Studying sociology at A- Level offers insights into the pressing social and cultural issues of the day, such as the causes of poverty, racism and sexism. It helps to develop an understanding of the questions of culture, identity, religion, crime, childhood, and education. This will enable you to make sense of the society in which you live and to understand the social issues which affect us all. During the AS course you will focus on two topic areas. You will look at Families and Households, covering such issues such as why family structure is changing and why governments seek to intervene in family life. You will also study Education which covers areas including the reasons behind why some people fail in education, and why governments make it compulsory to attend school. The A2 course builds on the knowledge from your AS year. You will study a unit on Crime and Deviance which includes looking at social reasons for why people commit crime and accusations of racism in the criminal justice system. You will then go on to study Beliefs in Society, covering issues such as the different functions of Religion in modern societies. In both the AS and A2 course you will also focus on the different sociological methods used by sociologists. You can expect to study: •Families and households •Education •Crime and deviance •Beliefs in society, the functions of religion •Methods of social research