Learning & Teaching

HEAD OF DEPARTMENT
Mr Bill McFarlane

TEACHING STAFF
Mr Alan Blyth
Mrs Hazel Duncan
Mrs Jane McFarlane
Mr Mark Moore
Mrs Trudi Spencer
Mrs Margaret Waddell

  Senior School - Business Education Department

BUSINESS EDUCATION

In Business Education, we aim to prepare pupils fully for the 21st century business world, enabling them to gain the understanding and skills needed to succeed.


HIGHLIGHTS

  • Traditionally, we present more Economics candidates for SQA examinations than virtually any other school in Scotland
  • All Form II pupils compete in a 'Dragons' Den contest'
    We run the Young Enterprise programme for form VI pupils
  • We offer a compressed Business course for form III pupils
  • Our SQA results, at all levels, are invariably excellent
  • Over 200 IBM computers are available, together with supervised high-speed Internet connections and completely up-to-date software such as Word for Windows, Excel, Access, Pagemaker, Publisher, and Visual Basic


COURSE INFORMATION

Junior II: Keyboard skills, basic word processing, and an introduction to spread sheets and graphics using Excel.

Form I: A new course called Business Enterprise and Computing (BEC) has been established to help pupils gain a good understanding of business economics and to accelerate pupils’ IT skills.

Form II: The Form II business course concentrates on ‘enterprise’ and is aimed at developing the pupils’ entrepreneurial skills. The course culminates in a ‘Dragons’ Den’ event in which the pupils give the dragons a presentation about their original and innovative products. At the end of the session the pupils sit the Enterprise Unit Examination in Intermediate I Business Management.

Dollar Dragons' Den

Forms III and IV Information Technology : Building on ICT skills, this course leads to certification in the Higher Core Skill in Information Technology.

Accounting
At all levels these courses encourage pupils to think logically and to apply accounting principles in a consistent and effective manner, developing their problem-solving and decision-making skills. If a pupil passes Intermediate II and Higher Level, they are offered the option of Advanced Higher.

Administration
Pupils are offered Intermediate 2 Administration in Forms III and IV or a crash course version in Forms V and VI. Successful pupils in either can study Higher Administration, taking their ICT skills onto a professional level.

Business Management
Intermediate 2: a wide-ranging course covering many areas of business, such as marketing, operations, human resource management, finance, the roles and functions of managers and the use of Information Technology in business.
Students are given opportunities to acquire skills and confidence in the use of information technology to handle, print and interpret data in realistic business contexts.
Higher Business Management is offered to Form V pupils who have passed the Intermediate 2 examination. In addition, it is available on a crash course to pupils in Form VI. The Advanced Higher course is offered to Form VI pupils who have achieved a pass at Higher level.

Economics
Intermediate 2 Economics is taught in Forms III and IV and covers all the basic economic concepts such as Scarcity, Choice and Resource Allocation. Higher Economics is taught to pupils in Form V who have passed Intermediate 2 and to Form VI pupils as a crash course. Form VI pupils who have obtained a pass at Higher level may study Advanced Higher. Dollar Academy traditionally presents more Economics candidates for SQA examinations than virtually any other school in Scotland.

In addition, we run a compressed 2 year Intermediate 2 Business course in Form III. These pupils have 2 hours a week of Economics, Business Management and Accounting and Finance.

A new modular course 'Entrepreneurship' has been developed in conjunction with Stirling University and is offered to Form VI pupils.

 
Form III during the Determined to Succeed Course
 
Form III during the Determined to Succeed Course
     
 
Dollar Academy Young Enterprise teams attending a Masterclass in Business event held at the Prudential Headquarters in Stirling
 
Form V and VI Business Management pupils receiving their Business Dynamics certificates after a busy two day course