Psychology

At Miltoncross, students have the opportunity to choose Psychology as an preference choice at KS4. Psychology follows the AQA specification and during the two years course, students will study the eight fundamental topics of Psychology, such as Memory, Perception, Development, Research Methods, Social Influence, Language, Thought and Communication, Brain and neuropsychology, Psychological problems.

Throughout their learning journey, students are guided and supported to expand their psychological knowledge (including key terminology, key concepts), to develop their critical analysis, and to understand and apply research skills, and to deepen their reading around the subject. Furthermore, students are led to research in depth about how psychological foundations were established, to understand the interrelationships between the core areas of psychology and to comprehend how the studies for topics relate to the associated theory. Formative assessments, extended writing tasks, retrieval practice activities are planned across the curriculum in order to develop students’ knowledge and understanding of psychological ideas and processes.

Psychology is a complex social science, where students have the opportunity to apply their knowledge by taking part in hands on experiments and designing their own experiments. For example, as part of our Neuropsychology topic, students participate in activities such as dissecting animal brains so that they can identify different areas or components of the brain and link it to the human brain. Students can broaden their own experiences when they are offered the chance to meet professionals working in the field as Police or Law representatives are invited to speak to them and they can continue to grow by co-curricular trips to the Science Museum in London or the Criminology Conference.

Psychology is a subject that could offer the students a broad spectrum of career opportunities. Often after studying Psychology at GCSE level, students are inspired to further their studies and take A-level or shorter term courses to study Criminology, Clinical Psychology, Forensic Psychology, Law, and Medical School, Public Services (e.g. Police Force).