Subject: Child Development
Teacher in charge: Mrs S Bradley
If you wish to learn more about the curriculum, please contact : s.bradley@oaklandscatholicschool.org
Curriculum Implementation
Child Development lessons vary between student-centred research and taught lessons depending on the unit assessment of exam or portfolio.
Portfolios focus on completion of an assignment using referencing techniques, becoming independent researchers and learning to incise the relevant information from a vast array of website content. Students are helped to stay on track with their own progress using a series of short firm deadlines that are clearly communicated.
The lessons in preparation for the exams (1 h 15) are taught through detailed sets of slides which breakdown the Learning Outcomes and support students in their knowledge and understanding of each section of the unit content. Low stakes retrieval tests are regularly employed, using past paper materials and building student confidence in familiarising themselves with mark scheme criteria.
Support workshops are offered after school for those who need extra time and are struggling to keep up in lessons or additionally, students who have been away with illness or simply been identified as needing the extra time and support can attend.
Students on the Child Development course will have superior awareness and understanding of a child’s (from birth to 5 years old) physical, intellectual and social development. They will also be appreciative of the responsibilities of being a parent/carer for young children in terms of physical and emotional care. This touches upon the moral responsibilities of parents or carers to develop a child’s sense of right and wrong and personal safety.
Extra Curricular and Cultural Capital
Child Development students attend work experience for five days at a local early years provision. This immerses the students in the care environment and allows them to appreciate the stages of development and factors affecting delay or acceleration in young children.
Quality of written communication is assessed in both portfolio and examination work. Key vocabulary specific to the course is taught and practised on a weekly basis reinforcing the students knowledge and understanding along with their disciplinary literacy skills.
There is plenty of academic reading in Child Development, from current relevant articles in the news to summarising internet information on appropriate websites.
