Psychology

Curriculum Vision

Psychology aims to equip our students with a firm understanding of how our behaviour is organised, how we interpret the word around us and our perception of other people with an understanding and awareness of how other cultures different from our own live and work together. 

The Psychology department is committed to providing a vigorous and challenging A-level curriculum. Psychology students will be expected to demonstrate their prowess as independent learners, and they will be able to express these skills through challenging homework tasks and work in lessons. However, the students can also expect high levels of support and scaffolding from their contact time in class.  The psychology department believes that every pupil can achieve personal excellence in this fascinating subject and beyond and its aim is to develop pupils understanding of people and the scientific processes that help us understand and investigate what underpins our behaviour. Psychology takes a scientific approach to helping us understand human and animal behaviour and focuses on internal influences such as our biology and external influences such as the effect of other people as well as our cognition and how early childhood experiences affect our behaviour. Psychology also strives to touch on socially sensitive issues such as mental health, discrimination, the methodical process of understanding human behaviour and the empirical research which provides us with quantifiable data and conclusions to support our hypothesises.

University and Careers

University

A Level psychology gives our students a strong foundation for further study at academia and degree level. The knowledge our students  earn can be applied to all aspects of psychology found within society as it provides a variety of academic skills especially thinking critically about the world. Studying  psychology at university level allows students to explore many processes found within contemporary society, including the understanding of issues such as depression and mental illness, what it means to have a positive mental health and the scientific nature of studying the brain, biopsychology and cognitive neuroscience. 

Careers
For many students the A-level course will nurture a passion for psychology and prepare students for further study of the subject at degree level. However students with an A-level in psychology also go on to study other subjects at degree level such as English, sociology, biology, business studies, law and sports science. Studying psychology at university can give students a whole host of exciting career options within the field such as clinical psychology, educational psychology, occupational psychology, and forensic psychology as well as related careers such as nursing, teaching, business development, marketing and human resources management. There are many other careers where a qualification in Psychology is useful , such as social work, charity work, and other areas of social services. Other careers include prison officers, journalists, police and teaching, scientist, banking. 

Psychology Curriculum Journey

The Psychology Team

Ms Melanie O'Brien – Head of Social Sciences

For more information on our curriculum, please email melanie.obrien@walthamstow-academy.org for a copy of our department curriculum handbook.