The document provides a comprehensive overview of the organization and evolution of the education system in Great Britain since 1945, highlighting key changes such as the introduction of comprehensive schools and policies fostering competition among schools. It discusses various types of schools, educational attainment disparities linked to social class and ethnicity, and the impact of government policies on underachieving students. Furthermore, it examines the roles of gender and cultural identity in educational outcomes, including the importance of socio-economic factors and labels in shaping student achievement.

1. Education
sociology

2. How is the education system of great Britain
organised?
• Education set up in 1945
• Grammar schools
• Secondary moderns
• Technical schools
• Middle class children were favoured over working
class.
• Popular with many parents
• Britain changed to have comprehensive schools in
the 1970’s

3. Grammar schools
• Sat and 11+ exam
• Allocated a school type as a result og the
exam
• Grammar school- academic
• Secondary modern- physical learning
• Only those attending grammar schools
could sit exams and go to college.

4. Comprehensive schools
• 1965, a weak, unpopular labour
government sent out circular 10/65 to all
education authorities.
• All children of all abilities went to one
school
• Margret Thatcher- conservative prime
minister from 1979- she made schools
competitive.
• Tony Blair- labour prime minister from
1997.

5. 1979
• Turning point in British society
• Conservative government (Margaret Thatcher)
• Set of beliefs called the new right- no rules are
needed for society, because economics can be
relied upon.
•
• Impacted schools because new right only
believed that they could improve.

6. Key points
• Labour party introduced comprehensive schools to
encourage equality for all children.
• Conservative governments objected to
comprehensive schools.
• Conservatives believed in market forces and
competition between schools.
• They have encouraged a variety of different schools
to develop
• The labour party under Tony Blair and more recent
education ministers have continued with this policy.

7. What types of school are available in the UK
• Compulsory education
• Age 5-16
• Regulated by the national curriculum
• Freely provided between the ages of 5-19
• Local education authorities have a duty to educate all children.
• Excluded children must have alternate provision.
• Education and skills act (2008)- raised school leaving age to 18 from 2015 and has
given pupils the right to be consulted on school policy.
• 4-10 ½- compulsory, primary education.
• 10 ½- 16- compulsory, secondary education.
• 16-19- optional sixth form/ colleges.
• 19+ tertiary education, university.

8. Types of schools
• State schools
• Owned by LEA
• They allocate the £ and employ staff
• They include comprehensive schools, grammar and secondary modern.
• Community school
• Community schools are owned by local authorities who allocated
money and employ staff. This is probably the most common type of
school.
• Foundation schools
• Have more freedom that community schools because their governing
body can select pupils and employ staff.
• These schools may include comprehensive and grammar schools.

9. Types of schools
• Voluntary aided and faith schools
• Owned by charities
• May have religious faiths
• Vocational qualifications
• City academies
• Independent from local authorities and many are funded by business or
charities.
• Large numbers are linked to religious groups
• They were often set up on the sites of failing schools and many offer
vocational education.
• Specialist schools
• Have extra funding to establish centre of excellence in certain subject areas
although having to teach he whole curriculum.
• Over 2,600 in England.

10. Major changes in the education system since
1945
• 1945- the education act- 11+- came about to
select children into the right schools for their
abilities.
• 1965- circular 10/65, prepare for
comprehensive schools (labour- Tony Blair)-
labour party said prepare form comprehensive
schools to create equality.
• 1979- conservative government (Margaret
Thatcher), ‘new right’, schools could improve.

11. Purpose of education
• Socialisation
• Route to social success
• Training for future employment
• Passing on culture and knowledge
• Protection of young people from
employers
• Control

12. Studies on the purpose of education

13. •
•Protecting children:
•The first government acts imposing compulsory
education in Britain was 1880 and then partly it
was designed to stop child labour in factories
and affected children ages 5-10.
•Also provided a trained workforce to operate
new machinery.
•The great debate:
• 1970’s, James Callaghan, a labour prime minister
made a famous speech. Said Britain’s falling
behind because the education system has failed
to produce skilled workers. This Lead to national
curriculum.

14. Key words
• Formal socialisation- deliberately
setting out to influence people’s
behaviour.
• Social control- the way in which
the social rules of the cultures
within, which affect their
behaviour.

15. Policies encouraging competition
• Publishing league tables
• Encouraging private investigators into
schools
• Setting up the academy program
• Offering parental choice of schools
• Publishing GCSE and A-level league
tables
• Inspections and the published reports.

16. Independent schools
• Fee-paying- independent sector
• Parents paying money to schools
run as businesses.
• Limited facilities, low pay for
teachers.
• Selective with students.

17. Best schools or the best students
• Its hard to determine that schools with the best
exam results are actually the best schools or if it’s
the intelligent students.

18. Assess the view that competition
between schools will encourage
better education for pupils
• The view that competition between schools will
encourage better education for pupils can be
argued. Sociologists argue that schools that are fee-paying
encourage students to do better, but it could
also be argued that students with rich parents don’t
do as well because they rely on their parents money
to fall back on. On the other hand students in free,
comprehensive schools may do better to ensure
themselves a better future. But contrastingly Karl
Turner found that schools with more pupils claiming
free-school-meals are unlikely to get better
expectations.

19. Alternative schools
• Summer hill- progressive school, doesn’t follow the nation
curriculum, promotes happiness
• (Tony Blair changed the law so these types of schools were
not aloud.)
• Independent boarding school.
• “imagine a school where kids have freedom to
be themselves. Where success is not defined
by academic achievement but by the own child
definition of success. Where the whole school
deals democratically with issues/ with each
individual having a right to be heard. Where
you can play all day if you want to and there is
time and space to sit and dream. … could their
be such a school”

20. Alternative schools
• Eton college-
• British independent boarding school.
• Boys school
• David Cameron, prince harry and William attended.
• Pupil teacher ratio is 8:1
• “our primary aim is to encourage each
Etonian to be self confident, inquiring,
tolerant, positive young men, a well
rounded character with an independent
mind, an individual who respects the
differences of others. By the time he
leaves the school, we want each boy to
have the true sense of self worth which
will enable him to stand up for himself
and for a purpose greater than himself,
and, in doing so, to be of value society ”

21. Social class
• Social class- a measure based on
occupational and educational
background.
• Working class under achievement is because:
• Catchment area
• Resources
• Parents job type
• Parents educational background
• Parents norms and values
• Wealth (paid of free education)
• Lack of cultural capitals
• Diet

22. classes
• Underclass: unemployed
• Cultural deprivation: not having full access to
the skills and knowledge needed to succeed.
•Class examples:
• Super class: J K Rowling
• Upper Class: Katie Price
• Middle class: solicitor or doctor etc.
• Under class: unemployed

23. Class Key words and studies
• Material deprivation: students lack of money that deprives them
from having the best chances at succeeding in their education.
• Cultural deprivation: not having the desired skills and knowledge
needed to succeed in a good education.
• Immediate gratification: ‘I want it now’ – impatient
• Deferred gratification: ‘waiting’ working hard for what they want
and being patient.
• Cultural capital: having the valued knowledge and skills to succeed.
• Elaborated code: middle-class- well
• spoken –formal.
• Restricted code: working-class- jargon-
• informal.

24. Class studies

25. Class studies

26. Cost of education
• Additional costs of free- paying schools
(comprehensive):
• Equipment
• Trips
• Uniform
• School dinners
• Charity events
• transport

27. education (cost)
• The Halifax building society (2006):
• A private education for a child between the ages of 3 to 18, will cost
£326,000.
• For top private schools, on average fee’s are £25,000 a year.
• To get into a well performing comprehensive secondary school in England
you are looking to pay tens of thousands at the least for a house in
catchment.
• Money and attainment:
• Material deprivation theories suggest that the working-class experience
poverty and deprivation. This leads to failure.
• Children who grow up in poverty have the lowest levels of educational
attainment.
• The gap between the poor and the rest of the population is growing as the
children get older.
• Fewer working-class students are continuing in higher education.
• Material deprivation ^

28. Deprivation (cost of education)
• According to government statistics:
 The UK has the highest record of child poverty in Europe.
 In 2007 2.9 million children were poor.
 In 2004, on in four British children were poor.
 10.2% of children in the UK are classified as being in serve poverty.
• ‘There is a strong association between parents low level of educational attainment and serve child
poverty.’
• Impacts of deprivation:
• Cramped small housing
• Sickness , absences from school
• Space
• Jobs out of school
• No money for resources or trips
• Innutritious diet
• Lack of sleep

29. Deprivation and education studies (cost of an
education)

30. Deprivation and education studies (cost of an
education)

31. Government policies supporting poorer
children
• Government policy: funding
• the government has persisted in tackling problems of underachievement
by creating policies that are directed at changing schools and teachers.
• School funding under the new right (Margret Thatcher, Conservative) was
directed towards high achieving schools because it was believed that if
schools were in competition for funding, they would all improve.
• Government policy: EMA
• In 2002, the British government announced that it was providing a grant of
£30 per week from September 2004 onwards to help some 16-19 year old
students to stay in education.
• Evidence showed 6% increase in those who stayed.
• Unfortunately the £30 wasn’t enough for some of the poorest families.

32. Marxism and education
• Education is capitalist production.
• Making the inequality's seem ok because meritocracy exists.

33. Marxism and education
Neo-Marxists- modern Marxists, take in a
wider amount of knowledge other than
class.

34. Strengths of Marxism
• It points out how ideology is transmitted within schools via
the hidden curriculum.
• Marxism is linked to the labour party.
• It recognizes conflict of interest in schools; not everyone
shares values.
• It points out the inequality's of both opportunity and outcome
in the system.
•Weaknesses-
• it assumes teachers are unaware of class dynamics and are all
middle-class agents.
• Many working-class children do not succeed in the education
system.
• It overemphasizes class and ignores other structural
inequality's, ethnicity and gender.

35. Marxists (New left)
• Working-classes are victims of the system.
• New right>The new right say that the poor are to blame, they have developed
a culture that is negative and selfish, it’s the poor's fault and their own
responsibility.
• New left> the structure of society is to blame, the poor did not choose to be
poor. If the poor fail, it is the responsibility of the culture we have created.

36. Gender (the gender gap in educational
attainment)
• Reading is seen as a more feminine activity, and this is perhaps why
boys struggle in creative subjects such as literacy/ English.

37. Gender gap in literacy
• 80% of boys and 88% of girls reached there reading goals at age 11.
• At ages 14 12% more girls got better English grades. (73% A*-C in girls
59% boys)
• Its said that girls find creative activities more interesting that boys do.
• The gender gap has said to have been widening reason for this include:
• Inter-play of school and home
• environment disadvantages boys.
• Boys are less likely to be given
• books as presents.

38. Patterns of achievement between genders
when boys were overtaking girls
• 1960’s, boys achieved on average 5% better than girls.
• 1980’s boys outperformed girls at all levels of achievement.
• 1980’s, girls were offered a curriculum preparing them for life.
Whereas boys were offered practical subjects and were encouraged to
study academic subjects.
• 1980’s, schoolbooks were written with focus on males.
• School uniform based around masculinity (blazers)
• Mid 1980s, both genders began to improve their school performance.

39. Girls beginning to over take boys attainment
levels
• Girls outperformed boys at GCSE in 2007 by 9.1% in all subjects but
maths.
• Girls performance has cause a moral panic over ‘boys failure’.
• Girls have been moving ahead very fast in English.
• 66% of girls and 57% of boys achieved 5 or more A*-C’s.
• Females are staying on longer into post 16 education, and are
taking over in traditionally male jobs.

40. Feminist views
• Feminists also argue that many females
fail to achieve their full individual
potential or choose to study ‘feminine’
subjects which are less valued than
‘masculine’ subjects’.
• Feminists still claim subjects are
favoured towards boys.

41. Gender and class

42. • In 2005 figures doubled fro woman working in high status
careers.
• Evidence shows that females are more likely to revise.
• Girls blame themselves for poor performance whereas boys
blame other things.

43. Crisis of masculinity and laddism
• Writers suggest male underachievement is linked to the crisis of
masculinity.

44. • Male identities are concerned with the hierarchies of power and
dominance.
• Males feel academic school work is feminine.

45. Gender and single sex education
• Teaching is seen as a more feminine job.
• 1970’s-1980’s, experimented with single sex classes. It was proved
helpful for girls in science and maths lessons.
• There is evidence girls do better in same-sex schools. They come out
top in league tables.

46. gender
• Woman were seen to be homemakers, mean
bread winners.(functionalist)
• Due to globalisation their has been a decline in
heavy industries, such as iron and steel
engineering etc.
• Decline is mainly in manual working class jobs,
which didn’t need qualifications.

47. Schools are feminised?
• Its said there more options for girls.
• Theirs more female teachers that perhaps relate to
teachers better.
• Schools do not nurture masculine traits such as leadership.
• Instead schools celebrate qualities such as attentiveness in
class and methodical working.
• There's a lack of male role models at home and in school.

48. statistics
• Yougov (2007)- 39% of 8-11 year old had no male teachers at all.
• A majority said presence of male teachers made them behave better.
42% worked harder.
• Growth in laddish sub-cultures has contributed to boys
underachievement.
• Non-manual work seen as inferior.
• “real boys don’t work and if they do they are bullied”

49. statistics
• Between 1985-2007 boy achieved 3% higher from 26%-56% A*-C.
• DFE(2007)- class gap is 3 times wider than gender gap.

50. ethnicity
• Sociological studies have found that:
• White, teen, girls with absent fathers are more likely to get pregnant and
leave school early.
• Afro Caribbean adolescents with absent fathers are more likely to commit
crimes.
• White middle class people are more likely to go to university.
• Some minority group like Chinese, Indian and Irish heritage perform better
than others such as African, Caribbean and Pakistani.
• Children from Indian family are more likely to seek a career after school.
• Chinese girls outperform all ethnic minority groups at GCSE.
• Females outperform males in every ethnic group.
• Middle class students outperform working class students in every ethnic
group.
• Unsuccessful ethnic minority students are more likely to stay in education
than white students.

51. Possible causes of the previous findings
Role models
Parents backgrounds/ upbringing
Parents educational backgrounds
Wealth
Religion
Faiths
Institutional racism
Labelling of certain ethnic minorities.

52. race
• Colour/ nationality.
• Ethnic/ national origin.
• A racial group sharing the same colour, nationality and
ethnic/ national origin.
• A persons protected characteristic, belonging to a
group (e.g. British people)
• Racial groups can comprise two or more racial groups
such as Asian British.
• Ethnicity: relates to the characteristics of a human
group such as race, language, origin, religion.

53. Differential educational achievement
• Variations in educational attainment between students according to their social class
background, gender and ethnicity.
• Results are collected annually and reports are issued publically. Sociologists use the
data to observe patterns in achievement.
• IQ tests
• They are controversial.
• They don’t measure everything that should be considered.
• A study showed that by the change of admissions into one of Americas elitist
universities (Berkley university of California) in 1997, the admissions changing to
become almost entirely based upon SATS (tests closely related to IQ Tests), which
were also unbiased towards ethnic minority groups, affected the percentages of each
minority group placements. 40% were Asians, and only 3% admissions from African
American.
•

54. Social class disadvantage and ethnicity
• Disadvantages:
• Low birth weight
• Lack of pre-school provision
• Poor diet/ under nourished
• Care for younger siblings
• Employment while in education
• Home environment.
• Studies argue that Indian families are more supportive and
encouraging that Afro Caribbean families.
• It has also been argued that low educational attainment within the
ethnic minorities is down to being tought in their second language.

55. Ethnicity and teacher labelling
• Some ethnic groups are labelled by teachers as being
unintelligent, time wasters and trouble makers. This is
usually aimed at male black Afro-Caribbean's.
• White and Asian pupils may be labelled as more intelligent
and as a result preform better.
• Self fulfilling prophecy:
• Labelling theory often results in a self-fulfilling prophecy.
• If a child is told they are intelligent of unintelligent, often
they will live up to that expectation.

56. Youth subcultures and ethnicity
• A subculture is a group that hold different values to the minority.
They adopt and display different behaviours to the norm in
society.
• Some minority groups can adopt sub-culture values which
demote education (anti education). This results in feeling
different from other school students, disobedient and anti
establishment behaviour.

57. ethnicity
• The national curriculum is ethnocentric.
• Ethnocentric: focussed on one culture, usually British.
• Some schools are believed to be institutionally racist.
• Institutionally racist: the rules and behaviour of the school can
let out a racist vibe, through the hidden curriculum.

58. Tony Sewell, Lee Jasper and ethnicity
• A report highlighted in 1985 highlighted
racism in school as a cause of
underachievement.
• The curriculum is heavily biased (history and
religion- based on British beliefs usually.)
• Recently commissions have taken big steps in
trying to eradicate racism in schools.

59. Ethnicity studies
Afro-Caribean children
underachieve because…
• Racism of teachers
• Low expectations
• Lack of attention by
teachers
• Low self esteem
• Denial of child
developing their own
identity on a daily
basis.

60. Labelling theory/ interactionalist theory
•Master status: the most obvious thing about a
person. (a label we attach to people)
• attitudes- we have a tendency to behave in a
certain way towards different people, negatively or
positively. For example- a teacher may act
differently towards different pupils.
• Self-fulfilling prophecy: beliefs and expectations
influencing a persons behaviour.
• ‘Pygmalion’ effect- self fulfilling prophecy steps.

61. Labelling theory / interactionalist theory

62. Labelling theory / interactionalist theory
Positive and negative expectations
of teachers and determine whether
a student passes or fails.
Working-class children are seen as
poor learners, they then live up to
this ad let middle-class students
dominate top sets.