Today’s challenge focused on social class and education – an area that has often been examined, including as a 30 mark question. When students are approached with social class questions, their focus is often on how working-class pupils underachieve, rather than why there are differences between the two groups. If a questions asks about ‘social class’ then students can draw upon explanations of both middle-class achievement and working-class underachievement, and often, it’s really useful to make comparison better the experiences of both groups in the education system. Doing this demonstrates one of the higher order skills on the AQA specification – Analysis.

The ability to show examiners that you understand the difference between the experiences of two groups, shows a greater depth of understanding than if you mention just one and is more likely to move you up mark bands by doing so.

Todays three questions were also accompanied by 3 ‘cheat sheets’ if you like. I have attached these below for those who didn’t catch them. I have also posted my responses to the three questions on the PDF below.

Tomorrow (March 3rd) we hit day 3 of the challenge (6 questions down, just another 119 to go!) and we will be looking at gender differences in education. The questions are as follows:

Best of luck!