Department - Psychology & Criminology

Staff list

Mrs M Olmos - Learning Leader Psychology
Mr D Aston –  Psychology & Criminology Teacher & Acting Head of Year 9

Vision

Psychology and Criminology are subjects that are designed to ensure that all GCSE, A -level  and Diploma  students feel inspired to ask questions and search for scientific answers about the human brain and behaviour. Students are challenged to seek psychological knowledge remembering that every truth has four corners and their teachers give them only one corner, and it is for the students to find the other three. This design ensures understanding of psychological issues and debates worldwide, provides informed choices to students to encourage them to embrace but challenge the world we live in; developing forward thinking, resilient and curious individuals.

Intent

Psychology and Criminology are everywhere in every aspect of life: at personal and professional level. They answer the most important questions about human motivation and human behaviour.  Mastering of psychological knowledge can unleash the human potential, creativity, solve the problems of mental health and prevent social injustice and wars.  Through finding out about how and why human beings behave in the way they do, students can learn how to make this world a better place. 

Psychology and Criminology enable students to develop self -awareness and the awareness of others as well as wider metacognitive skills.  Psychological knowledge of theories, studies and concepts builds the bridge between the intellect and emotional and spiritual intelligence.  Psychological debates develop students’ understanding of the complex world and social issues around as well as their own choices, attitudes and values. At Cox Green School, our intent, when teaching Psychology and Criminology, is to stimulate the students’ curiosity in order for them to develop their knowledge, skills and understanding.

Implementation

Our whole curriculum is shaped by our school vision, which aims to enable all students, regardless of background, ability, additional needs, to flourish to become the very best version of themselves they can possibly be.

We teach the National Curriculum, supported by a clear skills and knowledge progression. This ensures that skills and knowledge are built on year-by-year and sequenced appropriately to maximise learning for all students. It is important that the students develop progressive skills of a psychologist throughout their time at Cox Green School and do not just learn a series of facts about the human mind and behaviour.

In Psychology and Criminology, students at Cox Green School, conduct their own experiments, think critically, find evidence, weigh it up considering its scientific status and reach their own conclusion. To do this successfully, students need to be able to research, interpret evidence, including primary and secondary data, and have the necessary skills to argue for their point of view; skill that will help them in their adult life.

Impact

  • Evaluating what knowledge and understanding students have gained against expectations
  • A secure knowledge and understanding of human mind and behaviour in the areas such as psychological problems, memory, child’s cognitive and social development, criminology and many more.
  • The ability to think critically about the causes of human behaviour and communicate confidently verbally and non-verbally in styles appropriate to a range of audiences.
  • The ability to consistently support, evaluate and challenge their own and others’ views using detailed, appropriate and accurate psychological evidence derived from a range of primary and secondary data.
  • The ability to think, reflect, debate, discuss and evaluate the how psychology has changed over time forming and refining questions and lines of enquiry.
  • A passion for psychology and an enthusiastic engagement in learning, which develops their sense of curiosity about the causes and effects and complexity of the human motivation.
  • A respect for psychological thinking using scientific evidence and the ability to make robust and critical use of it to support their explanations and judgements.
  • A desire to embrace challenging activities, including opportunities to do ambitious experiments with full awareness of ethical guidelines published by British Psychological Society across a range of topics
  • Outcomes in tests and classwork exercise books evidence a broad and balanced psychology curriculum and demonstrate the students’ acquisition of identified key knowledge.
  • Students review the agreed successes at the end of every term and are actively encouraged to identify their own target areas, with support from their teachers.
  • Students also record what they have learned comparative to their starting points at the end of every topic.