Introduction for Teachers Notes

This resource has been produced to support the research required for the pre-release paper for the A Level Edexcel Business Paper 3 (Investigating business in a competitive environment) exam, which students will sit during summer 2024.

The context for the 2024 exam is the clothing retail and manufacturing industries and businesses operating in this market.

This resource is divided into the following sections:

• Topic briefings – The briefings offer an overview / background reading to support the six research bullet points specified by Pearson. During their GCE course, students will have already learnt much of the key theory; however, this section links the theoretical points with the specific industrial context for the 2024 exam.
• Activities – These are interspersed throughout the topic briefings. They support the students’ own independent research, and reinforce their learning and understanding related to the specific industrial context. These activities could be used as homework or classwork activities.
• Case studies – There are three case studies included in the resource, which include questions to support wider discussion/research, and one exam-style essay question. Indicative content for the essay questions is also provided. These case studies put all of the topics considered into context, and support students to use real-life examples in their work and think analytically.
• Three practice papers – The practice papers each include full mark schemes based on the pre-release case study for the unit. The content has been produced with consideration to the bullet points that Pearson directs students to research and possible question types that may arise. All three practice papers have been provided on paper, as a photocopiable master, and Practice Paper 3A has also been included on eRevision for flexibility of use. Each Section (A and B) can be found under 'Practice Paper 3A' and students can check their answers as they complete the questions.

In this eRevision system, as the teacher you can 'lock' specific topics, and/or set them as homeworks. Lock and unlock topics on the Set/View Work page - we suggest you try this now, after setting up a student class group, by locking this introduction which is intended for your eyes only. Go to Packages to set work.

You can print the Notes and Case Studies from the Flat Notes tab, or you can upgrade to Word and PDF version of the resource. To upgrade your order to Word and PDF please email orders@zigzageducation.co.uk stating your school’s name and postcode and the title of the package. PDF is an extra 20%^+VAT, Word an extra 50%^+VAT. If you order the upgrade, the electronic version will be posted on a CD.

This resource is intended only to supplement your teaching. It is the teacher's responsibility to decide how to use this resource to assist themselves and their students appropriately. You may simply wish to read this material to better inform yourself and to help you prepare your lessons and give you ideas for your teaching. You may also consider whether it is appropriate to give students access to all of the resources. As with all pre-release material, it is the teacher's responsibility to decide in what way to assist their students. It's the teacher's responsibility to decide how this resource in particular can be used to fit into that assistance.

Due to the nature of the research task, this resource aims to merely stimulate discussion and support students’ wider research. The resource has been written independently without any sight of the actual exam materials that will be released in the summer of 2023. The resource should be used in conjunction with a good textbook and is intended to put many of the theoretical points detailed in the textbook into the context of the pre-release research task.