Setting in classes can have a big influence on a student’s education. This is because if someone is put in a high set in school, it can influence them to do well and achieve up to their full potential. It could also be a bad influence as the work could be too difficult for the student so therefor it could cause the student to underachieve and be put down to a lower set, which could then make the student gain a self-fulfilling prophecy which is when a student who is in a low set thinks they are in that set because they will not or cannot achieve, which therefor causes them to fail. Another reason which can cause a self-fulfilling prophecy is labelling, labelling is when a teacher places a label on (stereotypes) someone because of reasons such as social class, ability in class, attitude to learning and ethnicity. Marxists believe that it is only working class pupils that are negatively stereotypes and that middle class pupils are positively stereotyped.
Parental influence can affect someone’s educational achievement as if a student’s parent hated school as a child and didn’t get the grades they needed, it can cause the student to act the same. On the other hand it could cause them to progress better in school as they will want to achieve more than their parents. Also if a student’s parent greatly cared about their child’s education then it could cause them to do well in school, although it could cause them to rebel as their parents could push them to much which may cause them to not want to do well in school.
Cultural deprivation has a big influence on educational achievement. If a student’s parents take their child on educational trips to places like museums and other places that can aid a person's education and broaden their learning experience, then they could have a better chance of achieving as the have knowledge from the trips. In comparison to this if someone does not go on these trips then they will not have additional out of school knowledge which could cause them to do worse in school compared to someone who did go on the trips. This can also like to cultural deprivation as if a school has arranged an educational trip but they cannot afford to go on the trip, then it may cause them to have less recourses to use in things like tests and exams.
Ofsted has a major impact on educational achievement, if Ofsted go to a school and find it unsatisfactory they can put the school into ‘special measures’ which is where the school has to meet the demands of Ofsted to give the student’s to receive better education and improve achievement. If the school continues to fail Ofsted’s expectations it could close down all together. This affects people’s educational achievement as if the school has been put into ‘special measures’ it means the school wasn’t helping the students to increase their achievement.
In conclusion school and home factors both have a big influence, but overall most sociologists believe that school factors are more important than other factors. Although there are some sociologists that can prove that other factors have a bigger influence.