First of all we want to wish all our social sciences students good luck in their exams! We know pupils have been working hard towards their goals and know they will make great Criminologists, Psychologists and Sociologists of the future.  

Recently I asked my students what they have enjoyed most about criminology this year and they all mentioned they loved the murder mystery lessons. This is where our year 13 criminology students delved into their various investigative roles to help solve a murder mystery.  Students had to dress up in bunny suits, hair nets, face masks and foot coverings ensuring no risk to themselves and eliminating the risk of contamination whilst dealing with the cordoned off murder scene.  The Pupils were allocated different investigate roles which they had been studying about as part of their unit 3 controlled assessment such as detective, scene of the crime officer and forensic scientists. They each spent time then collecting evidence and solving murder mystery clues such as using evidence like news reports, train tickets, building blue prints, lab results and witness statements to try and piece together a time line of events and eliminate each of their suspects to try and solve the murder mystery. Thankfully they were successful and caught the killer. It was amazing to see them work so well as a TEAM, use their critical thinking skills and help bring their subject to life in the most realistic way – without the actual murder part!

Recently Year 12 Psychology students had fun developing their own hierarchy of needs similar Maslow’s hierarchy in class this term, there was a lot of discussion over what is the most essential need for a human to function and debate over what would belong at the top of the hierarchy and it was interesting to see their introduction of technology and where pupils believe this would be places on the hierarchy in our modern day world where access to technology is normalised and essential for modern living.  Additionally, some of our students have been entering psychology writing competitions with organisations such as tutor 2 you – so our fingers are crossed for you all that you do well!