Welcome to Business Studies
Welcome Business Studies at The Suthers School
Business Studies is always a popular subject with our students here at our The Suthers School and our aim is to inspire, motivate and engage all our students and to develop a passion for Business beyond our curriculum.
We currently offer a vocational style course which is OCR Enterprise and Marketing. This is a Cambridge National Course which is the equivalent of a GCSE but consists of 2 pieces of coursework which are worth 30% of the overall grade each. The remaining 40% is the exam.
There are three elements that students are assessed on in Enterprise and Marketing:
RO67 – Exam – 40% of the overall grade
RO67 Exam is based on 5 topics associated with business and marketing. The topics are:
TA1 – Entrepreneurs, Risk and Reward
TA2 – Market Research and Market Segmentation
TA3 – Finance to include: costs, revenue, profit and breakeven.
TA4 – Marketing Mix to include: price, product, place and promotion. The 8 markers in the exam is always based on this topic.
TA5 – Factors to consider when starting a business. Includes types of ownership, sources of finance and support for entrepreneurs setting up a new business.
Overall, the exam is very knowledge orientated and with sufficient knowledge of these 5 topics students shouldn’t have an issue with this exam.
RO68 – Design a Business Proposal Coursework – 30% of overall grade.
RO68 is the first piece of coursework students will complete in Year 10. Each year the scenario will change but the tasks remain the same. Students are expected to design a new product for the specific scenario. In the past scenarios have included designing a new hat, a new bag and this year a new ice cream. Tasks include:
Task 1 – Market Research – students to carry out their own primary and secondary market research.
Task 2 – Customer profile – students to use market segmentation techniques to design the perfect customer for their product.
Task 3 and 4 – Developing a design of their product based on market research and customer profile.
Task 5 – Finances to include: calculating manufacturing costs, total costs, setting a selling price, predicting sales and calculating break even.
Task 6 – Review of risks and challenges they will face launching this new product.
Students will be taught elements of exam content from RO67 throughout the year to give them the knowledge to complete RO68 effectively which will be submitted in the June of Y10.
RO69 – Pitch a Business Proposal Coursework – 30% of overall grade.
RO69 is the second piece of coursework students will start in year 10 and finish in the first term of year 11 ready for submission in January of year 11. Students are expected to create a branding and promotional plan for the product they designed in RO68. They then need to deliver a “Dragons Den style pitch” to inform the business they are designing the product for in the scenario. The tasks are as follows:
Task 1 – Branding plan – create a brand identity and personality for the product they have designed.
Task 2 – Promotional Plan – create a minimum of 3 promotional methods to advertise their product and brand effectively.
Task 3 & 4 – Developing a delivering a pitch.
Task 5 – Reflecting on pitch and product design.
Overall it is a great subject that not only develops knowledge of how businesses run but also develops key skills like organisation and confidence through the different tasks in the coursework.