Pen's Nest

This is wonderfully informative. Thanks for writing it all out; it really clarified my hodge-podge understanding of British schools.

One question: it sounds as if your universities are all of one sort. There's a distinction in the U.S. between public universities (which also may be broken into colleges, but are generally quite large and receive state funding, making them less expensive to attend; some are exclusive while others are open to nearly anyone) and private colleges (which are often /much/ smaller, aren't funded by the state and have a tuition several times greater, and, just to confuse matters, can also be called "universities"). I get the impression that your universities have more in common with our state universities?

"Plimsolls" look to be what I would call "Keds", after the main manufacturer over here.

But nowhere near the intimidatingly massive size that American High Schools seem to be.

Oy, yes. My high school had 2,400 students.