HSC / Sociology
Year 9
Students examine the range of care needs of the major client groups including infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, later adulthood and disabled people. Some examples of the services covered are foster care, residential care, child protection, child and family support group services, child minders, play groups, nursery education, speech therapy, dentistry, health promotion, youth work, hospital services, maternity services, occupational therapy, chiropody, physiotherapy, nursing homes, hospices, general practitioners. The differences between the statutory sector, private care sector and voluntary care. Professional referral and third party referral. The barriers that might prevent people from making use of the services they need.
Year 10
Students will investigate the main work roles of care workers. The similarities and differences in the work roles of health, social care and early years care and education workers. The roles of practitioners who provide care and the roles of those workers who are not directly involved with the care of service users. The different skills used by care workers. Examples of these are interpersonal skills, observation, testing and data interpretation. The use of effective communication to develop care relations with clients, families and colleagues. Different types of communication and how each type of communication can help meet the needs of different client groups. The principles of care and how these are linked to professional codes of practice.
Year 11
Students will consider the difference between growth and development. The expected patterns of physical growth and the physical, intellectual, social and emotional developments that take place during each of the five main life stages– infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, later adulthood. The factors that cause individual differences in patterns of growth and development– physical factors, social and emotional factors, economic factors and environmental factors. How these factors affect a person’s health and wellbeing. The effects of relationships in personal development– family relationships, friendships, intimate personal and sexual relationships and working relationships.
KS4
Sociology is an option subject at KS4. Students make their choices in Year 8 and start the course in Year 9. They have three lessons a week. The final GCSE grade is made up of two written exams lasting 1 hour 45 minutes each; there is no coursework or controlled assessment module. All exams are taken in the summer of Year 11.
Exam Board: AQA
Paper 1 | Families, Education and Social Theory/Methodology |
Paper 2 | Crime and Deviance, Social Stratification and Social Theory/Methodology |
Books for this course:
Sociology A Level
Year 12
The A Level Sociology course requires students to have an understanding of families and households, the position of children and society’s attitudes towards childhood. Changes in the size of families, birth and death rates, and in the population as a whole. Changes in marriage, cohabitation, divorce and parenthood, and the increasing diversity of family types today. The impact on families of government policies and laws. Education– why do some people achieve more than others? The role of education in society and who benefits from it. The Functionalist v Marxist debate. How pupils experience schooling eg. girls and boys studying different subjects. The impact of laws and policies that affect education. Research Methods– quantitative and qualitative methods of research.
Year 13
Students will examine the range of beliefs in society– different theories of ideology, science and religion and the relationship between religious beliefs and social change and stability. Crime and Deviance– different theories of crime, deviance, social order and social control. The social distribution of crime and deviance by age, ethnicity, gender, locality and social class including recent patterns and trends in crime. Theory of Methods–The distinction between primary and secondary data and quantitative and qualitative data.
KS5
To take A Level Sociology, students need at least a B grade for English. They will have five lessons of Sociology with two teachers. The A Level grade is made up of three 2 hour written exams taken in June of Year 13. Currently students sit their Year 12 units as AS papers as practice in Year 12.
Exam Board: AQA
Year 12
Paper 1 | Education and Methods in Context |
Paper 2 | Research Methods and Families and Households |
Year 13
Paper 1 | Education with Theory and Methods |
Paper 2 | Topics in Sociology: Families and Households and Beliefs within Society. |
Paper 3 | Crime and Deviance with Theory and Methods |
Books used within the course: