Sociology

In culture and identity students have explored the concept of culture and considered questions such as, what is culture? Why is it so important to a society? And what are youth subcultures and what role do they play in creating youth identities? Popular culture (TV, films, pop music, video games etc.) has also been examined from different sociological perspectives and its influence on how we see ourselves has been questioned.

Year 13 students have been studying the media and crime and deviance. In crime and deviance they have been developing their understanding of the opposing views of sociologists on the causes and relevance of crime in our society. A detailed look at examples such as the alleged corruption in FIFA in relation to the Qatar world cup provided an opportunity to look critically at a topical world event.

The media topic is a deep dive into an aspect of society that we are all familiar with, but might not have thought so critically about. Students have considered the issue of ownership and control. They have explored whether owners such as Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg own the media, or if we as the audience have ownership.

The topics of globalization and how global media brands such as Netflix, Disney and Amazon are so powerful and whether they are changing our understanding of the world and shaping our identities has been covered. We always encourage sociology students to follow the news closely and the topic of who decides the news agenda and how powerful the news is in influencing our views has been the focus of recent sociology lessons.

Super Curriculum

Whilst our Year 7 and 8 students do not have the opportunity to study sociology, they can get involved with the subject via the Super Curriculum fortnight activities. In the most recent Super Curriculum fortnight, we encouraged students to focus on the 2021 Census data to see what it tells us about society today and how society has changed over time. It is always wonderful to see younger students embracing the opportunity to develop their understanding of a subject that they might study in the future – why not have a look at what sociology activity you can get involved in during the next super curricular fortnight!

How I can help my child learn in Sociology?

✓ Discuss with them at home the topics they are learning about – they should be able to give you examples of how their learning can be applied to news stories and world events.

✓ Encourage them to use the resources available on firefly for revision.

✓ Test, test, test! Testing improves memory and allows them to understand their strengths and weaknesses as they prepare for exams – testing can be in the form of flashcards, or more importantly, practice exam questions.

What are KS4 and 5 students learning in …

Key Stage 4

Year 9 began the year by focusing on key musical vocabulary and listening to a wide range of music to develop their understanding of how to use the vocabulary to critically analyse music. During Term 2, students practiced and performed a selection of festive songs to develop their ability to perform as an ensemble. During Terms 3 and 4, students have been focusing on composing music. We started by learning how to create initial ideas and now we have more of a focus on how to develop these ideas into a chosen genre of music.