Subject Leader (Citizenship) - Miss D Taylor

The GCSE child development course can lead to AS/A2 level psychology, college courses such as NNEB and careers in nursing, teaching, childcare and other professions that require a knowledge of children.

The course will enable you to develop awareness of how children develop physically, emotionally, intellectually and socially up to the age of five years. There is an opportunity to look at the whole concept of childhood from conception onwards and to gain experience of working with children in different environments. You will develop the skills of research, analysis, organisation and investigation.

What will I be doing in lessons?

Although the lessons are largely theoretical, they are varied in content. There will be opportunities to watch and work with young children, see videos of many aspects of childhood, carry out practical tasks that involve children and to take home a virtual baby for a weekend.

How is the course assessed?

There are two sections to this GCSE:

Written paper 40%

Controlled Assessments

• Child study 40%
  The child study must include research, investigation, evaluation and planning plus the observation of a child under the age of 5 years by the end of the study. The study involves both written and practical work. One set task will be chosen as a focus for the study. The observations will look at all four areas of development and will cover a period of 4 months. Approximately 20 hours of controlled time will be spent in lessons on this study.
• Research task 20%
  This will include research and investigation, planning, analysis and evaluation. The task will be set by the examination board and will take approximately 7 hours to achieve under controlled conditions within the classroom.