The Health & Social Care Department Vision

Health & Social Care department aims to equip students with an interest in working in either health, social or childcare environments with both the theoretical knowledge and practical skills that will assist them as they make the transition into either further academic study or the world of work.

Intent

We are proud of our students who achieve the highest academic grades irrespective of prior attainment. This is achieved by establishing high expectations of all our students from the outset, stretching the higher prior attainers through further research and reading but also supporting and scaffolding lower prior attainers as they grow in confidence.

Whenever possible our course is resourced using information gathered from high quality local care providers, students are taught using the latest policy information from government and care regulatory bodies, we also make use of information and support materials made available by charitable organisations.

Our department is fortunate to benefit from staff with considerable industry experience across a number of health & social care settings, students have access to a biology specialist teaching the more challenging anatomy and physiology element of the course.

Our students are encouraged to reflect on and make use of their own experiences as a service user as well as the experiences of family members, applying theoretical knowledge learned in class to gain a deeper understanding of the relationship between service user, but also between professionals.

All course materials are available electronically using Google classroom, using this platform students have access to a range of materials and are fully supported as they learn to be selective, using only good quality sources of information - we encourage them to be media literate.

Students apply theoretical knowledge as they participate in role play activities and when possible, work experience placements – especially at our primary school. These activities provide rich opportunities for learning and personal development and are welcomed with enthusiasm by students.

Learning is highly personalised, and students make fast progress, soon able to write in an academic style, using levels of depth, detail, and analysis appropriate for level 3. Our examination results are excellent, and most of our students achieve distinctions in their coursework modules and many secure overall grades at distinction or above – many students go on to study at degree level.