Lesson 3: The UK Education System
It's been awhile, hasn't it? I figured as I have the day off work, I have time and motivation to write this. I've been planing this post for awhile but never got around to it. I'd like to start with a confession: I have never read Harry Potter. I found the book in my school's library way back when, read the back and put it down. I didn't think it would be something that I would enjoy. Then it was hyper up beyond belief, maybe the books are that good. I wouldn't know. I was forced to watch the first film by a friend and was left unimpressed by the whole thing. Yeah yeah, films suck, books are good. We hear it all the time. Only I feel like I have seen enough to confirm that I won't enjoy the books. My sister however is a huge fan of Harry Potter, and one thing I know that bugs her about Harry Potter fanfiction is when American's write the characters within the American school system, or their mistaken ideas of what the UK education system is like. All the A levels anyone? So let's begin.
Disclaimer: The school system below is that of England and Wales. Scotland has it's own independent system which is not covered in the entry below.
1/ Preschool
I'm pretty sure this is something American's have as well, correct me if I'm wrong. Before a child is old enough for school they can go a variety of semi-edcuational pre-schools, nurseries etc. Here they will learn some basic skills, but mainly social skills being a priority. It's entirely optional if you send a child to preschool, but I grew up in an affluent area where pretty much everyone did. It's a break for the parents after all.
2/ Primary School
In England most children start school in the school year they will turn 5. So 4 for most kids. Younger than a lot of countries I know, but at this age it's still more about social skills and just getting used to not being around your parents. Basic lessons are taught of course, but in a relaxed atmosphere. Our first school year is Reception, not Kindergarten, and after that the school years go up in number. Reception, Year 1, Year 2 etc. Primary schools cover students from Reception to Year 6 (4-11) but can often be split into two schools, Infants and Juniors. Usually the school will be split if it's quite large and will share the same name, even if the head teacher (our equivalent of a principal) is different. In these cases being a student at the Infants will guarantee you a place in the Junior school.
When it comes to schools we have what often gets referred to as "The Postcode Lottery". A postcode, similar to the American zip code) is the letters and numbers used on letters to help the postman deliver the post to the correct house. Based on your postcode your children are automatically assigned to the nearest schools, but a parent still has the option to apply for other schools in the area. These schools however have to accept kids with the right postcode, so if they're full, they're full and there's very little a parent can do about it. People have been known to move house, just to get their kids into a better school.
3/ High School
We start High School at 11, also known as Year 7. Year 7's have the habit of starting school thinking they're big and tough, being used to being on top, only to find that they're far from it. Unless you're in Year 7, chances are other kids won't like you simply because of it. The dreaded Year 7's are pretty much the equivalent of the rest of the world's aversion to 12 year olds, and a lot of them are 12. It's not as bad as I'm making out, but not liking Year 7's is pretty much a right of passage. Especially for the Year 8 students who see the Year 7's and are like "That was me last year?"
We leave High School at either 16, or 18 depending on if it has Sixth Form facilities.
4/ Sixth Form
The final two years of high school are when we study A levels, more on that later. Large high schools have Sixth Form Centres, so there's no need to move schools. In cases where your school doesn't have a Sixth Form you can go to a Sixth Form College to study your A levels. Some students will also decide to transfer to one for a variety of reasons including, better resources, more choice of subjects, closer to home etc. The name sixth form comes from the old names for the school years, which are all redundant except for Sixth Form. Don't ask, we don't.
5/ Exams
The key exams are GCSE's taken at 16, followed by AS and A levels. Prior to this we do take SAT's (also referred to Key Stage 1, 2 and 3) at 7, 11 and 14 but these are more for the teacher's benefit than the student's, usually used to judge a teacher's teaching ability and placing students in the correct classes). Nobody will ever use SAT results after they have left school.
At the end of Year 9 (14) we select the subjects we wish to take at GCSE. A lot of these are compulsory such as English, Maths and Science, other's are by choice such as Art, Food Technology and Religious Education (renamed Religious Studies at GCSE level). PE (Physical Education) is a compulsory subject, though you won't take exams in it. It's normal to take about 10 GCSE subjects. When it comes to science some schools teach Biology, Physics and Chemistry separately. Mine had Double and Single award science. You took all the sciences and at the end were given one or two GCSE's at the end of it. My school pretty much only let you do single award science if you were really terrible at it. Likewise taking a second language was "compulsory" but they turned a blind eye to students who were bad at languages and chose not to do one. When it came to end of year reports my school gave us attainment and effort grades, something that was pretty unique it seems. They classed effort as more important that your actual grade, a student who had a D for effort and a B for attainment was considered bad because they should be getting A's. A student who got an A for effort and a C for attainment was good, because that C was pretty much the best of their ability. It was a kinder way to judge a student's progress I think.
At sixteen you got to choose your AS levels. These are now compulsory, but at the time you could leave school at 16. Though it was never recommended to do so. You tend to choose 4 AS level subjects, though smarter students might choose 5. These are entirely the students choice and pretty much cover all the major subjects. Exams are taken at the end of your AS level year and it's usual to drop one subject before moving on to your A level year. It's kind of like having a safety subject.
For students who are bad at exams there are more coursework based equivalents to A levels known as NVQ's. As universities are usually based on points based systems, either qualification are fine for continuing into higher education.
The other key thing to remember about our exams are that they're based on the national syllabus, government guidelines of what a teacher has to teach their students. So these American science teachers who don't teach evolution would be fired in our system. The exams are set by exam bodies, in the North West AQA is the biggest one, as well as Edexel to a lesser degree.
6/ Types of School
Most schools in the UK are owned and run by the Government and provide free education to everyone (within the correct postcode of course). Naturally we have Private and Public schools, both are paid for but you usually only have to take exams to enter the more prestigious Public schools. The name Public School comes because these schools existed before free education, and were open to the general public and technically still are.
Naturally we do have religious schools, but I only personally know of Catholic schools and one Church of England primary school. Grammar schools, which have survived from the old school system also still exist and it can all get very confusing after awhile. I've covered the basics at least.
Final Words
I know there is a lot I haven't covered here. Really this was the basics and it's gone on so long that posting anything more is going to get a little insane. Looks like I will have to do a second post at some point. So, if you have questions about our schools let me know. I'll answer simple questions, or you could suggest topics for the next post. I'm assuming the House system in schools is going to interest anyone who's into Harry Potter so I'll make sure to cover that.
Disclaimer: The school system below is that of England and Wales. Scotland has it's own independent system which is not covered in the entry below.
1/ Preschool
I'm pretty sure this is something American's have as well, correct me if I'm wrong. Before a child is old enough for school they can go a variety of semi-edcuational pre-schools, nurseries etc. Here they will learn some basic skills, but mainly social skills being a priority. It's entirely optional if you send a child to preschool, but I grew up in an affluent area where pretty much everyone did. It's a break for the parents after all.
2/ Primary School
In England most children start school in the school year they will turn 5. So 4 for most kids. Younger than a lot of countries I know, but at this age it's still more about social skills and just getting used to not being around your parents. Basic lessons are taught of course, but in a relaxed atmosphere. Our first school year is Reception, not Kindergarten, and after that the school years go up in number. Reception, Year 1, Year 2 etc. Primary schools cover students from Reception to Year 6 (4-11) but can often be split into two schools, Infants and Juniors. Usually the school will be split if it's quite large and will share the same name, even if the head teacher (our equivalent of a principal) is different. In these cases being a student at the Infants will guarantee you a place in the Junior school.
When it comes to schools we have what often gets referred to as "The Postcode Lottery". A postcode, similar to the American zip code) is the letters and numbers used on letters to help the postman deliver the post to the correct house. Based on your postcode your children are automatically assigned to the nearest schools, but a parent still has the option to apply for other schools in the area. These schools however have to accept kids with the right postcode, so if they're full, they're full and there's very little a parent can do about it. People have been known to move house, just to get their kids into a better school.
3/ High School
We start High School at 11, also known as Year 7. Year 7's have the habit of starting school thinking they're big and tough, being used to being on top, only to find that they're far from it. Unless you're in Year 7, chances are other kids won't like you simply because of it. The dreaded Year 7's are pretty much the equivalent of the rest of the world's aversion to 12 year olds, and a lot of them are 12. It's not as bad as I'm making out, but not liking Year 7's is pretty much a right of passage. Especially for the Year 8 students who see the Year 7's and are like "That was me last year?"
We leave High School at either 16, or 18 depending on if it has Sixth Form facilities.
4/ Sixth Form
The final two years of high school are when we study A levels, more on that later. Large high schools have Sixth Form Centres, so there's no need to move schools. In cases where your school doesn't have a Sixth Form you can go to a Sixth Form College to study your A levels. Some students will also decide to transfer to one for a variety of reasons including, better resources, more choice of subjects, closer to home etc. The name sixth form comes from the old names for the school years, which are all redundant except for Sixth Form. Don't ask, we don't.
5/ Exams
The key exams are GCSE's taken at 16, followed by AS and A levels. Prior to this we do take SAT's (also referred to Key Stage 1, 2 and 3) at 7, 11 and 14 but these are more for the teacher's benefit than the student's, usually used to judge a teacher's teaching ability and placing students in the correct classes). Nobody will ever use SAT results after they have left school.
At the end of Year 9 (14) we select the subjects we wish to take at GCSE. A lot of these are compulsory such as English, Maths and Science, other's are by choice such as Art, Food Technology and Religious Education (renamed Religious Studies at GCSE level). PE (Physical Education) is a compulsory subject, though you won't take exams in it. It's normal to take about 10 GCSE subjects. When it comes to science some schools teach Biology, Physics and Chemistry separately. Mine had Double and Single award science. You took all the sciences and at the end were given one or two GCSE's at the end of it. My school pretty much only let you do single award science if you were really terrible at it. Likewise taking a second language was "compulsory" but they turned a blind eye to students who were bad at languages and chose not to do one. When it came to end of year reports my school gave us attainment and effort grades, something that was pretty unique it seems. They classed effort as more important that your actual grade, a student who had a D for effort and a B for attainment was considered bad because they should be getting A's. A student who got an A for effort and a C for attainment was good, because that C was pretty much the best of their ability. It was a kinder way to judge a student's progress I think.
At sixteen you got to choose your AS levels. These are now compulsory, but at the time you could leave school at 16. Though it was never recommended to do so. You tend to choose 4 AS level subjects, though smarter students might choose 5. These are entirely the students choice and pretty much cover all the major subjects. Exams are taken at the end of your AS level year and it's usual to drop one subject before moving on to your A level year. It's kind of like having a safety subject.
For students who are bad at exams there are more coursework based equivalents to A levels known as NVQ's. As universities are usually based on points based systems, either qualification are fine for continuing into higher education.
The other key thing to remember about our exams are that they're based on the national syllabus, government guidelines of what a teacher has to teach their students. So these American science teachers who don't teach evolution would be fired in our system. The exams are set by exam bodies, in the North West AQA is the biggest one, as well as Edexel to a lesser degree.
6/ Types of School
Most schools in the UK are owned and run by the Government and provide free education to everyone (within the correct postcode of course). Naturally we have Private and Public schools, both are paid for but you usually only have to take exams to enter the more prestigious Public schools. The name Public School comes because these schools existed before free education, and were open to the general public and technically still are.
Naturally we do have religious schools, but I only personally know of Catholic schools and one Church of England primary school. Grammar schools, which have survived from the old school system also still exist and it can all get very confusing after awhile. I've covered the basics at least.
Final Words
I know there is a lot I haven't covered here. Really this was the basics and it's gone on so long that posting anything more is going to get a little insane. Looks like I will have to do a second post at some point. So, if you have questions about our schools let me know. I'll answer simple questions, or you could suggest topics for the next post. I'm assuming the House system in schools is going to interest anyone who's into Harry Potter so I'll make sure to cover that.