St George's School

Harpenden

A non-denominational Christian day and boarding school

Psychology

Psychology is all around us touching every aspect of our lives! It is a fascinating area and we teach our students how to gain insight into people’s behaviours, perceptions and motivations by following the AQA course. Psychology students will develop interpersonal skills and transferable workplace abilities, hone their analytical and organisational skills and learn about scientific research methods, including collecting and working with data.

Key stage 5 (years 12 & 13)

Psychology is often a new subject for students at A Level, and over the course of two years, students are introduced to a wide range of topics using the AQA specification. The first year focuses on how Psychology has developed as a Science by introducing students to the underlying explanations of human behaviour while also explaining multiple forms of research methodology available to record and analyse human behaviours. These underlying concepts are then referred to with specific influential theories of universal human behaviour across cognition, child development, social interactions and mental health explanations. In the second year, students are challenged to show their synoptic skills by discussing the scientific and ethical issues of studying human behaviour, and applying their knowledge to applied areas of human behaviour within developmental, clinical and abnormality contexts from a range of optional topics. 

Teaching and learning in Psychology involves a range of activities. Class discussions are a useful way to make students think and express themselves and to gain confidence in doing so. In addition, because of the nature of the subject, students are taught to be sensitive towards a variety of issues through these discussions. Students have opportunities to read from a variety of sources, e.g. textbooks, journal articles, newspaper articles, magazines and other relevant material, making notes and completing worksheets.

Throughout the course the students will complete a range of timed essays in class and complete formative assessments for individual topics.  Extended assessment in the form of grade indicator exams is at the end of Year 12 and in January of Year 13.  Final A level exams of which there are three are at the end of two year course

KS5 Curriculum Information

Additional Opportunities

Enrichment - Brain Day with Dr Guy Sutton

Useful websites

The British Psychological Society: 

Places to visit

 

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