Criminology

Criminology

During key stage 5 Law we intend to immerse students in a culture of learning to equip them with a critical awareness and understanding of criminality, to analyse reasons for criminality from an array of perspectives. We engage our students in lessons that provoke thought to encourage resilience and independence, to enable students to debate reasons for criminality. We equip students with a reflective ability to understand and evaluate application of criminology theories to case studies to enable students to showcase their knowledge. Our ultimate goal is to equip our students with the necessary skills and abilities to succeed in their studies to enable progression onto future careers via encouraging aspirational futures by enlightening students of the pathways that studying criminology can lead to.

Our curriculum intent is:

1. To encourage a positive ethos and a culture of learning so that all students within social sciences feel supported to achieve by developing resilience and independence.
2. To apply the study of criminology to contemporary issues within the world, building upon students ‘cultural capital’ by encouraging application of theory to real world circumstances, encouraging students to be inquisitive. 
3. To encourage aspirations by increasing students’ awareness of careers that stem from our Psychology at KS5.
4. To enable all students to overcome barriers to succeed within their studies in sociology through inclusive and supportive teaching and learning.
5. To develop reflective learners who are equipped with the skills and abilities to become self-aware of their own specific strengths and weaknesses, to enable motivated progression.
6. For our team of subject specialists to instil the necessary skills for students to succeed and make progress within each course.
7. To equip our students with positive oracy skills so that they feel empowered and confident to participate in discussions within the classroom and beyond.
    

As a result the curriculum will:

1. Use our team of subject specialists who deliver the curriculum with passion and interest. Students are encouraged to question and to evaluate through structured activities and discussions in order to develop their genuine interest and critical awareness. 
2. Embed knowledge from the specification through encouraging active engagement with content so that students become fluent in the subject specific terminology necessary to actively explain and evaluate content. 
3. Mirror current world wide issues (where relevant) and build this focus into lessons to make the learning relevant and to encourage real life application. This can be seen through each teachers planning. 
4. Focus on assisting students in developing skills in utilising digital technology in an array of forms. Empowering students to develop independent research skills to inform their studies and to enable progression into higher education. 
5. Ensure that our students develop empathy for the plight of others, to encourage active citizens who care for others wellbeing. 
6. Make reference to relevant careers that link to the units being taught, to encourage greater aspirations through pursuing social science related careers. 
7. Enable students to discover and develop skills such as research skills, writing skills, collaboration and problem-solving skills whilst building self-confidence to support them in all aspects of life. Analytical, evaluative and application skills are actively encouraged to ensure that students are engaging with higher order thinking skills. 
8. Reflective learners are encouraged through green pen therapy lessons after each assessment whereby students can utilise their personalised feedback to make improvements to examination units. Furthermore, in all examined Social Science units peer/ self-assessment against success criteria/ mark schemes is used consistently so that students understand how they are assessed and how they need to improve. WAGOLL/ Model answers are embedded into lessons to demonstrate good practice and students are encouraged to actively engage with these model answers to determine marks and levels and are encouraged to use the same annotations to ensure that they understand the processes used in assessment. RAG rating is used as a revision technique to encourage independent reflection and to assist teachers in targeting their support to individual students.  
9. Curriculum maps are carefully planned to ensure that there is a clear rationale for how the curriculum is delivered. Where teaching is shared, topics are delivered by teachers who have the firmest knowledge of that area.