Sociology

Key Stage 4

Intent

At Brayton Academy we understand the importance of studying society and recognising the diverse nature of the world we live in. Sociology covers social norms, values and cultures and looks at how different people interact with each other.  It helps our students understand diversity and celebrate differences and respect the cultures and opinions of others.  Our expectations of students are high in all areas; we expect them to take pride in their written work and always strive to do their best. In return, we work hard to provide a range of stimulating lessons and offer all students, whatever their ability, the opportunity to maximise their potential.

The aims of the Sociology Department are –

• To provide enjoyment in understanding of cultures in a safe environment.
• To help ALL students gain confidence in their own ability and achieve success.
• To enable ALL students to learn the relevant skills in debating through the exploration of social theory and studies.
• To enable students to develop an appreciation and understanding of different people and different ways of thinking, which will lead to more balanced and accepting citizens in society.

Implementation

In Sociology, we have six lessons per week and deliver this GCSE over one year.  We cover the foundations in sociology in the first term and make sure the students are introduced to the main social theories.  We also cover the key sociological concepts in sociology such as norms, values, consensus, culture and division, to name a few.  Many of the topics are interconnected, as they are all part of the social process, so reference is continuously made to other areas. We cover families for our first topic from the first exam paper.  As families is such a core institution in society, it makes sense to deliver this and build a student’s understanding of social theory.  After this we move to crime, which is from the second exam paper.  The reason this is done second is to ensure balance between the papers and make delivery equal.  Crime and families can be interlinked and many of the social studies used in families can be applied to crime, namely Parsons and the functions of the family when explaining the causes of crime or bedroom culture with the reasons that women commit less crime. 

When crime is completed, we move to stratification which looks at poverty and division in society.  Stratification covers a number of different areas such as power and poverty but can also be linked to the family and crime, for example, crimes may be committed due to material deprivation or the way that middle class crime is poorly reported by the media because of the imbalance in power.  In the final part of the one-year GCSE we cover education. 

Research skills and social theory are covered as discreet topics in every unit we cover.  This is to ensure skills are continuously delivered. 

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