The Sociology Department

Staff

Mr. G. Kourea - Curriculum Leader
Mrs L. Willmott: Deputy Headteacher (part Sociology/ part English)

Sociology at Key Stage 4 - Awarding Body - AQA

Examination Details

The course is examined through papers at higher and foundation level. The higher paper is aimed at students who can realistically hope to achieve grades A* - C, while the foundation is aimed at students who realistically hope to achieve grade D - G. Students can gain a grade C on the foundation paper. A major factor in determining entry tier will be a student's ability to write coherently in essay form. Both tiers have a compulsory section assessing general sociological knowledge, understanding and skills, and a choice of questions based around each of the topics studied.

The coursework component comprises of a personal project of between 1500 – 2500 words, which is completed in the autumn term of Year 11. The coursework is worth 20% of the final grade. Students who fail to submit a coursework project will not be entered for the examination.

Course Content: The course is divided into various units:

What is Sociology?
The family and households
Education
Poverty
Methodology
Social Class
Migration and movement
Deviance
Work
Power and Politics

Assessment

There are 2 assessment objectives in GCSE Sociology:

Knowledge and understanding, with an emphasis on:
social structures, such as the family
social processes, such as socialisation
s ocial issues, such as the causes and consequences of inequality
Skills, with an emphasis on:
acquiring information
interpreting information
using information to evaluate arguments

Students will undertake practice tests, using GCSE questions, on a regular basis, in order to foster the development of the examination skills required for success at the end of the course. Students will sit a practice examination at the end of Year 10, and a mock exam at the end of the autumn term in Year 11.

Informal assessment takes place largely through oral work and written exercises, which aim to reinforce understanding of concepts and content, and to provide a user friendly set of notes from which to revise for the examination. Each student will be provided with revision packs for each topic prior to going on study leave.

Full details of the course and examination past papers can be found on the AQA website: www.aqa.org.uk

Sociology at AS/A2 - Awarding Body - AQA

Entry Requirements

There is no stipulation that students must have studied Sociology at GCSE in order to start the A level course. Many students at this school have gained grade A's at A level without having studied the subject at GCSE. What is required is an enthusiasm for study, an enquiring mind that is interested in finding out how our society works, an ability to accept people's right to have a view that differs fundamentally from the person's own view, and a capacity for hard work. As with any A level subject, the study of Sociology is demanding, and therefore certain examination standards must be met prior to acceptance on the course. Minimum requirements are at least 5 GCSE grades at C and above. As the A level examinations are very much essay based, students must have gained at least grade C in both English language and literature.

Examination Details - AS

All students will undertake an induction into studying Sociology at A level. This will involve an introduction to sociological theories, which underpin the study of sociology. Students will be made aware that sociology is not a matter of commonsense; it is an evidence-based subject. Sociologists collect their evidence methodically in an attempt to confirm that the theories they hold about the nature of society are correct. Sociologists have different views to explain human behaviour and the workings of society, and the successful A level student has to understand the different views.

The A/S course is divided into 3 units:

Unit 1 Families and households
Unit 2 Education
Unit 3 Sociological Methods

Students will sit examinations in each of these units in May of their first year of study. There is an opportunity for students, whose performance did not match their potential, to retake one or more of these papers in the following January.

The marks gained in these examinations represent half of the student's final A level grade. It is therefore essential that students apply themselves diligently from the start of the course. Students can elect to stop studying the subject at the end of Year 12. If this is the case the students will leave with an AS grade.

Examination Details - A2

As in the first year of the course, the students have to complete 3 units.

Unit 4 Religion
Unit 5 A coursework project or a paper in theory and methods
Unit 6 Deviance - This is the synoptic paper, which seeks to assess students' knowledge and understanding of the relationship of deviance to sociological theories, methods and other substantive topics that students have studied in their course.

The decision as to which option a student takes in unit 5 is taken by the student, who may have a firm preference for examination assessment, or vice versa. The coursework project is a personal study of the student's own choice, but with a strong recommendation to select issues from an area that has been or will be studied. The recommended length of the project is 3500 words and is completed by the end of March in Year 13.

Unit 4 and 5 examination papers are sat in January, with the option to retake in June. Unit 6 is sat in June. The overall grade is determined by totalling the marks gained on all 6 units. It must be stressed that the option to retake units should not be used as an excuse to treat the first sitting of a unit as a practice. It is in the students' interests not to have to take resits, as this will impact on the revision time available for other units.

Assessment

There are 2 assessment objectives:

Knowledge and understanding of theories, methods, concepts and various forms of evidence.
The acquisition and appropriate application of the skills of identification, analysis, interpretation and evaluation.

A crucial part of studying sociology will be the acquisition of the essay writing skills that are essential for examination success at this level. There will be regular practice essays, initially completed for homework, but increasingly completed in class under examination conditions. Each unit is marked out of 60, with 40 marks allocated to essays, a ratio which emphasises the importance of competent essay writing skills.

Full details of the course and examination past papers can be found on the AQA website: www.aqa.org.uk

Students will have the opportunity to attend sociology conferences in London, where eminent sociologists and AQA examiners will address them.