Economics Curriculum Overview

Curriculum Intent

Economics at our school equips students to explain the world they live in and to engage thoughtfully with complex ideas and differing viewpoints. Through contemporary and historical economic thinking, learners develop an enquiring, critical mindset and the confidence to participate in informed debate and democratic life. Knowledge: Students build a secure command of microeconomics and macroeconomics, including how markets allocate scarce resources, why markets sometimes fail, how governments use policy, and how global forces such as trade, exchange rates and development shape outcomes. Independence: Lessons foster independent study through wider reading, data handling and applied case work. Students learn to interpret evidence, construct chains of reasoning and critique alternative models, preparing them for university-style learning. Empowerment: Economic literacy empowers students to make better consumer, worker and voter decisions. They learn to defend ideas with evidence, evaluate policy trade-offs, and consider the consequences for different stakeholders. Inclusion: The curriculum reflects local, national and global contexts, with diverse case studies and accessible scaffolds so that every learner can participate meaningfully and achieve highly.

Key Stage 5 (A Level Economics)

Year 12

• • Theme 1: Introduction to Markets and Market Failure – Nature of economics; rational decision making; demand and supply; elasticities; price determination; price mechanism; consumer/producer surplus; indirect taxes & subsidies; alternative views of consumer behaviour; types of market failure; externalities; public goods; information gaps; government intervention and government failure. 
• Theme 2: The UK Economy – Performance and Policies – Measures of performance (growth, inflation, unemployment, balance of payments); aggregate demand (consumption, investment, government expenditure, net trade); aggregate supply (short run & long run); national income, injections/withdrawals, equilibrium and the multiplier; economic growth and the trade/business cycle; macroeconomic objectives and demand-/supply-side policies.

Year 13

• Theme 3: Business Behaviour and the Labour Market – Business growth and demergers; business objectives; revenues, costs, profits, economies/diseconomies of scale; efficiency; market structures (perfect competition, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, monopoly, monopsony, contestability); labour markets (demand, supply, wage determination); government intervention and its impact on competition and efficiency.
• Theme 4: A Global Perspective – Globalisation; specialisation & trade; patterns and terms of trade; trading blocs & the WTO; restrictions on free trade; exchange rates; international competitiveness; the financial sector (role, market failure, central banks); poverty & inequality; emerging & developing economies; public expenditure, taxation and public finances; macroeconomic policy in a global context.

Assessment (Edexcel A)

• Paper 1 – Markets and Business Behaviour (Themes 1 & 3): MCQ & short answers; data response; extended open response; 2 hours; 100 marks.
•  Paper 2 – The National and Global Economy (Themes 2 & 4): MCQ & short answers; data response; extended open response; 2 hours; 100 marks.
• Paper 3 – Microeconomics and Macroeconomics (synoptic across all themes): two data response questions including extended responses; 2 hours; 100 marks.