Studying economics enables students to understand topical issues from a local level such as HS2 and the effects of out of town shopping on our high streets to global issues such as the impact on Western economies of the rapidly growing BRIC economies.  We seek to develop within students a powerful framework for critically thinking about problem solutions throughout their lives.

 

Economics is about choice and the impact of our choice on each other, and the allocation of scarce resources.  It is primarily a tool to help us make better decisions.  It can address questions such as:

• Why should we really pay £130 for a fast food burger and not the £1 we actually pay?
• Should footballers be paid more than nurses?
• Heroin and crack cocaine addicts are costing the country up to £19 billion a year! Assess ways government could effectively reduce consumption of demerit goods.
• Why do firms continuously innovate?  eg Why do you think that apple launch a new generation iPhone every year?
• Do you think that the government should follow Denmark’s policy and introduce a fat tax?  In the UK 3.8 million children live in poverty, what is the economic impact of this situation?
• Given the huge budget deficit should the government make all schools fee paying?

 

OCR GCSE Economics

Course Structure

This GCSE is designed to inspire candidates, encouraging an interest in real world economics.  The specification has been designed to be both innovative yet retain coverage of basic economic principles.  It has been designed to:

• encourage candidates to engage in the study of economics whilst developing as an independent and reflective thinker;
• encourage candidates to recall economic knowledge and to develop their ability to apply this knowledge to real life situations, analysing and evaluating evidence in order to come to balanced reasoned judgements; 
• promote the ability to apply these skills in a contemporary situation, in a range of local, national and global contexts, whilst at the same time understanding the perspectives of different economic stakeholders.

The GCSE is made up of three mandatory units.  These units are externally assessed.

Unit 1: How markets work - 25%

Unit 2: How the economy works - 25%

Unit 3: Globalisation - 50%, a case study

 

A level Economics - please see the Sixth Form Section of our website: sixth-form-subject-information