Health and Social Care
Curriculum Intent – Health and Social Care
“We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” - Winston Churchill
Powerful Knowledge
Modern society is ever evolving in terms of ‘societal norms’ however human development and how we treat and care for one another continues to be at its core and this is the key intent of the Health and Social Care course at Leeds East Academy. The course provides a comprehensive, broad and challenging programme of study related to Health and Social Care routed in academically rigorous knowledge that provides students, over two years, with a significant insight, understanding and awareness of this sector. The course equips our students with the skills to become high performance learners and to uncover the impact of positive and negative human development and how to critically analyse how these factors can affect our day-to-day lives. It provides students with an opportunity to develop both academic and practical application alongside one another. They will explore academic and practical areas that influence how we develop throughout life stages and in turn raise expectations of how we can live successful and healthy lives now and in our future. This will be underpinned by the Advanced Cognitive Performance characteristics (ACPs) and Values, Attitudes and Attributes (VAAs). These ACPs and VAAs will support students in embedding their skills, knowledge and understanding of HSC. Literacy will play a key role in the curriculum because students will have the opportunity to learn a variety of subject specific vocabulary and make links to a vocational setting. Students will be given the opportunity to use the key words throughout their coursework and in their exam to achieve the highest grade possible.
The programme of study promotes opportunities for students to draw from real life experiences, case studies and provide opportunities to undertake research to compliment learning and create skills that they will use throughout their lives. Students will use the VAA of Empathetic to develop this knowledge and make links to real life scenarios. These skills will encourage students to be creative in their thinking and begin to challenge the way they perceive the world we live in. Furthermore, highlighting how human relationships, physical environments and socioeconomic status may influence how they develop.
It further encourages the students in independent investigation of health and well-being and how our lifestyle choices effect how healthy we can be both physically and emotionally. Students access and use a variety of different resources and external agency for advice and guidance that encourages them to talk about and raise awareness of signs and symptoms of abuse, addiction, illness and mental health.
The Health and Social Care department aim is to nurture every student through their journey to develop their resilience, expression and independence, ensuring they become well-rounded individuals who can succeed in today’s diverse society and inspire them to pursue a career in the Health and Social Care sector either through further study, an apprenticeship or employment.
Curriculum Features
The course is coherently planned and sequenced to ensure that the knowledge builds cumulatively therefore embedding this over time by regularly revisiting it over the period of the course. In addition, key to the course is the development of core skills that are crucial to having a successful career in the Health and Social Care sector. The course is BTEC First in Health and Social Care (Pearson). It comprises of three key components:
Component 1: Human Lifespan development: Students will explore the various aspects of growth and physical, intellectual, emotional and social development across the life stages. They will also build their knowledge on the factors that can affect development within different life stages and examine the impact that different lifestyles and choices can have upon individuals. In addition, students will explore the different life events that can occur within a lifetime and the coping systems and mechanisms that are in place within society, the health sector and ourselves to help support and deal with both expected and unexpected changes that occur within life. Students will use the VAA of Hardworking and build their confidence when completing a group presentation on a specific life event.
Component 2: Health & Social Care Services & Values: Students develop their understanding of the different health and social care services that exist and how people can gain access to them. In addition, the students will gain competencies, such as empathy, as they develop an understanding of different situations that might affect care and investigate a range of health needs and barriers to care. Students will use the ACP Linking skills of Generalisation and Connection to apply knowledge of how different services can support two individuals in a given scenario. In addition, within this component students will learn about the fundamental care values within health and social care settings and how these care values help to ensure a high quality of care for the most vulnerable of service users supporting with empathy. Students will use The ACP of Creating as the different discussion and debates around the role of the NHS will develop intellectual confidence.
Component 3: Health & Wellbeing: This includes gaining knowledge and learning on how to be healthy. Students will explore the different meanings and definitions of health. They will learn to evaluate different lifestyles and choices and how these affect physical, intellectual, emotional and social health. In addition, they will investigate health monitoring and how the health care sector can help people achieve steps to a more positive healthy lifestyle. Students will use the ACP of Meta Thinking from Meta-Cognition to transfer their knowledge from prior components as this is a synoptic component.
As well as embedding essential knowledge of the course it also balances this with ensuring students can develop effective independent learning which are central to the success of any student on this course. Students will use the ACP Meta Thinking skills of Self-Regulation and Meta-Cognition to self-correct practical work and transfer knowledge from one project to another. This will develop a wide range of key competencies and transferable skills in the areas of research, written and oral communication, project management, working as a team, presentation and exam skills and meeting deadlines. HSC is a key part of the communication strand at LEA and therefore we place a high importance on discussion, debate, reading and writing, ensuring that they feature throughout our curriculum. In addition, students are required to reflect on their own work and practices. The Health and Social care department will nurture every student through their journey to develop their resilience, expression and independence, growing into well-rounded individuals to succeed in today’s diverse society.
Cross Curricular & Wider Experiences
Health and Social Care has numerous cross curricular links with other subjects offered at Leeds East Academy. The first being Physical Education / Sport where the students are required to assess the health and wellbeing of individuals as well as the notion that exercise can have a positive impact on individuals. There are also clear links to the Biology curriculum as the students learn about the impact of genetic conditions, acute and chronic illnesses and the use and understanding of physiology data.
Enrichment opportunities are also provided through a multitude of ways by both internal and external experiences. The students benefit from a programme of guest speakers from the local and wider Leeds community including professionals from the NHS sector. For example, recently two 0-19 public health nurses undertook a talk with the students on the range of career pathway. In addition, students have also been involved in creating the Chat Health app, which has now become nationwide. These opportunities will enhance their learning beyond the classroom; provide real insight into this sector and support work related learning and career opportunities. In addition, students will work alongside staff to organise events, one focused around Wellbeing and healthy lifestyles, which are linked to the Health and Social Care Sector, for both the local community and their peers in school. This enables students to have a breadth of specialism outside of the course specification, giving them a vocational experience. It will also be an intention to raise student aspirations by developing key links with colleges and universities for all students. During Year Ten many of our students undertake work experience and Health and Social Care students often focus on gaining experience that will benefit them in this sector, for example working at Primary schools/nurseries, pharmacy, care homes and hospitals.
Finally, the course also enhances the core values of the Health and Social Care environment, which are embedded through the course such as the ability to empathise, respect for all, working in partnership and individual’s rights. These values will encourage them to become well-rounded individuals in society with the confidence and resilience to empower them to chase their career aspirations and to create thoughtful and caring individuals, who will in turn, pass these values on.
For any further information regarding the Health and Social Care offer at Leeds East Academy, please contact Miss Hussain - hussain.h@whiteroseacademies.org