Develop an understanding of economic concepts and theories through the study of current economic issues, problems and institutions. A-Level Economics builds the knowledge and skills needed to understand and analyse data, think critically about issues and make informed decisions. Students develop the knowledge and skills needed to understand and analyse data, think critically about issues and make informed decisions. They will also build upon their quantitative skills and appreciate that, when evaluating arguments, both qualitative and quantitative evidence are important.
We want every student who studies Economics at OAE in the sixth form to nurture a passion for the subject through our delivery of an ambitious and wide range of content. In Year one students are supported to establish a solid understanding of the core concepts in microeconomics and taught the skills to apply and evaluate these theories to examples from the real world. The year two content builds on this knowledge and students learn macro-economics, as we challenge students with more complex models and theories of trade policy and market failures and push their analytical and evaluation skills.
Though we know that many students lack cultural capital when they join us, in line with the whole school vision we want all students, regardless of starting point, to be able to deeply understand and critically evaluate Economics journals, books and articles from the news. In order for this to be achieved we teach an Economics curriculum which relates all topics to current events, embedding recent case studies from the news into lessons and homework. Through the ‘Do Now’ and summative assessments we are able to check for student understanding to ensure mastery and run intervention sessions which cater to student needs. Once content is mastered, we challenge students to apply it to real-time news and expect students to know the current economic environment and how economic agents are being affected. All teachers of Economics acknowledge the complex and important role that education can have in empowering students to engage competently with their communities. In particular we recognise that if students are able to apply their Economics knowledge to current affairs, then they will leave the sixth form as young adults who are able to engage with, debate and positively influence the political, economic and social climates in which they live. In lessons we therefore expect to see students and teachers speaking like economists as they explain and devaluate the content. We want students to go on to become the Economists and political, business and community leaders of tomorrow, with a deep understanding of how important the role of positive economic policies and business decisions are in our world.
A level Economics Course Outline.
You can read our Curriculum Road Maps for Economics here. (This sequence is taught to our current year 12 -13s).
You can read our Statement of Intent for Economics here. (This sequence is taught to our current year 12-13s).
You can read our Long Term Plan for our Economics curriculum here. (This sequence is taught to our current year 12-13s).
