Criminology Department - Overarching Curriculum Intent (September 2024) 

RFSS Curriculum Vision Statement: 

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To build an inclusive curriculum which is aspirational for all and empowers our students to make outstanding academic and personal progress.  

Criminology Curriculum in Context: 

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The Rugby Free Secondary Criminology curriculum explores the criminal justice system and ensures students have an awareness of current affairs and the issues that society faces today both locally and nationally. Our students live in an area where the cost of living is higher than the national average, yet some come from areas that are in the 20% most deprived in the UK. The relative deprivation and marginalization that students from these communities will experience is much higher than average and we therefore need to be aware that crime will be a very real issue in some of their lives. Furthermore, organised crime is a large issue locally, gaining a better understanding of the reasons people join these groups, tactics used and the sentencing that they receive should act as a deterrent to our students who may otherwise find themselves exploited. The course allows them to gain a deep understanding of roles within the criminal justice system as well, ensuring that they are aware of skills needed to complete the jobs effectively. Students are equipped with complex criminological terminology that will allow them to access challenging reports and make objective decisions about the usefulness of documents and findings in criminal cases. By studying recent case studies and examples we can ensure all students are aware of the contemporary issues facing the CJS now, but also promote curiosity and a love of learning. Our cohorts tend to reflect the wider school with high numbers of SEN, EAL and in particular disadvantaged students, by ensuring our curriculum is balanced and broad and continually updated with the most recent cases we strive to ensure all students are able to access the knowledge and see the purpose of it, while also challenging some to stretch themselves further through the exploration of historic laws, cases and studies.  

Curriculum Aims: 

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Our curriculum aims to: 

• Promote mastery, but encourage students to be curious, resilient learners who can work independently on large tasks such as controlled assessments and in groups when applying real world application in lessons.   

• Develop students ability to analyse and evaluate through the exploration of different Biological, Psychological, Sociological Perspectives and ensure they are critical of bias within print media when doing so 

• Ensure all students can make good progress by mastering core vocabulary, identifying trends in data and having a sound understanding of key concepts.   

• Greater understand the Criminal Justice System and the crimes investigated, changes to laws and roles within it, using a range of evidence and studies to support their findings and conclusions.  

Our broad and balanced curriculum concentrates on developing our students’ key knowledge and skills, and enhances their understanding of the world around them.   

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We do this by: 

• Sequencing learning in a way that allows knowledge to be built upon so that students can make synoptic links across topics in a logical way. 

• Promoting curiosity, collaboration and resilience through independent and interdependent activities such as independently researching cases and extra-curricular trips. 

• Exploring key themes throughout the course, such as definitions of crime, campaigns for change, different theoretical perspectives on crime and evaluating the effectiveness of policies. 

• Introducing students to policies, campaigns and studies that have changed the criminal justice system and are accessible to all, with additional examples to challenge the most able.  

• Participating in debates where they evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of different criminological views, collect evidence to support their arguments and accept that people have different opinions. 

Our curriculum is focused on the development of communication, character and cultural capital of each individual student, so they become: 

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• Resilient Learners who can investigate and evaluate complex cases that may be hard-hitting too. 

• Empathetic to the experiences of professionals, victims and offenders in the criminal justice system, understanding that there are often many factors impacting the actions of all the individuals.  

• Hard-working individuals who understand the importance of deadlines and the importance of flexible working within the Public Service Sector.  

Curriculum Outcome: 

As a result of our curriculum, students will leave RFSS with an ability to write extended reports that will support them in further education if they wish to pursue it. As well as this they will be able to critically evaluate sources of information, and have an awareness of crime in a local and national context. This will empower them to ensure that all those who have to use the criminal justice system have as positive an experience as possible if they choose to pursue careers within or with links to the criminal justice system.