Explaining Class Differences - External Factors

Question 1

Social Class Background

Answer 1

Social Class Background has a powerful influence on a child’s success in education.
- Children from middle-class families on
average perform better than working-
class children, and the class gap in
achievement grows wider as children
get older.

Question 2

Children of the middle-class

Answer 2

Children of the middle-class do better at GCSE, stay longer in full-time education and take the great majority of university places.

Question 3

One popular explanation of class differences in achievement

Answer 3

That better-off parents can afford to send their children to private schools, which many believe provide a higher standard of education.

Question 4

Examples of the private schools

Answer 4

Average class sizes are less than half of those in state schools.
Although private schools only educate 7% of Britain’s children, they account for nearly half of all students entering the elite universities of Oxford and Cambridge.
According to the Sutton Trust (2011), in a three year period, one public school alone -Eton- sent 211 students to Oxbridge, while over 1,300 state schools sent no pupils at all to these universities

Question 5

Internal factors

Answer 5

These are factors within the school and the education system, such as interactions between pupils and teachers, and inequalities between schools.

Question 6

External factors

Answer 6

These are factors outside the education system, such as the influence of the home and family background and wider society.