“The purpose of Psychology is to give us a completely different idea of the things we know best” - P. Valry 

KS5 Psychology at OASB

At OASB, we want to cultivate a passion and curiosity for why people behave the way they do. We want to enlighten our pupils to a range of cross-cultural behaviours, giving them a broader insight into not only how humans effectively communicate and interact with one another, but also to develop an understanding of the challenges of human behaviours. Our Psychology curriculum aims to empower our students to understand others and communicate effectively, building a deeper awareness of themselves, their families and both their local and global communities.

We want students to draw upon core psychological perspectives to explain their own and other people’s behaviour so our curriculum is sequenced to allow pupils to secure the fundamental psychological concepts first. Each topic then builds on this knowledge and explores a variety of contexts and examples. Students begin by learning the core psychological perspectives to gain a sound understanding of the different ways in which we can explain human behaviour. Students then use these perspectives to explain attachment, memory and psychopathological disorders. In year 13 pupils then focus on specific behaviours in the option subjects and use their knowledge from year one to explain gender, schizophrenia and aggression. Being able to collect and analyse data are essential skills for psychologists, so research methods are interleaved throughout the two years giving students the opportunity to make links between the practical aspects of studying behaviour and the topics they are learning in a meaningful way.  In the classroom our implemented curriculum aims to develop academic confidence and strong foundational knowledge through direct instruction of key concepts; frequent check for understanding and interleaved retrieval practice; opportunities to discuss and critically evaluate key psychological theories and lastly, frequent opportunities for application to different contexts and essay writing.

Our students deserve an ambitious curriculum, and we achieve this by ensuring pupils are exposed to challenging contexts in which they can apply their new learning. Not only does this build pupils’ application skills, but it also enables them to more effectively understand why people behave the way they do in the world around them, providing them with the knowledge and skills to study psychology at the highest level. Secure knowledge and psychological fluency combined with rigour means that our students have gone onto access psychology-based degrees at top academic institutions. For example, students have gone onto to study Psychology, Counselling, Forensic Psychology at top universities including King’s College and Goldsmith’s. OASB psychology students will leave Southbank with a broadened awareness of mental health challenges and an empathetic outlook towards people in their community which will allow them to develop into well-rounded, emotionally intelligent citizens who can effectively interact with others.

For further information on the KS5 Psychology curriculum at OASB please email Olivia.Gonzalez@oasissouthbank.org