Scheme of work: two years
This scheme of work suggests how to deliver the Level 1/2 Award in Children’s Learning and Development (3715) over two years.
Year one
Autumn term
Week / Specification content / Activities and additional notes / Resources1 / Importance of pre-conceptual care for the healthy development of the unborn child 3.3.2 / Introduction to the course and outline.
Outline of the specification at a glance.
Outline of:
· Unit 1 Research task (30%) – Internally assessed
· Unit 2 Child study (30%) – Internally assessed
· Unit 3 Development of the child from preconception to 10 years old – Externally assessed.
Introduction to pre-conceptual care and the importance of giving the baby the best possible chance in life.
Learners should understand why pre-conceptual care is essential before planning for the child.
Activity:
Working in small groups, learners can investigate what they would consider to be the ideal situation when choosing to bring a child into the world. Giving reasons why. / AQA Level 1/2 Award Children’s learning and Development (3715)
AQA Assessment materials
Textbooks:
AQA Technical Award Children’s Learning and Development (2017) Hall & Brennand ISBN 9781510403802
Chapter 6 – factors influencing development pre-conception and during pregnancy (page 75).
2 / Pre-conceptual care:
· healthy diet
· lifestyle. / Learners should have an understanding of the importance of a healthy diet and weight before choosing to become pregnant. This should include the importance of a balanced diet eg eat-well guide, weight of the woman and complications that can arise from being overweight and underweight during the pregnancy.
Learners should understand the importance of a healthy lifestyle before they choose to have a baby this includes smoking, alcohol, drugs, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) which will be explored in more detail during the next lesson.
Learners should also understand the importance of taking folic acid to prevent birth defects such as spina bifida.
Activities:
Introduce interview-style questions, open and closed.
Group decides together after mind mapping ideas typical questions.
Interview parents/carers about the above, recording the information appropriately and how they found out about pre conceptual care.
Information packs could be used in groups to research further, for example Bounty Packs. / AQA Technical Award Children’s Learning and Development (2017) Hall & Brennand –
Chapter 6 Factors influencing development pre-conception and during pregnancy (page 75).
Useful websites:
nhs.uk (National Health Service)
3 / Reducing unknown risks 3.3.2:
· smoking
· alcohol
· drugs
· STIs
· rubella immunity
· other diseases and infections. / Learners should understand that if the mother has taken or used harmful substances during pregnancy this can cause long-term problems and damage the developing baby.
Learners need to have a knowledge and understanding of the effects of the following:
Smoking:
· Learners should understand the effect of smoking on a woman’s fertility and that for men it can affect the sperm count and produce abnormal sperm. The effect nicotine has on the unborn baby eg premature birth, miscarriage and stillbirth, ectopic pregnancy, low birth weight.
· This includes the effects of e-cigarettes, which may be as harmful as smoking cigarettes with nicotine.
· The effect on a baby/child brought-up in an environment where parents/family smokes (passive smoking).
Alcohol:
· The effect of alcohol on sperm count.
· The effect of alcohol on the unborn baby eg miscarriage, learning difficulties, delayed growth, damage to the brain and nervous system and foetal alcohol syndrome (FAS).
Drugs:
The difference between illegal drugs and prescribed drugs including medicines and the effect on the unborn baby.
Caffeine:
· Caffeine is a stimulant that naturally occurs in food eg tea, coffee, energy drinks.
· The effects of high levels of caffeine eg low birth weight.
STIs:
· What is an STI and the effect on the unborn baby eg syphilis, chlamydia, genital herpes and HIV.
· Learners should understand that STIs can cause miscarriage, birth defects, including the brain and heart.
· Learners can investigate other infections that can cause damage to the unborn baby eg toxoplasmosis.
Activity:
Invite a midwife into the classroom to deliver a session about the effects of the risks to the unborn child and what steps the NHS and other organisations do to minimise the risks. / AQA Technical Award Children’s Learning and Development (2017) Hall & Brennand –
Chapter 6 Factors influencing development pre-conception and during pregnancy (page 75).
Useful websites:
nhs.uk (National Health Service).
4 / Genetic factors that could affect development 3.3.2:
· cystic fibrosis
· Duchene Muscular Dystrophy
· Down’s syndrome. / Learners need to have knowledge and understanding of:
· what is a genetic abnormality or genetic disability and how they occur.
· the importance of genetic counselling for a couple whose baby may be born with a congenital abnormality.
· different examples of genetic abnormalities and disabilities.
· Down’s syndrome – caused by an extra chromosome. Characteristics of Down’s syndrome and the effect on health growth and development of the child.
· Cystic fibrosis (CF) – caused by a faulty gene that both parents have to carry to pass on to the child. The effects of CF on the lungs and digestive system and further effects on health, growth and development.
· Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy – caused by abnormality of the gene. The mother carries the faulty gene and passes it to her son (only boys have this condition).The effects of this condition on the muscle tissue and the further effects on health, growth and development.
· Thalassemia – caused by a faulty gene. Both mother and father carry the faulty gene. The effect of this disease causes anemia.
· sickle cell disease – caused by a faulty gene.
Activity:
Learners in small groups, research using the internet into different genetic/chromosomal abnormalities. Each group produces a PowerPoint and delivers a short presentation to the class. They could produce a simple handout to accompany the PowerPoint. / AQA Technical Award Children’s Learning and Development (2017) Hall & Brennand –
Chapter 6 Factors influencing development pre-conception and during pregnancy (page 75).
Useful websites:
nhs.uk (National Health Service).
5 / Ante-natal care 3.3.2:
· Ante-natal clinics
· Ante-natal classes. / Ante-natal classes and ante-natal clinics.
The learners need to have knowledge and an understanding of:
· the importance of ante-natal care for the healthy development of the unborn child
· what ante-natal care is about
· the health care professionals that provide it eg midwives
· the importance of ante-natal care
· the difference between what happens at an ante-natal appointment and an ante-natal/parent craft class eg ante-natal appointment/clinic the midwife will carry out routine tests either at the hospital or local health centre eg ante-natal class are usually more informal, no testing occurs and usually led by a midwife.
Activity:
Invite a midwife in to deliver a session about ante-natal care and the role of the midwife.
or
Invite a pregnant woman into the class to talk about her personal experiences of being pregnant and the ante-natal care received.
Learners could prepare individual questions building on their knowledge and skill at interviewing. / AQA Technical Award Children’s Learning and Development (2017) Hall & Brennand –
Chapter 6 Factors influencing development pre-conception and during pregnancy (page 75).
Useful websites:
nhs.uk (National Health Service)
babycentre.co.uk
tommys.org/
bda.uk.com/improvinghealth/ (The Association of UK Dietitians)
webmd.boots.com
nct.org.uk (National Childbirth Trust)
readysteadybaby.org.uk
mumsnet.com
food.gov.uk (Food Standards Agency).
6 / · Routine checks
· Screening and diagnostic testing including blood tests 3.3.2. / Routine tests.
Learners should have knowledge and understanding of routine tests and the potential problems that can be found out from:
· blood tests – including anaemia, German measles (Rubella), blood sugar levels, STIs, blood group, rhesus factor, hepatitis B, HIV
· urine tests – protein, glucose and ketones
· height and weight
· blood pressure
· foetal heart beat
· abdominal examinations.
Screening tests.
Learners should have knowledge and an understanding of:
· what screening tests are carried out during the pregnancy and why they are carried out
· the fact that screening tests are specialist blood tests, ultrasound scans or a combination of both
· the fact that blood test screening is carried out to detect:
· chromosome abnormalities, for example, Down’s, Edward’s syndrome and spina bifida
· inherited conditions, for example, sickle cell disease and thalassaemia.
· the new screening test called Non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) that can be carried out at 10 weeks of the pregnancy
· the different types of scans including ultrasound, Doppler, 3D and 4D and Nuchal translucency (NT).
Combined screening includes blood tests and ultrasound scans.
Diagnostic testing.
Learners should have an understanding of the following diagnostic tests:
· Amniocentesis
· Chorionic villus sampling.
Activity:
To produce a factsheet about the different types of testing available to pregnant women. / AQA Technical Award Children’s Learning and Development (2017) Hall & Brennand ISBN 9781510403802
Chapter 6 Factors influencing development pre-conception and during pregnancy (page 75).
Useful websites:
nhs.uk (National Health Service)
webmd.boots.com/pregnancy/guide (Boots Web MD: UK-specific information)
nct.org.uk (National Childbirth Trust: parent support).
7 / Unit 1:
Research task 3.1. / Research task:
Introduction to research skills that can be incorporated into the research task to be submitted to AQA for Unit 1.
Activities above can build on many of the skills required for the research task eg primary research with parents, professionals.
Techniques or writing open and closed questions. / AQA Technical Award Children’s Learning and Development (2017) Hall and Brennand
8 / Practice research skills and techniques 3.1. / For example, learners could carry out a mini research task about pre-conceptual care (if learners carried out this topic as a practice exercise then learners would not be permitted to submit as one of the chosen tasks, as it would be too teacher-led).
Teaching about primary and secondary information.
Learners could produce a leaflet/booklet/factsheet/poster/PowerPoint to give to parents who are considering having a baby.
This could take place over 4–5 weeks.
Introduce the task.
Activity
This mini exercise can include:
· simple planning
· primary research – a questionnaire to parents about pre-conceptual care (ask parents what they considered before having a baby)
· secondary research – to include at least three different sources
· ICT – produce outcome
· Evaluate – peer-assess the outcomes. / AQA Technical Award Children’s Learning and Development (2017) Hall and Brennand
Chapter 5 Essential skills (page 57).
9 / Primary sources 3.1 / Learners should understand the difference between closed and open questions.
Activity:
Learners given an example of a well-written questionnaire and a more simplistic questionnaire. Discuss the merits and then learners write their own questions using ICT if available. Hand out questionnaires for next week’s lesson. / AQA Technical Award Children’s Learning and Development (2017) Hall and Brennand
Chapter 5 Essential skills (page 57).
10 / Secondary sources
Analysis of results 3.1 / Learners select at least three different sources of secondary information eg textbook, internet and a leaflet. Learners understand how to select appropriate information and recognise if the source is appropriate for the task.
Activity:
Pre-selected information could be given by the teacher, including information gathered from reliable and unreliable sources. In groups learners can discuss which information is most useful.
Learners shown how to collate and analyse results from questionnaires, using colour coding, graphs (more time could be spent on this section, dependent on the ability of the learners, class size and timetable). / AQA Technical Award Children’s Learning and Development (2017) Hall and Brennand ISBN 9781510403802
Chapter 5 Essential skills (page 57).
11 / Evaluate research
Plan and make the outcome 3.1 / Simple evaluation of research and plan for outcome.
Activity:
Learners make a simple leaflet/factsheet using ICT skills.
Important to incorporate the research that they consider to be important ICT skills could be taught; depends on existing skills. / AQA Technical Award Children’s Learning and Development (2017) Hall & Brennand
Chapter 5 Essential skills (page 57).
12 / Complete the outcome 3.1 / Completion of the outcome using ICT and other resources. Peer assess the outcomes drawing on the strengths of the whole class and how they have approached the task. Looking at what has worked well and even better if (EBI).
The skills learned through this exercise will support the production of the Unit 1 – Research task during the spring term.
Throughout the course other topics can incorporate research skills for further practice.
Working towards the first submission of Unit 1 – Spring 2018. / AQA Technical Award Children’s Learning and Development (2017) Hall & Brennand
Chapter 5 Essential skills (page 57).
Spring term
Week / Specification content / Activities and additional notes / Resources1 / Child Health and Safety 3.3.7 / Learners will have knowledge and understanding of the importance of keeping children safe at home, indoors and online.
Learners should understand how to ensure children are safe using the internet including:
· parents knowing what the child is doing online, the dangers and how to protect children
· identifying what children do online eg using search engines, social media and apps such as Snapchat
· the potential harmful effects of being groomed, sexually abused, accessing inappropriate websites
· cyberbullying – digital technology often used to humiliate someone
· playing games – time consuming ,personal details shared with others
· downloading films – may include sex, violence and bad language.
Activity. Discussion/debate –
Learners could be split into three groups, one group is for social media, one group is against social media and one group could be the audience who watches the debate and asks questions of the two groups.
Pre-printed materials can be given to all groups with facts about the effect of all the above topics on young children. Learners can have time to read the information and as group they can prepare their facts for the debate. / AQA Technical Award Children’s Learning and Development (2017) Hall and Brennand
Chapter 11 Child health and safety (page 195).
Useful websites:
thinkuknow.co.uk CEOP’s website
kidscape.org.uk
saferinternet.org.uk