Education 2a

Question 1

What is a child from a working class background less likely to do

Answer 1

• be in nursery/ preschool/ playgroup
• leave school with 5 or more A*-C (9-4) grades at GCSE
• progress to university

Question 2

What is a child from a working class background more likely to do

Answer 2

• start school unable to read
• fall behind in core skills such as numeracy reading and writing
• suffer mental health problems/ illness
• be placed in lower sets
• study vocational subjects
• achieve lower scores in SATs and GCSEs
• attend a failing school
• have a shorter educational career

Question 3

What statistics are available to prove that middle class children do better than working class pupils in educational achievement

Answer 3

• 2-3 times more likely to gain good grades at GCSE
• 35% eligible for FSM gained 5+ 9-5 grades while 63% of pupils from wealthier backgrounds did in 2015
• middle class children occupy most university places and have longer educational careers than the working class

Question 4

What did Perry and Francis (2010) conclude on their research on differences in educational achievement

Answer 4

• social class is the strongest predictor of educational achievement
• the gap between educational achievement between the in the UK is the largest of the developed world
• there is a barrier between meritocracy and social mobility

Question 5

What do Perry and Francis not that Micheal Gove’s comment “rich, thick kids” do better than “poor, clever kids”

Answer 5

• there is a clear connection between poverty and educational underachievement
• this connection causes problems for the notion of a meritocratic and fair society

Question 6

What did research by the National Equality Panel (2010) highlight

Answer 6

• British children’s educational attainment is overwhelmingly linked to parental occupation/income/qualifications
• by age 3 poor children are 1 year behind their richer counterparts
• 50% of children enter primary with no language or communication skills

Question 7

List possible reasons for the social class gap

Answer 7

• attitudes of the teacher towards the children
• amount of disposable income available to stop distance from being a barrier to education
• class sets cause teacher expectations to differ thus different teaching styles emerge from expectations
• harder to concentrate on am empty stomach or if you must worry about things at home
• personal attitudes to school, may have high aspirations but that may be clamped due to lack of financing

Question 8

From what point did girls start outperforming girls within education

Answer 8

From late 1990s before then boys outperformed girls

Question 9

Gender- what did a national survey of 6,953 children show

Answer 9

Girls scored higher in all tests