1. REPORT- LO2
By Kirsty Champion Page 1
“How far Hampshire parents are able to exercise choice in schools”
Terms of reference:
The purposeof this reportis 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:
Governmentwebsite: Ministry of defence, (Children’s education advisory)
The telegraph (GraemePaton 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 PleasantJunior School (Junior School)
St Denys Primary School (Primary School)
St Anne Catholic School (Secondary Academy School, Faith school)
Upper Shirley High (Secondary school)

2. REPORT- LO2
By Kirsty Champion Page 2
Cantell School (Secondary School)
Bitterne Park School (Secondary School)
InspireenterpriseAcademy (Specialistschool for GCSE and A Levels)
Book:
Sociology AS The complete companion
Findings:
I have based my findings on a typical averagehome 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 shortcar
journey away fromPortswood. 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 OfstedReport
(Year)
YES Primary
School
Bevious Town Primary
School
Grade 2
Good (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
Schooland Nursery
Trust
Grade 2
Good (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 parentto send
their child to Nursery. The only comprehensiveschools that are in the

3. REPORT- LO2
By Kirsty Champion Page 3
catchment area of the family’s homeis 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 Schooland Highfield Church of England.
Having justtwo choices is forcing the parent to chooseeither a schoolthat is
an averagestandard schoolor the faith schoolthat has the best Ofsted report
but will enforceFaith into the child. The parent may be forced to send their
child to a faith schoolregardless of whether the family are religious. The
parent may not wanttheir 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 schoolcould
be that the school will enforce in the child, faith in God. This faith will be
taught and installed into the child froma young age. On the other hand, a
parent who is religious and would wanttheir 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
ensurethe child has a quality education. This would mean the parent only has
one choice of Primary schoolto send their child to. Unless the parent can
afford to move houseto 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 haveFaith in God
or cannotafford to move houseto 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 systemof 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 arethere to enforce a hierarchy. The schools that are free are for the
children whoseparents are unable to afford a privately educated school, which
automatically separates the rich fromthe poor. The hierarchy that this builds is
that the children who have been educated in Private schools aremore likely to
go onto better paying jobs becausetheir school is the top of the league table
for education.

4. REPORT- LO2
By Kirsty Champion Page 4
“We have a system of education which everybody in Britain paysinto, but
does not have an equal right to access” (Fleet street fox 2014)
This is an elitist systemwhere the governmenthas put in place Private
education that costs up to 100,000every 7 years justfor the pupils to attend
the privateschool, which is not taking into accountexpenses, schooltrips and
uniform(Hey 2012). This systemensures only the wealthier children can
attend. The majority of these children arefrom upper class families. Marxists
would believe that this systemis corruptbecause of these reasons, this is
implying only the rich can havea quality education that ensures them to
succeed in the top universities and wealthy paying jobs, For example;
“Just 7% of theUK public attended privateschool, which comparesto 71% of
senior judges, 62% of senior armed forcesofficers, 55% of Whitehall
permanent secretariesand 50% of members of the House of Lords” (Arnette
2014).
This shows thatout of a small percentage of the U.K high powering jobs the
people havecome from Privateeducation.
The table below shows thesecondary 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 financemoving 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 2
Excellent in
some areas,
good in
others (2014)

5. REPORT- LO2
By Kirsty Champion Page 5
No Specialist School InspireAcademy
specialist school
No report
available
(Southampton City Council 2014)
A functionalist’s view on how and where parents can send their children to
schoolwould be that if the parents can afford to send their child to a private
schoolthen this should be so. If the parents are not able to fund the school
fees needed then the child should be placed in a comprehensiveschoolwith
other children of their social class. In their view this is how society should be to
ensurewe function well together. They also believe that schools divide the
pupils into the correctcategories of abilities to fulfil a job role (Mcneil, et al
2003).
A feminist’s view on choice for schools would be that everyoneshould 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 discriminativetowards girls and that girls
would be unable to compete at the samelevel as boys.
(Indiana University 2012) stated that “researchersanalyzed USA Swimming
data on 1.9 million freestyleswims (for 50 yards) by male and female
swimmers, ages 6 to 19, who competed from2005 to 2010. No differences
existed in swim performancewhen children wereyounger than 8, and little
differencein 11- and 12-year-olds”.
This shows thatgirls 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 forceapplied to sports. Fromthesefindings Feminists may seem
incorrect but their view will always be that men and women are equal.
Conclusion:
Overallconsidering my findings parents who live in Hampshire and earn the
averagewage of £ 18,000 - £28,000a year do not have a volume of choice to
wherethey 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. Thesefindings haveshown me that if parents earn abovethe average
wage then they can afford to either move towards a schoolthat is not in the
area they live in or can pay for the 30 choices of Private Schools in Hampshire

6. REPORT- LO2
By Kirsty Champion Page 6
to send their children to. I feel the families that are wealthy havea greater
advantageto those who cannot afford to pay for education, and do believe we
have an Elitist society where the rich look after the rich, whilstthe poor get
poorer.

7. REPORT- LO2
By Kirsty Champion Page 7
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. Lastaccessed 03rd December 2014
Fleet Street fox.(2014). Ban state-funded faith schoolsand perhapsBritain
would be a better place. Available: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-
news/force-feeding-faith-school-should-banned-3665556. Lastaccessed: 02nd
December 2014.
Hey.J. (2012). How much willit 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/. Lastaccessed 02nd
December 2014.
Highfield Church of England Primary School. (2014). Schoolperformance tables.
Available: http://www.education.gov.uk/cgi-
bin/schools/performance/school.pl?urn=116395. Lastaccessed 1stdecember
2014.
Indiana University . (2012). Young Girls, BoysCan 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. Lastaccessed 03rd December 2014.
McNeil.P., Blundell.J. and Griffiths.J. (2003). Sociology AsThe complete
Companion. Cheltenham: Nelson Thornes Ltd. pp67-83.
Ministry of Defence.(2012).Children'sEducation Advisory Service. Available:
https://www.gov.uk/childrens-education-advisory-service#education. Last
accessed 30th November 2014.
Morris.D.(2012).Bushy Leaze Early YearsCentre. Available:
http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/inspection-reports/find-inspection-
report/provider/ELS/130861. Lastaccessed 30th November 2014.
Paton.G.(2012). Cambridge University 'admits more state schoolstudents'.
Available:http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/956889
4/Cambridge-University-admits-more-state-school-students.html. Last
accessed: 02nd December2014.

8. REPORT- LO2
By Kirsty Champion Page 8
Southampton City Council.(2014).Mynearest. Available:
http://www.southampton.gov.uk/whereilive/MyNearest.aspx?UPRN=1000625
11884&PBUPRN=100062690477. Lastaccessed 01stDecember 2014.