Business
MRS KATRINA MAHER, HEAD OF DEPARTMENT – BUSINESS Business is very important in our everyday life and also in every walk of life. People study business for many reasons. Some are preparing to pursue careers in one of the major fields of business. Others want to become better-informed consumers by understanding their rights, and to avoid pre- and post-purchase problems. The Business course at Fairholme aims to equip students to enter the real world of consumerism. The Year 9 Business course focuses on two key concepts: Financial Literacy and Business Enterprises. Financial Literacy is explored through real-life concepts such as Budgeting, Income, Credit and Loans, Banking, Investing, Mobile Phones and Insurances. The Business Enterprise Unit provided opportunities for students to develop their entrepreneurial skills. Students, in pairs, ideated an innovative good or service, and created a comprehensive business plan as a part of the Plan Your Own Enterprise Competition. The Business Plan consisted of an
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operational analysis, conducted market research, created a marketing plan, devised advertising and pricing strategies and discussed future business goals. The Year 9 Launch students introduced a design-thinking methodology for solving problems. Students were given opportunities to create design solutions for real-world issues, spaces and created and enhanced products. The focus was on human-centred design, which required students to empathise with the needs and wants of end-users and ensured their proposed design solutions met specific design requirements. Students learned skills and knowledge that included sketching, visual communication, low-fidelity prototyping through creative and lateral thinking and visual, written and oral communication. Launch allowed the girls to be experimental and collaborative throughout the process, whilst working together to bolster each other’s creativity.
To assist with the selection of Senior subjects, Markets and Opportunities is designed for Year 10 students as an introduction to the three Business Senior subjects: Accounting, Economics and Legal Studies. The purpose of this course is to provide a taster for students to make an informed decision regarding subject selection for Years 11 and 12. The Year 11 Accounting students completed Units 1 and 2, learning processes and practices for both service industries and trading industries. Students sat their first Summative piece of assessment under the ATAR system, focusing on the topic of managing resources, in particular non-current assets, for a trading business. Unit 3 of Year 12 Accounting focused on managing the resources of a business, including accounts receivable, non-current assets and technology. The students produced fully classified statements to report comprehensively on the performance of a sole trader and explored how administrative and
