Skip to content ↓

Curriculum Intent

Criminology is offered at Cardinal Newman Catholic School Sixth-Form as an optional course as part of our broad KS5 curriculum.  Successful completion of the two-year course results in a level 3 Diploma in Applied Criminology, with UCAS grades equivalent to that of a full A-level.

Our intent is to explore and engage with different areas within criminology, that takes the students beyond their existing knowledge of what is a crime and the different types of crime in the UK.  The entire course consists of four broadly self-contained units that progress from changing awareness of crime and criminological theory in year 12 to crime scene to courtroom and punishment in year 13.

The course gives our students a good basis of knowledge and understanding of Criminology for further academic study or apprenticeships in a wide variety of relatable professions.  The course also touches on other areas such as statistics, sociology, psychology, politics and law, thus creating a very rounded student by the end of the course.    

It is also the aim of the department to equip the students with a wide variety of skills ranging from, debating and research, wider reading and interspersion of data to self - organisation and the use of evidence to formal conclusions.

Whatever next steps our students take the ‘transferable skills’ learnt in Criminology equips them for their future endeavours and give them a wider knowledge of the concepts of crime, law and order and social behaviour.

Students and Parents

A-Level learning journey

Curriculum Overviews

To find out more about our how our curriculum is implemented you can click on our curriculum overviews