Economics & Business

The Economics and Business Department offers GCSE Economics in Years 10 and 11, and A Levels in Economics or Economics & Business in the Sixth Form. We focus as a department on current business and economic affairs and up-to-date economic data. Both GCSE and A Level courses are modular with all assessment through external examinations.

We use a wide variety of teaching methods and material including group work, rôle plays, DVD clips, newspaper articles and case studies. Students can access PowerPoint presentations, notes, reading material and exercises on the School's Learning Resources area. Weekly revision clinics are offered to Year 11 pupils from November to May to help prepare them for their GCSEs. A Level students are supported on an individual basis.

To help Oxbridge candidates for Economics degrees, we provide accompanied visits to Oxbridge colleges, practice interviews with staff and visits to IEA (Institute of Economic Affairs) seminars.

The department offers a particularly extensive range of activities outside of lessons. Boys studying GCSE Economics visit the Bank of England and Olympics 2012 development. A Level students are offered a range of visits to the City of London, a car manufacturer as well as a European study trip in the Summer Term of Year 12. Previous destinations include Barcelona and Prague. Year 12 and 13 students can attend A Level conferences, which feature presentations by MPs, economists and business leaders.QE has achieved considerable success in the national Young Enterprise competition, which gives boys invaluable experience of running a business. In fact, even before students become involved in GCSE courses, they have the opportunity to get a taste of business as part of their form's team in the department's internal Mini-Enterprise competition.

All pupils in Years 10-13 can enter the Student Investor Competition, a national competition sponsored by ifs (formerly the Institute of Financial Services) that involves teams of four students trading shares worth £100,000 in a simulated environment. Student Investor attracts a large number of entries from Queen Elizabeth's School.

Year 13 Economics students enter the Bank of England's annual Target 2.0 Competition, acting as the Monetary Policy Committee and setting the interest rate for the economy. QE boys have also won the IEA (Institute of Economic Affairs) essay competition in 2008 and students have the opportunity to enter at the end of Year 12.

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