Social Context of the School

<p>In their appearance schools often seem to be physically separated from their surroundings cut off from the neighbouring houses and streets by high walls by playgrounds or playing fields. Within the school another world seems to exist with a life of its own - its own routine dress rules and customs - which appears to have little relationship to the day-to-day life of the society outside. Yet despite these signs of separateness we are becoming increasingly aware that a school's surroundings the local society in which it is set and whose children it educates play an important part in determining what actually goes on in the classrooms and the playgrounds. This book looks at some of the factors in the local context of the schools and describes and analyses some of the often complex ways in which the schools interact with them. </p>