Economics and Business Studies - an introduction

Economics and Business Studies are well-established, having been offered at A-Level and GCSE for many years at the School and are popular subjects in the curriculum.  Many of our students, in both subjects, go on to further study at degree level.  We also teach an introductory Business and Economics course to a significant number of pupils in Year 9. 

At A-Level, we offer the OCR Business Studies course to AS and full A-Level, and the AQA Economics course to AS and full A-Level.  Results in both subjects have been exceptional. The Department also offers one course at GCSE, the new Edexcel course in Business with an Economics component in Year 11.

In Year 9 the Department offers an especially structured course called Economics and Business Understanding (EBU).  The course aims to provide economic and industrial understanding to students in that year.  The Department is particularly keen to use the computer facilities in-house or through other locations around the school and encourage students to research and to present their work to each other.

Big Apple trip for ifs Student Investor Challenge winners

Pupils from King Edward’s School won this year’s ifs Student Investor Challenge. During the summer the winners together with King Edward’s Economics and Business Studies teacher, Mr Nigel Vile,  enjoyed a full expenses paid trip to America as part of their prize.

The King Edward’s team of Conor Thomas, Alice Hamer, Ollie Schofield and Rob Wilcox beat over 10,000 teams, or 40,000 students, who entered the competition to win a trip stateside.

Below is an update from Rod McKee from ifs on what the winners got up to during their visit.

After setting out from Bath at 4.30am the winners of this year’s competition, King Edward’s School arrived at Heathrow for their flight to JFK and the start of their prize winning week in New York.

 

On arrival the busy schedule began, with a short walk from the hotel to Grand Central Station, to purchased seven day subway passes, with unlimited travel at a cost of $27, and then off to the first tourist stop The Empire State Building, which gave the students the opportunity to get a spectacular view of the city. 

During the week, time was spent visiting the tourist sites such as The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island which is the symbol of American immigration and gives an insight into the immigrant experience, Times Square, Broadway to see the Lion King and cycling in Central Park.

A large part of the programme is of course the educational visits and it was entirely appropriate that the team were there at the height of the controversial vote on whether to raise the credit limit for US borrowing, to enable them to pay public employees and interest payments or risk going into default. 

For the first time we were able to visit the American Museum of Finance for a guided tour, which was really relevant for Alice, Olli and Robert who are all going on to university and will be studying economics. But the real highlight of the week was to be able to visit the New York Stock Exchange and to be there for the ‘closing bell’.

 

We were hosted by Barclays Capital and although our visit was only scheduled for an hour it lasted for almost two hours and included visiting the floor of NYSE, talking to the traders and getting real insight into how all the economic uncertainty was impacting on the market and investors. A real privilege was to visit the Board Room, where we saw the priceless Faberge vase that was presented by the Czar Nicholas II at the turn of the 20th century on the occasion of the listing of the first Russian company on the Exchange, which helped build the Trans-Siberian railroad. 

A visit to Bloomberg, who help sponsor the ifs Student Investor Challenge, by providing the prices, was included where the students were able to learn how Michael Bloomberg, now Mayor of New York, set up the company, visit the Bloomberg Museum and go down one of only seven spiral escalators in the world.

Another of the visits was to the British Consulate for Trade & Finance where as well as learning about the work of the consulate, promoting trade with the US the team were able to give another performance of their successful presentation that earned them their prize.  

Other highlights were the tour of the United Nations building and visits to The Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Frick Collection.

Finally a quote from one of the prize winners, Oliver Schofield, which he sent after the trip. 

“It does indeed seem aeons ago that we were prowling the streets of New York, but the elapsed time has merely solidified my impression that the week was one of the best visits I have ever had, and I am immensely grateful to you and the rest of the team behind the competition for facilitating it.

I also hope that the competition continues to go from strength to strength!” 

For further information on the ifs Student Investor Challenge please click here.

King Edward’s School win the ifs Student Investor final

Pupils from King Edward’s School came first in this year’s ifs Student Investor Challenge 2011.

The King Edward’s team of Conor Thomas, Alice Hamer, Ollie Schofield and Rob Wilcox beat over 10,000 teams, or 40,000 students, who entered this year’s ifs competition.  

The first round involved investing an imaginary £100,000 on the Stock Market.  King Edward’s School came in the top 20 schools in the south-west region and progressed to a regional final at Ashton Gate in Bristol.   

King Edward’s team came in first at the regional final, demonstrating excellent knowledge of business, finance and economics in a series of quizzes. The team’s score was higher than all other teams competing in the regional finals across the UK. 

The King Edward’s team called ‘We’re only doing this for UCAS’ progressed to the national final in London.  The morning of the final was spent on a business role play exercise that was both tough and demanding and stretched the pupils to their limits.  After lunch, the KES team had just 8 minutes to present on ‘Are the banks doing enough to help UK plc?’  This was followed by some challenging questions from judges that included Joanne Hart of the Financial Mail, Lawrence Gold from the BBC’s ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’ series and Donald Brydon, Chair of Royal Mail.  The judges described King Edward’s presentation as ‘sophisticated argument, clear, succinct and eloquent’.

Forty five minutes had been allocated for the judges to decide the eventual winners, but they came back after only fifteen as it was clear that there had been just one outstanding team. The judges announced the winners as King Edward’s School. 

Nigel Vile, Teacher of Economics and Business Studies, said, “Real congratulations to Conor, Alice, Ollie and Rob who have invested so much time and energy and intellect into a fully-deserved triumph. The team’s victory must rank amongst one of the finest achievements for King Edward’s School in many years.”

The team receive an all expenses paid week’s vacation in New York that will include visits to the New York Stock Exchange and the Bloomberg HQ, as well as a show on Broadway and a visit to the Empire State Building and £2,000 for the School.

KES team come first in ifs Student Investor Competition Regional Final

The KES team came first in the ifs Student Investor Competition South West and Wales Regional Final which took place last Thursday 24^th March at Bristol City’s Ashton Gate Stadium.   

Over 7460 teams across the UK entered the Ifs Student Investor Competition this year. To qualify for a place at the regional final teams, were given the task of investing a notional £100,000 in the stock market. The top 20 most successful teams in each of the four regions in the UK were selected for the regional final. 

The final consisted of 70 questions relating to finance and economics. The KES team of Conor Thomas, Ollie Schofield, Robert Willcox and Alice Hamer came first with a score of 61/70. Not only was this the highest score in the Bristol final, it was also the highest score out of all the regional finals held in Newcastle, Birmingham and London.

The team now proceed to the national final in London in April where they will compete with seven other schools competing for a first prize of an educational holiday in New York.

The national final involves giving a presentation on a financial issue to a panel of experts and an Alan Sugar ‘Apprentice’ style role play task.  The day will also feature a talk from the BBC’s business correspondent Robert Peston.

Nigel Vile, Teacher of Economics and Business Studies, said, “Congratulations to the team, they did incredibly well. Everyone at King Edward’s School is very proud of their achievement and would like to wish them success at the Final in London in April.”

Year 11 GCSE Economics and Business Studies visit the Bank of England, Canary Wharf and the new Olympic site

A Year 11 GCSE Economics and Business Studies group enjoyed a trip to London during the Autumn term when they visited the Bank of England and the new Olympic site. The visit to the Bank of England included a presentation on the role of the Central Bank, its operation of Monetary Policy and its general influence on economic activity in the UK.

 

In addition, the pupils had a guided tour of the Olympic site where their guide outlined the history and business context of the nearby area, which included ‘Canary Wharf,’ as well as some of the most deprived areas of London and the UK. The Olympic site currently employs about 9,000 staff and is the size of a small town. The group learned about the demands on the local infrastructure of this kind of development and the scale of investment ahead of 2012.