ABOUT THIS COURSE

This new course offers an overview to teaching the OCR A-level Law specification for anyone in their first 2 years of teaching the course or for OCR A-Level Law teachers wanting to improve their understanding and enable their students to achieve higher grades. The sessions are designed to improve delegates’ understanding of the OCR specification and ensure that candidates have the best opportunity to maximise their potential grades. Delegates will receive new teaching approaches as well as key guidance in how to develop examination techniques in OCR A-level Law to maximise students’ success when delivering the course for the first time. Although aimed at teachers of OCR A-Level Law, the course will be of benefit to those teaching other exam boards.

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BENEFITS OF ATTENDING

• Providing new teachers of A-level Law the materials and confidence to deliver effectively across the ability ranges
• Providing teachers with an insight into the content, exam structure and how to improve student performance.
• Take away in depth understanding of the key challenge areas and how to teach them
• Understanding of how to encourage independent learning and differentiating strategies to stretch students’ knowledge in preparation for the exam.
• Obtain excellent understanding of the complexities of the OCR A-Level Law specification
• Gain insight into the content, the exam structure and how the exams are marked

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PROGRAMME

The challenges and what to expect from students

10.00 – 10.30am

• An overview of the specification content and assessment procedures
• Identifying and meeting the key challenges of the course
• Ensuring a successful start for students in becoming independent learners
• Supporting students to develop good examination technique with the ability to deconstruct questions

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Component 1: teaching the legal system and criminal law

10.30 – 11.30am

• Teaching strategies to develop students’ competence in using legal skills, legal issues and the English legal system
• Analysing legislation by applying the rules and principles of statutory interpretation and case law by applying the doctrine of precedent.
• Recycling component materials to reduce the workload across both topics
• Scrutinising the most challenging areas of the Criminal Law component
• Analysing a factual scenario by identifying the key facts from which legal issues arise – the key requirements to achieve the higher grades
• How to use legislation and case law to meet the marks of the set question.
• What is the examiner looking for in the top grades?

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Morning Break

11.30 – 11.45am

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Teaching component 2: law making and the law of tort

11.45 – 12.45pm

• How to support students approach analysis and application with the ability to identify and breakdown into constituent parts.
• Teaching strategies to formulate a reasoned argument to support a particular proposition
• Approaches to construct clear, concise and logical legal arguments
• Constructing persuasive arguments
• How to answer the short 8/12 markers and the 20 mark extended questions.
• The most challenging areas of the Tort Law component, analysing a factual scenario by identifying the key facts from which legal issues arise – the key requirements to achieve the higher grades

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Lunch

12.45 – 1.45pm

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Focus on component 3: The nature of law and contract

1.45 – 2.45pm

• Applying legal knowledge to scenario-based situations and gain a critical awareness of the present state of the law of contract.
• Developing skills for learners to understand the central elements of contract law from the formation of contracts to their enforcement.
• Writing frames to construct exemplary answers
• Analysing a factual scenario by identifying the key facts from which legal issues arise in contract.
• Breaking down the key elements to give a structured answer
• Contract Law: How much case law is required to achieve a top-grade answer?
• Keeping abreast of contemporary authority and principles for the exam

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Afternoon Break

2.45 – 3.00pm

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Preparing for the Exams

3.00 – 3.30pm

• What examiners expect to see in higher level responses in both essays and scenario-based questions
• Examples of good and less good responses.
• Understanding legal application at A-level.
• What are useful tools for revision
• Question and question types- We will explore past exam questions and looking at trends in answers
• How to encourage learners to use their time effectively in the exam

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