Links: Education: www.sociology.org.uk

BBC Education	As anyone involved in UK education will know the pace of change over the past few years has been phenomenal - government, it seems, just can't resist the temptation to change things. It wouldn't be so bad if the changes actually produced discernable improvements but at least you can keep up-to-date with the latest initiatives and pronouncements courtesy of this news site.
British Council	Although primarily aimed at Polish students, this has some surprisingly good articles / information relating to the British Education system at just the right level to introduce the topic to A-level students...
Classroom Connect	Describing itself as "Classroom Resources for Educators", this is a general education site that's mainly of interest, in this context, for the Lesson Plans it contains. These are "social studies" orientated but, with a bit of searching and effort there's maybe some materials of interest that can be adapted for use in your "Connected Classroom". If you're particularly interested the site also has access to Mailing List archives and extensive links to other educational sites.
Edflix	John Gatto has some interesting - and controversial - views on education and on this site you'll find 19 (count 'em) videos to download (for free) running to around 2 hours 30 minutes. There's some good stuff here (plus an awful lot of material that's neither interesting nor illuminating) so it's probably a case of wading through the dross to find the diamonds if you plan to use this material in class...
Eduk	This is basically a directory site that provides links to a variety of institutions on the web - FE and HE Colleges, Independent schools and so forth.
Ethnic Minority Achievement	As with the "Gender and Achievement" site, the emphasis here is on "how to raise standards". However, there's a "Links and Publications" section that gives access to a number of downloadable research papers (mainly about - you guessed it - "ways to raise achievement"). Having said this, there are some useful links / resources (try, for example, OfSted's: “Educational Inequality - Mapping Class, Race and Gender“).
Education in Britain	A useful site if you're interested in things like the history of education (from the Middle Ages to the present), curriculum issues, post-compulsory education and so forth. The site contains loads of interesting text and illustrations that provide a stimulating commentary on this area of the curriculum. Useful for teachers looking to supplement their knowledge / notes (loads of stuff to...err...borrow) and useful for students who want to explore this area for revision / project work.
Education-line	Hosted by Leeds University, the site offers a searchable database of "electronic texts" (University-speak for research papers posted on a Web site). "Sociology" revealed over 200 such texts and the site provides you with useful reference details of each paper (author, abstract, level, subject areas and the like). If you find one you like (and there are plenty pitched at A-level students) you can download the file in either HTML or Word format. This is a quite fantabulous resource and, if I had a "Site of the Month" award, this would win it (but since I don't, it hasn't).
Education Unlimited	This is another part of the burgeoning "Guardian Unlimited" empire that's gradually (and quite deservedly) taking over the Web. This, as you might expect, deals with "Education" and, as you might also expect, it does it comprehensively and very, very, professionally. The site has loads of categories dealing with up-to-the-minute advice and information, as well as giving access to the Guardian's educational archive. The site's a mixture of links (Choosing a School, Homework Help and so forth) and articles that should probably be your first stop for current (and not-so-current) educational information.
Education World	A nicely-designed general education site that contains a range of Sociology links grouped around Organisations, Journals and Newsgroups (just search on the word "sociology"). In addition, a social science section contains a range of lesson plans, but you need to keep in mind the fact that these are largely US orientated and, in the main, below A-level standard. Nevertheless, an interesting and potentially useful site to visit every now and again.
Expectations and Student Outcomes	An interesting online article that starts by looking at Rosenthal and Jacobson's classic "Pygmalian in the Classroom" study and develops into a general overview / investigation of the relationship between teacher "expectations and student outcomes". The article is a little dated now (1989) but a reasonable starting-point nonetheless. For a good visual demonstration of the "expectancy effect", have a look at this section of Steve's Education and Society site.
Female Achievement	This link takes you to the University of Leicester's PGCE site and, specifically to a lesson plan related to female educational achievement (and possible explanations thereof).
Gender and Achievement	A promising title, you might think, until you realise it's part of the government's "Standards' site" - in other words, it's an earnest attempt to "raise standards" (whatever that may actually mean). There's a range of information (graphs, tables, etc.) available as well as classroom resources "for raising achievement" and a list of academic papers (which aren't linked so if you want them you'll have to find them yourself...).
Harrow School	I've included this site because it gives an insight into how the other 7% goes about educating its off-spring. It's an - unintentionally - revealing site from one of the the country's most prestigious - and expensive - schools. There are no resources here (unless you count the whole site as one big educational example) but a trawl around the site can be instructive (although, having said that, you could probably get just as much from any other "top public school" site (such as Eton or Winchester). The Virtual Tour is worth taking, if only to see what you're missing...
Institute of Education	A useful source of cutting-edge research into the educational system and behaviour, given that the site has a searchable database of publications. Much of the research material will only be of use to teachers, but some can be used as background material for coursework.
Multiple Intelligences	This site is a neat way of introducing students to Gardner's theory of "multiple intelligences" - there's some basic information about each different type of intelligence but the interesting thing about the site is that, by answering a few (well. 40) simple questions online, students are given some indication of where their different intelligences lie. How you use this information is, of course, up to you - but it can be used to discuss areas like the concept of intelligence, the contemporary fad of "learning styles" and the like.
Sociology Alive!	Although Stephen Moore's "Sociology Alive!" is aimed at GCSE level (and this version - the 3rd edition published in 2001 - is a little long in the tooth) the full text - available through Google Books - is still a useful resource to have. While Moore has gone on to bigger, broader (and probably more lucrative) texts, selected parts of Sociology Alive! probably still have a place in the AS level classroom.
Students-as-Researchers	An interesting (Australian) site that gives students the opportunity to "tell their story" regarding different aspects of their educational experience. As such, it's a neat little ethnographic site organised around various educational "themes" (attendance, behaviour, the curriculum, etc.).
TesConnect	This is the funkily-rebranded Times Educational Supplement web site and it contains all the usual education-related stuff (links and so forth), its main interest for sociologists is the searchable Times Ed. archive. This contains a host of articles that could prove useful for project work. In addition, if you're looking for a new job they've got a searchable database that contains all new job vacancies advertised in the TES (unfortunately it's been no use in my case, but don't let that put you off - I may just be unemployable...). There's also an Opinion Forum (it's not very interesting and mainly filled by lonely reactionaries) as well as forums for social science, schools, further education and many, many, more.
That'll Teach 'Em	A Channel 4 Reality show (the second in a series of...err...two) that compares UK education in the present with that of the past. In this instance a group of modern (2004) pupils are taken back in time (not really, that's just the Magic of Television) to 1964 and life in a secondary modern school. Although the programme is long-gone there's a load of useful comparative material on site - and the "experiment" itself also offers up a range of possibilities for discussion of research methods and methodology.
Wilson's Curriculum Pages	This particular link points to a set of online notes that outline and discuss different types of curriculum - from the formal to the hidden and all points beyond. May be useful as a concise set of notes that define different types of school curriculum for students.