Health and Social Care
Overview
At Forge Valley School we believe that Health and Social Care should extend our pupils’ knowledge of the vast range of health and social care roles that exist in society. They will explore roles, responsibilities, core values and services, as well as core knowledge rooted in human biology, psychology, sociology and aspects of law, which are all applicable when working within the health and social care sector.
We value the importance of equipping our pupils with skills and knowledge that are directly related to the workplace. Therefore, this is a fundamental part of our curriculum and as a department, our ambition is to ensure that learning is brought to life for our pupils by engaging with employers and external agencies wherever possible. These opportunities range from working with Universities such as the University of Sheffield and Leeds University with taster days, masterclasses and projects, inviting guest speakers from the NHS to visit classes and speak about their job roles, engaging with the Sheffield Teaching Hospitals and the Volunteering Service for work placements and visiting local nurseries and residential homes to develop and demonstrate skills and attributes required when working in health and social care.
Our pupils will be explicitly taught key study skills that will not only be relevant to the Health and Social Care curriculum but will also support them in other specialisms throughout their Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5 curriculum. Skills that develop their ability to present, research, organise and communicate with a variety of people and scheduling work to meet deadlines.
Key Stage 4/5 Curriculum Content
At Key Stage 4 and 5, the Physical, Intellectual, Emotional and Social (PIES) aspects of development and growth are embedded within all aspects of their studies and pupils endeavour to relate these to all new subject matter such as nutrition, physiological disorders or the care values.
A diverse range of topics are studied at Key Stage 5, enabling pupils to explore subject matter which will shape their future career choices. They will be taught key workplace skills such as infection prevention and control methods and knowledge of policies, legislation and workplace practice.
For our aspiring health and social care professionals we aim to provide them with a clear pathway enabling them successful progression into these careers. For those who choose a different career path at the end of their time with us, we aim to feel satisfied that they have developed and refined important vocational skills in our subject area that will assist them in making a success of whatever their chosen career maybe.