Sociology

The Sociology Department aims to deliver a challenging, varied and inclusive curriculum that will enable students at Regents Park Community College to widen their perspectives and understanding of the society that they live in and the world around them.  Throughout the 2 year KS4 GCSE, students will be given the opportunity to study the following units: Social Stratification, Crime and Deviance, Education, Family and Research Methods.  Please note that this is a GCSE subject and is not available for KS3 (Years 7, 8, and 9) students.

Assessment

GCSE Sociology is assessed by AQA and the students will sit two exams at the end of Year 11.  These exams are equally weighted (50% each) and both carry a total of 100 marks per paper.  Both exams are 1 hour and 45 minutes long and follow the same question pattern in both papers.  For example, both sections of the two papers have two multiple choice questions followed by a range of short and extended responses.

Paper 1: The sociology of families and education and relevant areas of social theory and methodology.
Paper 2: The sociology of crime and deviance and social stratification and relevant areas of social theory and methodology.

Course Details

Below are just a select few of the questions that the students may be answering throughout the course:

Social Stratification

• What is the biggest factor affecting life chances: social class, gender, race and ethnicity, sexuality, age, disability, religion and beliefs?
• How can socio-economic class divisions effect outcomes?

Crime and Deviance

• Who reports the most crime – males or females?
• How do prison systems work? Is there only one type of prison? Are they all run in the same way?
• What is the difference between ‘white-collar’ and blue collar’ crimes? Do they have same punishments? Are they committed by the same ‘types’ of people?

Education

• Statistically, ‘white British boys’ do the worst in education within the United Kingdom, why is this?
• What is a ‘ladette’ culture and how has this affected education?
• What is ‘role allocation’ and how does it link to education?

Family

• What effects do marriage, divorce, children and death have on the family and also in the wider society?
• What are conjugal role relationships?
• How do family forms differ in the United Kingdom in comparison to the rest of the world?

Research Methods

• What ethical issues must be considered when conducting research methods?
• What is the difference between ‘overt’, ‘covert’, ‘participant observation’ and ‘no-participant observation’?
• How can various primary and secondary sources be used in specific areas of research?

Extra-curricular

The department offer Sociology revision classes after school on Thursdays (2:40pm – 3:40pm).  For these sessions, the students are encouraged to speak to Miss Grassie in advance to ensure that topics of their choice can be prepared for.

Linking to the Crime and Deviance unit, students are given the opportunity to visit the Central Criminal Court (formally The Old Bailey) in London.  On this trip, students are able to view a real-life criminal trial, to help give them a better understanding of the legal system that we have here in the UK.