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“How far Hampshire parents are able to exercise choice in schools”

Terms of reference:

The purpose of this report is to determine whether or not parents have a choice to which schools they can send their children to within Hampshire.

Factors that have been considered are:

The entry criteria for the schools

The curriculum available

Ofsted results

Distance to the schools

The reputation of the schools

Procedure:

The following list is where I found my information:

Websites:

Government website: Ministry of defence, (Children’s education advisory)

The telegraph (Graeme Paton Educational Editor)

The Mirror (Fleet Street fox)

Ofsted reports viewed:

Bushy Leaze Early Years Centre (Nursery School)

Highfield Church of England (Primary school)

Bevious Town (Primary School)

Maytree Nursery and infants school (Nursery and Primary)

Banister Primary School and Nursery trust (Nursery and Primary)

Mount Pleasant Junior School (Junior School)

St Denys Primary School (Primary School)

St Anne Catholic School (Secondary Academy School, Faith school)

Upper Shirley High (Secondary school)

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Cantell School (Secondary School)

Bitterne Park School (Secondary School)

Inspire enterprise Academy (Specialist school for GCSE and A Levels)

Book:

Sociology AS The complete companion

Findings:

I have based my findings on a typical average home with a child who is aged 3-16 who needs to apply for a school currently living in Portswood, within Hampshire.

The below table are the schools that are within walking distance or a short car journey away from Portswood. Included in this table is whether or not the family in question is within the catchment areas of the schools and the most recent Ofsted inspections that have taken place at the schools.

Catchment Area

Type of school

Name Ofsted Report (Year)

YES Primary School

Bevious Town Primary School

Grade 2Good (2013)

YES Primary School

Highfield Church of England

Grade 1 Excellent (2007)

No Nursery Maytree Nursery and infants School

Grade 2 Good (2013)

No Nursery and Primary

Banister Primary School and Nursery Trust

Grade 2Good (2014)

No Junior School(Primary)

Mount Pleasant Junior School

Grade 2 Good (2012)

No Primary St Denys Primary School

Grade 3 Requires improvement (2013)

(Southampton City Council 2014)

The table shows that there are there are no choices for the parent to send their child to Nursery. The only comprehensive schools that are in the

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catchment area of the family’s home is the two choices out of six for the parent to be able to send their child to. The two schools within the catchment area are; Bevious Town Primary School and Highfield Church of England. Having just two choices is forcing the parent to choose either a school that is an average standard school or the faith school that has the best Ofsted report but will enforce Faith into the child. The parent may be forced to send their child to a faith school regardless of whether the family are religious. The parent may not want their child to go to a religious school, therefore will only have one choice. A reason for not wanting a child to go to a faith school could be that the school will enforce in the child, faith in God. This faith will be taught and installed into the child from a young age. On the other hand, a parent who is religious and would want their child to continue the religious belief at school would be overjoyed at this choice of a Faith School, as it will carry their own beliefs through their child’s education. The Highfield School also has a high standard of teaching, according to the Ofsted report, which will ensure the child has a quality education. This would mean the parent only has one choice of Primary school to send their child to. Unless the parent can afford to move house to facilitate the other schools catchment area, which would mean a big expense.

What the findings point out to me is that if a family does not have Faith in God or cannot afford to move house to qualify in a catchment area, that child will be deprived of a quality education.

“What you have with faith schools is a two-tier education system of precisely the kind most people in Britain find distasteful – where a third of all our schools select on the basis of wealth, gender, and genetics” (Fleet Street Fox 2014).

Marxists would agree with this quote because they believe that institutions like schools are there to enforce a hierarchy. The schools that are free are for the children whose parents are unable to afford a privately educated school, which automatically separates the rich from the poor. The hierarchy that this builds is that the children who have been educated in Private schools are more likely to go onto better paying jobs because their school is the top of the league table for education.

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“We have a system of education which everybody in Britain pays into, but does not have an equal right to access” (Fleet street fox 2014)

This is an elitist system where the government has put in place Private education that costs up to 100,000 every 7 years just for the pupils to attend the private school, which is not taking into account expenses, school trips and uniform (Hey 2012). This system ensures only the wealthier children can attend. The majority of these children are from upper class families. Marxists would believe that this system is corrupt because of these reasons, this is implying only the rich can have a quality education that ensures them to succeed in the top universities and wealthy paying jobs, For example;

“Just 7% of the UK public attended private school, which compares to 71% of senior judges, 62% of senior armed forces officers, 55% of Whitehall permanent secretaries and 50% of members of the House of Lords” (Arnette 2014).

This shows that out of a small percentage of the U.K high powering jobs the people have come from Private education.

The table below shows the secondary Schools available to a family that live in Portswood. Again their choice is limited to where they can send their child if they are unable to finance moving house. There is only one choice Cantell secondary School.

Catchment Area

Type of school Name Ofsted Report (Year)

No Secondary School(Academy School)

St Anne Catholic school

Grade 2 Good (2012)

No Secondary School Upper Shirley High Grade 2 Good (2013)

Yes Secondary School Cantell School Grade 2 Good (2013)

No Secondary School Bitterne Park School

Grade 1 and 2Excellent in some areas, good in others (2014)

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No Specialist School Inspire Academy specialist school

No report available

(Southampton City Council 2014)

A functionalist’s view on how and where parents can send their children to school would be that if the parents can afford to send their child to a private school then this should be so. If the parents are not able to fund the school fees needed then the child should be placed in a comprehensive school with other children of their social class. In their view this is how society should be to ensure we function well together. They also believe that schools divide the pupils into the correct categories of abilities to fulfil a job role (Mcneil, et al 2003).

A feminist’s view on choice for schools would be that everyone should have an equal chance into all schools as some Academic Schools may specialise in sports, which girls are unable to attend due to the nature of the sport. But feminists would believe that this is discriminative towards girls and that girls would be unable to compete at the same level as boys.

(Indiana University 2012) stated that “researchers analyzed USA Swimming data on 1.9 million freestyle swims (for 50 yards) by male and female swimmers, ages 6 to 19, who competed from 2005 to 2010. No differences existed in swim performance when children were younger than 8, and little difference in 11- and 12-year-olds”.

This shows that girls and boys can compete against each other as equals up until a certain age but beyond that boys may have naturally bigger muscles and greater force applied to sports. From these findings Feminists may seem incorrect but their view will always be that men and women are equal.

Conclusion:

Overall considering my findings parents who live in Hampshire and earn the average wage of £ 18,000 - £28,000 a year do not have a volume of choice to where they can send their children to school. There are no Grammar schools, not many specialist schools and only a handful of schools excelling in Ofsted reports. These findings have shown me that if parents earn above the average wage then they can afford to either move towards a school that is not in the area they live in or can pay for the 30 choices of Private Schools in Hampshire

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to send their children to. I feel the families that are wealthy have a greater advantage to those who cannot afford to pay for education, and do believe we have an Elitist society where the rich look after the rich, whilst the poor get poorer.

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REFERENCES:

Arnette.G.. (2014). Elitism in Britain - breakdown by profession. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/aug/28/elitism-in-britain-breakdown-by-profession. Last accessed 03rd December 2014

Fleet Street fox.(2014). Ban state-funded faith schools and perhaps Britain would be a better place. Available: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/force-feeding-faith-school-should-banned-3665556. Last accessed: 02nd December 2014.

Hey.J. (2012). How much will it cost to send my children to private school? Available: http://www.nutmeg.com/nutmegonomics/2012/12/10/how-much-will-it-cost-to-send-my-children-to-private-school/. Last accessed 02nd December 2014.

Highfield Church of England Primary School. (2014). School performance tables. Available: http://www.education.gov.uk/cgi-bin/schools/performance/school.pl?urn=116395. Last accessed 1st december 2014.

Indiana University . (2012). Young Girls, Boys Can Compete on Equal Level. Available: http://consumer.healthday.com/kids-health-information-23/child-development-news-124/young-girls-boys-can-compete-on-equal-level-665208.html. Last accessed 03rd December 2014.

McNeil.P., Blundell.J. and Griffiths.J. (2003). Sociology As The complete Companion. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Ltd. pp67-83.

Ministry of Defence.(2012).Children's Education Advisory Service. Available: https://www.gov.uk/childrens-education-advisory-service#education. Last accessed 30th November 2014.

Morris.D.(2012). Bushy Leaze Early Years Centre. Available: http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-report/provider/ELS/130861. Last accessed 30th November 2014.

Paton.G.(2012). Cambridge University 'admits more state school students'. Available:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/9568894/Cambridge-University-admits-more-state-school-students.html. Last accessed: 02nd December2014.

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Southampton City Council.(2014).My nearest. Available: http://www.southampton.gov.uk/whereilive/MyNearest.aspx?UPRN=100062511884&PBUPRN=100062690477. Last accessed 01st December 2014.

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