Regents Review Spring 2019

The Regents Review Spring 2019

DEPARTMENTAL NEWS

Sociology

Firstly, I would like to thank all of the eager Year 8 students and their parents that attended the ‘Options Evening’ and asked many thought provoking questions about Sociology, as well as expressing their interest in choosing the subject as one of their option choices. As Subject Lead for Sociology, this fuels my passion for the subject to see so many young students engaging with challenging ideas and topics. For the current students in Year 9, we have just finished the first of the main four topics within Sociology, the ‘Crime and Deviance’ unit. As previously mentioned in past Regents Reviews’, this unit covers a wide variety of topics including regarding prison systems, crime rates related to gender, age and ethnicity, as well as infamous criminal cases. This unit is a firm favourite of the students and they have successfully just completed their first assessment – a huge well done to the students. We are now moving on to the ‘Research Methods’ unit, where we look at how data is collected, the strengths and weaknesses to different methods and also ethical issues surrounding data collection. In regards to trips for Year 9, we have been lucky enough to organise a trip to the Central Criminal

In Year 10, we have been continuing the ‘Family’ unit after taking a short break. During this time, we have been getting organised with revision cards in preparation for Year 11 and any upcoming exams. With just over a year until their GCSEs begin, the students have been pro-active in their revision by making

cards for key theorists and

key sociological terms for all of the units that we have studied so far. The ‘Family’ unit is the third of four units that we

study, giving us plenty of time in Year 11 for revising and recapping the vast quantity of studies, theories and key terms needed for the exams. With their GCSE exams fast approaching, Year 11 have completed the final unit for the course, ‘Social Stratification’, looking at hierarchies in society, the welfare system and touching on to sections of politics. This is a tricky unit however it ties together all of the ideas that have been studied in Sociology over the period of the course. The Year 11 students will complete a ‘walking talking mock’ next week, where we will explicitly recap exam skills and prepare students to feel confident on how to answer questions and the key ideas to include. This will hopefully give the students a good understanding of the expectations that are required from them in their final GCSE Sociology exams. Revision sessions, that are available to all Year 11 students, continue to run after school on Thursdays (2.40pm - 3.40pm).

Court (formerly The Old Bailey) in London for the second year running. On this trip we will get the opportunity to visit old cellars, as well as viewing a live

trial on the day. In the afternoon, we will be visiting the London School of Economics (LSE) for a tour and lecture from a senior member of the Social Science department. More information will be available to parents shortly.

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