Life Skills

The care sector is one of the largest employers of labour force in this country. People are living longer and the birth rate is rising. As a result, there is always a demand in this sector. Studying Health and Social Care or Child Development is the gateway for lots of other avenues for you. You can go to college or university and train for any of the careers that link to this course or you can choose to work as an apprentice and do on the job training. Whichever pathway you choose is up to you. Careers you may have by studying this course are nurse, doctor, ambulance driver, midwife, counsellor, pharmacist, physiotherapist and the list goes on.

Ms C Jumpp-Graham	Joint Curriculum Leader for Life Skills
Mr S Gaddu	Care Teacher & Head of Year 9

Key Stage 4 – Years 9, 10 and 11

This course is an Award equivalent to 1 GCSE 120 GLH. Unit 1 is an external examination and Units 2, 3 and 8 are internally assessed.  The examination is done in May.

Health and Social Care:

• Unit 1 – Human Life Span
• Unit 2 – Health and Social Care Values
• Unit 3 – Communication
• Unit 8 – Individual Rights

Child Development:

• Unit 1 – Patterns in Child Development Exam Unit
• Unit 2 – Promoting Children’s Development Through Play
• Unit 3 – Principle of Early Years Practice

The Tech Award for both Child Development and Health and Social Care are done in two years – two components are taught in year 1 and component 3 is taught in year 2 and is done under examination conditions over three hours. All coursework is assessed internally then assessed externally to ensure that markings are accurate.

Key Stage 5 – Years 12 and 13

Year 1: Two units are taught – Unit 5 which is a synoptic unit done internally and Unit 1 which is an examination unit.  Students must pass the examination component in year 1 in order to move to year 2 of the course.

Year 2: An additional two units are taught – Unit 2 which is an examination unit and Unit 10 which is an internal unit.

Set task: Students take the same assessment during a defined window and demonstrate understanding through a vocational task.

Key Stage 4

• Children’s Play Learning and Development by Penny Tassoni
• BTEC Level 2 Health and Social Care by Alison Hetherington and Elizabeth Rasheed
• BTEC Tech Award in Health and Social Care by Brenda Baker, Colette Burgess and Elizabeth Haworth
• There are online student books as well. You can also use websites such as NHS, BBC and Google. You can watch related videos, read daily newspapers and watch the news.
• Edexcel website for subject area

Key Stage 5

• BTEC Level 2 Health and Social Care by Alison Hetherington and Elizabeth Rasheed (for Level 2 students) BTEC Nationals Level 3 published by Hodder (for Level 3 students)
• There are online student books as well. You can also use websites such as NHS, BBC and Google. You can watch related videos, read daily newspapers and watch the news.
• Edexcel website for subject area

Homework is given by individual teachers and usually links to the units studied. Students can use the BTEC websites and read ahead of classes.

Wednesdays after school for one hour. Student are given the opportunity to do work experience at various Health or Social Care institutions. We also work with outside entities such as Hillingdon Health Watch.

Students are allowed to go on work placement once their course is completed ahead of time to learn about the industry. They are also given high order questioning in class to stretch them.