Psychology
At the heart of CP Riverside School is relationships. Relationships students have with each other, with staff and with the broader community. But, fundamentally, it is about the relationship they have with themselves. Understanding the mind and behaviour is key to ensuring that they develop a lifelong understanding of how to have more meaningful relationships. We are proud that CP Riverside School is currently the only AP in the country that delivers GCSE psychology. Our aim is that we will also equip students with psychological literacy that enables them to apply their knowledge and skills in their everyday lives, including making informed decisions about further study and career choices.
The OCR GCSE qualification was chosen specifically because it is supported by Time to Change, one of Britain’s leading mental health programmes which aims at challenging stigma and reducing discrimination around mental health which is an ongoing area of focus for our school, especially as young people from disadvantaged backgrounds were and continue to be affected by the pandemic. In addition, offering psychology with the input of Mind and Rethink Mental Illness gives our school another opportunity to tackle it.
The course has been sequenced with the student’s voices in mind as student feedback showed that they were particularly interested in studying units such as Criminal Psychology and Psychological Problems. These units alongside Development are taught early on so that students develop an interest and a passion for the subject so that by the time they get to more challenging subjects such as Research Methods, they already have a sound understanding of research experiments that have been carried out in topics they already have an interest in. The course also has a strong focus on science and maths, which allows our students to further develop and apply these critical skills in an area they are interested. Students will also develop their oracy and literacy skills by using specialist vocabulary, psychological concepts, terminology and conventions to engage in the process of psychological enquiry.
British values and our own school values, such as acceptance and resilience are also reflected in the curriculum as students will understand how psychology contributes to the individual, social and cultural diversity within society.
Please click on the link below to view the Psychology Annual Curriculum Plan 2021/2022
