ABSTRACT
Two aspects of social environment are important in the study of education, that of the child and that of the system. The concept of local community may be a useful device for analysing the relationships between a school and its environment. All the people surrounding the school form its population or demographic environment. Educational aims are an inevitable source of conflict between people in the institution and between them and members of the wider society. There has been no British sociological research into the consequences of administrative regime upon the educational process. Socialisation is one of the inevitable products of social living. Therefore it has many settings; but the family is the most important one. Many studies have shown that social class influences the ways in which children participate in the formal system of education. The culture of the peer group works to insulate its members from the influence of the school.
