Academic

→ ART A- level

Art

A Level is also a popular choice, where the curriculum again provides choices in three disciplines: Fine Art, Textile Design and Photography. Graphic Communication may also be offered alongside the Photography option. Pupils enjoy greater degrees of freedom and independent learning, exploring subjects of significant personal interest. The gap between A Level and undergraduate courses is bridged, so our girls are ready for their creative learning beyond secondary education.

University

University applications are supported by dedicated portfolio preparation classes and focused support with art and design applications, including specialised tuition in generating Personal Statements. One-to-one tutorials, after school portfolio workshops and weekly life classes are mandatory, in order to provide our pupils with the essential tools they require to gain entry to their preferred choices. With our guidance, they will never be more prepared for a higher education in the visual arts and we have a real belief in all our pupils’ goals and ambitions to succeed and to follow their dreams.

Exhibitions, Visits and Extra Curricular

A vital element of our GCSE and A Level courses and ultimate appraisal of our pupils’ success is an end of course Private View, in which they showcase their work and discuss their journey to parents, teachers and visitors. It is an informal evening much enjoyed by us all and a fantastic way to see our amazing young artists shine.

An integral part of our learning programme involves organising regular visits to museums and art galleries, such as the Horniman and British museums, as well as residential cultural trips. Popular destinations include St Ives, Florence and Barcelona.

We also host arts festivals, during which time, visiting artists deliver exciting workshops to all age ranges; for example, Years 6 and 7 have enjoyed forest workshops with environmental artist, Tim Pugh. Our sixth form Art Captain has begun to collaborate with other St Teresa’s art scholars, in order to organise visual arts projects, such as murals that seek to bring our community closer together and in a range of innovative ways.

→ Business (Edexcel)

Course Tutor: Mrs M Angel MBE

Business is a now a major subject both at A Level and at many universities. It is also absolutely vital for the pupil​ if the plan is to become an entrepreneur, establishing and managing your own business, giving you the tools to be in control and succeed.
Taking Business A level and will broaden the pupil’s horizons, not only in terms of subject knowledge, but in the understanding of the way the world works. In addition to national and global awareness, the course will enhance numeracy, written and oral skills.
Pupils will need to keep up to date with current affairs, through following events on all media outlets (e.g. Television, newspapers, websites, etc.)
Business combines well with many other subjects such as Mathematics, Geography or History and can equally well be studied alongside English Literature, Physics or Foreign Languages. Ideally, candidates will have obtained at least a grade 6 in English and Mathematics at GCSE. It is not necessary to have Business GCSE qualification to take this course. Everything you need to know to pass this course will be taught.

The Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Business is structured into four themes and consists of three externally examined papers. Pupils are introduced to business in Themes 1 and 2 through building knowledge of core business concepts and applying them to business contexts to develop a broad understanding of how businesses work. Breadth and depth of knowledge and understanding, with applications to a wider range of contexts and more complex business information, are developed in Themes 3 and 4, requiring pupils to take a more strategic view of business opportunities and Global issues. Pupils will need to apply their knowledge and understanding to both familiar and unfamiliar contexts in the assessments and demonstrate an awareness of the current Business environment.

Theme 1: Marketing and people

Pupils will develop an understanding of:

• meeting customer needs
• the market
• marketing mix and strategy
• managing people
• entrepreneurs and leaders.

Theme 2: Managing business activities

• Supils will develop an understanding of:
• raising finance
• financial planning
• managing finance
• resource management
• external influences

Theme 3: Business decisions and strategy

This theme develops the concepts introduced in Theme 2. Pupils will develop an understanding of:

• business objectives and strategy
• business growth
• decision-making techniques
• influences on business decisions
• assessing competitiveness
• managing change

Theme 4: Global business

This theme develops the concepts introduced in Theme 1.

Pupils will develop an understanding of:

• globalisation
• global markets and business expansion
• global marketing
• global industries and companies (multinational corporations)

Examinations

Paper 1: Marketing, people and global businesses *Paper code: 9BS0/01

• Externally assessed          35% of the total qualification
• Availability: May/June

Overview of content Paper 1 will assess marketing, people and global businesses. Questions will be drawn from Themes 1 and 4, and from local, national and global contexts.
Overview of assessment

• Written examination.
• The paper comprises two sections.
• Supils answer all questions from both sections.
• Sections A and B each comprise one data response question broken down into a number of parts, including one extended open-response question.
• Duration: 2 hours.
• 100 marks available

Paper 2: Business activities, decisions and strategy *Paper code: 9BS0/02

• Externally assessed          35% of the total qualification
• Availability: May/June

Overview of content
Paper 2 will assess business finance and operations, business decisions and strategy. Questions will be drawn from Themes 2 and 3, and from local, national and global contexts.
Overview of assessment

• Written examination.
• The paper comprises two sections.
• Supils answer all questions from both sections.
• Sections A and B each comprise one data response question broken down into a number of parts, including one extended open-response question.
• Duration: 2 hours.
• 100 marks available

Paper 3: Investigating business in a competitive environment *Paper code: 9BS0/03

• Externally assessed        30% of the total qualification
• Availability: May/June

Overview of content Paper 3 will assess content across all four themes. Questions will be drawn from local, national and global contexts. For Paper 3, there will be a pre-released context document issued on our website in November of the previous year. A new context will be given to centres each year and will relate to the examination series for the following summer. The context will focus on a broad context, such as an industry or market in which businesses operate. The question paper will be in two sections. The first section will focus on the broad context provided. This will be outlined to centres through the pre-released document. Questions will focus on the broad context. The second section will focus on at least one strand within the context provided, such as a particular business. Each section will contain unseen stimulus materials comprising quantitative and qualitative evidence. Pupils are required to apply their knowledge and understanding from Themes 1, 2, 3 and 4 and their understanding of the broad context to this evidence. Pupils cannot take any of their research or investigation data carried out as part of the pre-release into the examination.
Overview of assessment

• Written examination.
• The paper comprises two sections.
• Pupils answer all questions from both sections.
• Sections A and B each comprise one data response question broken down into a number of parts, including one extended open-response question.
• Duration: 2 hours.
• 100 marks available.

Subject Specialist: Mrs Maria Angel MBE

Mrs Maria Angel is Head of Business and Economics at St Teresa’s.
As a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, Maria is a highly knowledgeable teacher of Business and Economics, with over 20 years experience.
Always active in helping the community, Maria was the founder of the acclaimed N-Factor Normandy Youth Club which offered work experience training programmes for trainee teachers and supervisors. She has also been a media volunteer & User Development member for the Changing Faces charity; Independent local government advisor for Guildford Borough Council, Surrey and Sussex Police and MOPAC (Mayor of London’s Office for Policing and Crime).
Maria has a breadth and depth of experience in running effective business and voluntary, community enterprises and has been recognized regionally and nationally for meeting the needs of the community.
Maria believes that ‘Economics and Business’ form part of what I see as “essential education” and provides an excellent path for many girls to tread on the road to Higher Education. An understanding of how these subjects work, feeds the analytical and entrepreneurial mind, which gives a St. Teresa’s girl a strong sense of self awareness and confidence.
Maria was awarded the MBE in 2017 for her ‘Services to the Community.

→ Economics (Edexcel) Info

Course Tutor: Mrs M Angel MBE

Economics is a Social science, studying the production, distribution and consumption of goods and services. Economics is an important aspect in everyone’s life. Inflation, Brexit, ethical trading, Monetary Policy and their underlying trends and causes, all form part of this course. Pupils will develop an insight into how and why these happen and how Governments deal with these issues, both nationally and globally.

Economics combines well with many other subjects such as Mathematics, Geography or History and can equally well be studied alongside English Literature, Physics or Foreign Languages. Ideally, candidates will have obtained at least a grade 6 in English and Mathematics at GCSE. It is not necessary to have Economics GCSE qualification to take this course. Everything you need to know to pass this course will be taught.

Skills required

Although Economics requires numeracy, it is not mathematical. Analytical and reasoning skills, particularly when looking at graphs and data and relating this to economic theory. An appreciation of current affairs and in particular the worlds of Finance and Government, through keeping up to date with events on all media outlets (e.g. Television, newspapers, websites, etc.)

Within the curriculum there are two broad areas of focus:

Microeconomics analyses basic elements in the economy, including individual agents and markets, their interactions, and the outcomes of interactions. Individual agents may include, for example, households, firms, buyers, and sellers.

Macroeconomics analyses the entire economy (meaning aggregated production, consumption, saving, and investment) and issues affecting it, including unemployment of resources (labour, capital, and land), inflation, economic growth, and the public policies that address these issues (monetary, fiscal, and other policies).

The Pearson Edexcel Level 3 Advanced GCE in Economics A is structured into four themes and consists of three externally examined papers. Pupils build knowledge and understanding of core economic models and concepts in Themes 1 and 2, and then build on this and apply their knowledge to more complex concepts and models in Themes 3 and 4. Pupils will need to apply their knowledge and understanding to both familiar and unfamiliar contexts in the assessments and demonstrate an awareness of current economic events and policies.

Examinations

Subject Specialist: Mrs Maria Angel MBE

Mrs Maria Angel is Head of Business and Economics at St Teresa’s.

As a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, Maria is a highly knowledgeable teacher of Business and Economics, with over 20 years experience.

Always active in helping the community, Maria was the founder of the acclaimed N-Factor Normandy Youth Club which offered work experience training programmes for trainee teachers and supervisors. She has also been a media volunteer & User Development member for the Changing Faces charity; Independent local government advisor for Guildford Borough Council, Surrey and Sussex Police and MOPAC (Mayor of London’s Office for Policing and Crime).

Maria has a breadth and depth of experience in running effective business and voluntary, community enterprises and has been recognized regionally and nationally for meeting the needs of the community.

Maria believes that ‘Economics and Business’ form part of what I see as “essential education” and provides an excellent path for many girls to tread on the road to Higher Education. An understanding of how these subjects work, feeds the analytical and entrepreneurial mind, which gives a St. Teresa’s girl a strong sense of self awareness and confidence.

Maria was awarded the MBE in 2017 for ‘Services to the Community’.

→ English Info

Advanced Level AQA Specification A

Paper 1: Love Through the Ages
This paper covers three texts: poetry, prose and Shakespeare. Currently we study The Great Gatsby, Pre-1900 Poetry Anthology and Othello. The examination also includes a comparative piece on two unseen poems.

Paper 2: Texts in Shared Context
This paper covers three texts from 1945-present day, one of which must be post 2000. Currently we study: The Handmaid’s Tale, Feminine Gospels and A Streetcar Named Desire. The examination also includes an unseen extract from a prose text.

Coursework: Texts Across Time
This is an independent study of two texts, pupils are encouraged to read widely throughout the course and choose two texts, one must have been written pre 1900.

Extra-Curricular

Pupils enjoy a range of extra-curricular activities including: poetry club, debating and public speaking. We participate in a range of local and national writing competitions.
Theatre trips are enjoyed across all year groups and we also host visiting theatre companies.
Authors such as: Marcus Sedgwick, Geraldine McCaughrean and Holly Smale have visited us for World Book Day. Our annual Literary Evening is also held on this day and is where pupils across the year groups share and celebrate their own writing inspired by their studies in English.

A vital element of our GCSE and A Level courses and ultimate appraisal of our pupils’ success is an end of course Private View, in which they showcase their work and discuss their journey to parents, teachers and visitors. It is an informal evening much enjoyed by us all and a fantastic way to see our amazing young artists shine.

An integral part of our learning programme involves organising regular visits to museums and art galleries, such as the Horniman and British museums, as well as residential cultural trips. Popular destinations include St Ives, Florence and Barcelona.

We also host arts festivals, during which time, visiting artists deliver exciting workshops to all age ranges; for example, Years 6 and 7 have enjoyed forest workshops with environmental artist, Tim Pugh. Our sixth form Art Captain has begun to collaborate with other St Teresa’s art scholars, in order to organise visual arts projects, such as murals that seek to bring our community closer together and in a range of innovative ways.

Politics is a living, breathing subject; the political landscape around us changes from day to day and we all need to understand the role that we can play in influencing the politicians that govern us. At St Teresa’s, A Level Politics pupil​s will be introduced to the structure of British Government, the role and power of the Prime Minister and Parliament, the state of democracy in the UK, the influence of the media in elections and the role every one of us can play in participating in local and national politics. They will also undertake a study of the American political system in the Upper Sixth.

In studying Politics, pupils will engage with a range of sources and interpretations about the British and American political system, enabling them to form substantiated judgements. Alongside this, pupils will inevitably learn more about their own political views and can develop their critical thinking skills to evaluate political parties’ messages to ensure they are fully ready to participate in politics when they leave St Teresa’s.

There is a range of opportunities for debates and group work within Politics lessons and pupils will develop their confidence and public speaking skills as a result.

The content of the A Level Politics course is as follows:

Paper 1: UK Politics and Core Political Ideas

• Democracy and Participation
• Political Parties
• Electoral Systems
• Voting behaviour and the media
• Liberalism
• Socialism
• Conservatism

Paper 2: UK Government and non-core Political Ideas

• Constitution
• Prime Minister and Executive
• Parliament
• Relations between the branches of Government; Supreme Court and EU
• Feminism

Paper 3: Comparative Politics

Pupils undertake a study of the American political system and must be able to make comparisons between the UK and USA

The girls will be taught by Miss M Marsden (Head of Department) and Dr Benzing-Shears.

Exam board: AQA

The growing popularity of Psychology has seen it become the second most-commonly taken A-level in the UK, behind Mathematics. It considers the nature of psychology as a science and is particularly suitable for pupils with a lively, enquiring and critical mind with an abiding interest in human behaviour. The research methods component requires a sound mathematical foundation and the biological aspects would be facilitated by a solid scientific base.
In year 12 pupils study a range of topics that include Attachment, Memory, Social Psychology and consider mental illnesses such as OCD, depression and phobias through the spectrum of the biological approach. Wherever possible pupils are given the opportunity to replicate or to develop and refine their own research projects and to reflect on their strengths and weaknesses
The second year provides the opportunity to apply research into Forensic Psychology, Relationships and Stress. Key skills contributing to success in A Level Psychology include data analysis and interpretation, critical thinking and the application of scientific methodology and mathematical analysis to human behavioural research. The skills acquired in A Level Psychology benefit pupils throughout their lives and many of our pupils go on to study Psychology at university.
Trips to conferences in London featuring eminent psychologist such as Phillip Zimbardo (the Stanford Prison Experiment) and Elizabeth Loftus (eye-witness testimony) have featured in previous years and visiting lecturers specializing in brain dissections have provided a valuable insight into neuroanatomy.

A Level: UNIT 1 – Introductory Topics

Written Paper: 2 hours, 33.3% of A Level

Cognitive Psychology: including the nature of memory, models of memory, explanations for forgetting, and factors affecting eyewitness testimony.
Developmental Psychology: including stages of attachment, multiple attachments and cultural variations in attachment, explanations of attachment, deprivation, and the influence of early attachments in adulthood.
Social Psychology: including explanations for conformity and obedience and factors influencing these behaviours, explanations for minority influence, independent behaviour and the role social influence processes play in social change.
Individual Differences: including definitions of abnormality, approaches to explaining abnormality and therapies used to treat abnormal behaviours.

A Level: UNIT 2 – Psychology in Context

Written Paper: 2 hours, 33.3% of A Level

Approaches in Psychology
The origins of psychology and the emergence of psychology as a science. The following approaches will be considered:

• Behaviourist
• Psychodynamic
• Humanistic
• Cognitive
• Biological – significant focus falls on this approach

Including divisions of the nervous system, sensory, relay and motor neurons, synaptic transmission, the endocrine system, localisation of function in the brain, plasticity and functional recovery, methods of studying the biology of the brain and biological rhythms.

Research Methods (including inferential statistical testing)
You will come to develop an in depth understanding of the research procedures used in psychological research (design, procedure, analysis of results etc) and you will examine the advantages and disadvantages of them all.

A LEVEL: UNIT 3 – Issues and Options in Psychology

Written Paper: 2 hours, 33.3% of A Level

• Issues and Debates in Psychology
• Forensic Psychology
• Relationships
• Stress

A Level Qualification:
End of the Year 13 year – 3 exams, 2 hours each.

For further information, please contact:
Mr Gill