GCSE Business Studies Revision Workshops - Spring 2013
We were delighted with the response to our pilot GCSE Business Studies revision workshops which we held at the amazing Westfield Stratford City - right next door to the Olympic Park! So we’ve decided to roll out the GCSE Business format to a series of dates in the 2012/13 school year. We’re running three events before Easter and an overflow event after Easter. The dates and venues for our 2012/13 programme are summarised below:
Colleagues can make provisional bookings for these revision workshops using the following online form: https://tutor2u.wufoo.com/forms/gcse-business-revision-workshops-spring-2012/
read more...»GCSE Year 11 Business Studies Online Revision Clinic - 27 May 2012
We are holding an online revision clinic for students taking their final GCSE Business Studies exam (30 May). The clinic will run from 8pm at this blog address. We’ll have teacher panellists ready to answer questions for AQA (Unit 2) and Edexcel (Unit 3) as well as provide support for OCR and other GCSE boards as appropriate. Students who wish to participate in the session will need to login when the session is live using their FB, Twitter or OPEN ID details.
read more...»Making Finance Fun 2012 - CPD Course (London and Manchester)
This new CPD course from the tutor2u team looks at how we can make the teaching and learning of finance fun!, We’re running the course for the first time on 20 June 2012 in central London and the following day in Manchester…
read more...»Evaluation - Making a ‘judge’ment
Here is a little exercise I have done with my AS Business groups this week. When trying to help with the longer essay questions, split the class into groups and and have them practice how to make a judgement for each essay question. I am using this for the OCR F292 Case Study of TSL. You can have one person in each group as the prosecution stating why they have made one certain judgement and then have another person acting as the defence stating why they think it should be a different outcome. The teacher can role play as ‘The Judge’ for the first exercise show the class what is expected.
read more...»Developing Exam Skills: AQA GCSE Business: Kingfisher Caravan Parks Ltd
This is the first in a series of practice 9-mark questions for AQA GCSE Business Studies Unit 2. This one is on Kingfisher Caravan Parks Ltd.
read more...»Support for Teachers Delivering AQA GCSE Business Studies: The 9 Mark Question
One of the key themes that teachers mentioned at the recent AQA GCSE Revision Conference in Stratford last week was the 9 mark question(s) and how students really feared them.
read more...»Developing Exam Skills: AQA GCSE Business Studies: Definitions and Accessing the Higher Marks
I wrote a blog recently based on ways for students to tackle the 9 mark questions in the AQA GCSE Business Exam. My blog was based around information from the Unit 1 Examiners report.
read more...»Developing Exam Skills: AQA GCSE Business Studies: Application
One area that students struggle with time and time again is the key skill of application and this was highlighted in the examiners report from the last Unit 2 exam sat in June.
read more...»GCSE (AQA) Business Studies: Developing Exam Skills: The 9 mark question
Examiners reports…just full of exam gold. Nuggets of information to allow us to better prepare our students.
read more...»Developing Exam Skills: Analysis: The Snoozatron
This is a ‘cracking’ little video that I used with my students to talk about analysis.
read more...»EntrepreneurLIVE! 2012 - Dates Announced
The dates and venues for EntrepreneurLIVE! 2012 have just been announced. We’ve moved this popular event to an earlier date to better fit with the teaching of a wide range of business courses and out of the cluttered Global Enterprise Week. So for 2012 we visit London on 1 October 2012, Birmingham on 2 October 2012 and finally Manchester on 3 October 2012.
We’re busy recruiting a fantastic team of successful and inspirational entrepreneurs who will guide business students through the highs and lows of setting up and running a business. We’ve got some pretty special people lined up and we’ll announce the names here on the Business Studies Blog as soon as their diary commitments are finalised.
The event will follow a similar format to the one which has proved so popular with teachers and students in the last two years. Students will get the opportunity to hear from a superb selection of entrepreneurs who will tell their story, provide insights highly relevant to every business studies course and then, most importantly, take questions from our student audience. We’ll also be running the highly popular Enterprise Pitch Challenge where student teams pitch their solution to a business challenge, competing to win some attractive cash prizes!
You can read a couple of excellent reports from students who attended Entrepreneur LIVE! 2011 here: from Sutton Coldfield Grammar School for Girls and here from Stoke Sixth Form College who brought students to Manchester (Salford Quays)
Provisional bookings for EntrepreneurLIVE! 2012 can now be made using this online form:
Business Cafe - March 2012
The latest edition of Business Cafe, our case-study digital magazine for Level 2 and Level 3 business studies courses, is now available to subscribers. An outline of each new case study is provided below.
read more...»Revision Toolkits for Pre-Released Case Studies - Summer 2012
Our popular revision toolkits for a range of pre-released case studies in Business Studies and Economics are now available to order. Some are already available and the rest will be despatched once complete in the next 2-3 weeks. The follow resources can now be ordered:
AQA BUSS4 Section A Takeovers and Mergers 2012
AQA Applied Unit 3 - Summer 2012
OCR A2 Economics Unit F585 June 2012
Edexcel A2 Business Unit 4a Toyota
OCR GCSE Business Unit 3 (J293) Summer 2012
OCR GCSE Economics Unit 593 Summer 2012
OCR AS Business Studies Unit F292 Summer 2012
OCR A2 Business Studies Unit F297 Summer 2012
OCR Applied Business Unit F242 Summer 2012
OCR Applied Business Unit F248 Summer 2012
Lesson Activity: The Human Organisation Chart
Listening to the weather forecast this morning on my way to work, I started to develop an idea to take advantage of the warmest day of the year so far and get my Year 11s outside. By the time I got to school it was a fully formed activity which proved really useful in introducing the concept of tall and flat organisational structures.
read more...»Spotting a Business Opportunity - Eastenders and Coronation Street
Whilst watching Eastenders last night, this belting activity just popped into my head. I think its perfect for the first unit of most GCSE courses but could also be used for BUSS1. A while away I know but I thought I would blog it before I forget.
read more...»A light-hearted look at induction training
I’m always on the look out for neat little video clips I can use to bring ideas and concepts to life. I’ve just seen the latest McDonald’s TV ad for the first time and it looks a great way of getting across the concept of induction training.
read more...»Business Revision Workshops - Latest Availability
We are often asked how many places are left on our popular revisions workshops. So we’ve created a widget which shows you the latest seat availability! The details for the next series of revision workshops is shown below. It is updated each time our office processed a new or amended booking, so it provides an up-to-date overview of the remaining places.
read more...»tutor2u launches revision workshops for GCSE Business Studies
Following a large number of requests, we have decided to launch a programme of our popular cinema-based revision workshops for GCSE Business students. The initial programme takes us to two venues…
read more...»AQA & Edexcel GCSE Business Controlled Assessment 2012 - CPD Support Course
A date for your diaries in April 2012 if you teach AQA or Edexcel GCSE Business Studies. We are running CPD days in Manchester (19 April 2012) and London (20 April 2012) to support teachers preparing and supervising their GCSE Business students as they tackle the 2012 controlled assessment tasks. A separate course is being run for both the 2012 AQA and Edexcel controlled assessments. Each course will run from 10.30 a.m. until 2.30 p.m. including lunch.
Places on the courses will be limited, so please make a provisional booking as soon as possible. Places can be booked online here:
https://tutor2u.wufoo.com/forms/gcse-business-controlled-assessment-support-cpd/
GCSE Business Controlled Assessment - 2012 Survey
We are gathering the opinions of colleagues and departments who offer GCSE Business Studies about the Controlled Assessment. If you teach GCSE Business Studies, please take 5-10 minutes to provide us with your views using the following survey form:
https://tutor2u.wufoo.com/forms/gcse-business-controlled-assessment-survey-2012/
Unlimited vs Limited Liability? Box it off
Last year I found my students didn’t grasp the concept of unlimited and limited liability as quickly as I felt they should. I always take the view it’s not the students, it’s the teacher so this year I tried something different and it worked really well.
read more...»Edexcel GCSE Business Studies Unit 3 Meeting Customer Needs Zondle Quiz
Here’s another Zondle Quiz, based around Section 7 of the Edexcel GCSE Business Studies specification. There are a couple of games embedded below, but the quiz is also publicly available at Zondle’s website where you can choose from a wider variety of games. Enjoy, and Happy New Year to all.
read more...»Dragons Den - the board game
How many Business teachers and students received this as a Christmas present?
Certainly one student in my family did, and having tested it out the other evening, we found it quick to get into, good fun and quite competitive. Players take the role of Dragons, with a pile of cash to invest and several hundred cards with (rather brief) outlines of business ideas being pitched for investment. All the business ideas are, apparently, genuine; some you will recognise as having become big successes, some you may remember from the TV programme, some are very obscure. You have the chance to bet on the outcome of each, and the winner is simply the Dragon with the most money left at the end. After a couple of rounds we got into some wild all-or-nothing investments - some of which actually paid off!
My next investment plan is to buy this for the classroom; it only needs half an hour or so to play it, and will be worth having for those lessons which need some light relief!
Buy the Dragons Den board game from Amazon
Business Cafe - Christmas 2011
The Christmas 2011 edition of Business Cafe - our digital learning resource for all Level 2 and Level 3 business courses, is now available to subscribing schools and colleges. Details of the new articles and case studies in this edition are summarised below.
read more...»Edexcel closes the gap on AQA for GCSE Business as BTEC First powers ahead
Edexcel is closing the gap on AQA as the most popular awarding body for GCSE Business Studies. However, both AQA and Edexcel’s GCSE courses have been overtaken by the BTEC First in Business which is now by some distance the most popular Level 2 specification for business students in the UK.
Our recent email survey of over 8,000 business teachers has generated over 1,400 detailed replies. We asked colleagues to name their level 2 business options, including their current awarding body. The results of this survey have been mapped against our database of all secondary schools and colleges, including academies, sixth form colleges and FE institutions offering level 2 options. The results show a significant change in the GCSE Business landscape, with the prospect of further change in 2012.
read more...»Zondle Quiz Edexcel GCSE Business Studies Unit 1 Section 3 Putting an idea into practice
I have been writing a Zondle Quiz after each section of Edexcel GCSE Business Studies, but for the latest one I set my students the challenge of writing me some questions and answers that I could use to create a quiz. I used some of the best ones to produce this….
read more...»CGI modelling gauze and effect
Photographs of flawless models with tiny waists, perfect bums and endless legs, may hold the attention of consumers, but is it ethical to use computer generated images to promote a firm’s clothing ranges?
Job Production…Unwrapped
I owe a pat on the back to one of two of my Upper Sixth students, Georgina Carter & Mille Dunn, for telling me all about a US TV programme called ‘Unwrapped’ which goes behind the scenes of food production of some of the western world’s favourite foods.
read more...»Q&A Rapid Revision Guides for Business & Economics
Our series of Rapid Revision Q&A Guides is now extended to 14 units covering a range of Business Studies and Economics specifications. Details below of the current range and how to order:
read more...»Revision Quiz - Market Research for a Business Startup
This new revision quiz looks at how a startup can undertake market research. There are over 20 questions in the quiz bank for this topic and each time you run the quiz 10 questions are selected at random.
Launch Revision Quiz - Market Research for a Business Startup
