British school system

[pensnest]

phaballa asked here about the British School system. Aha. I shall try to explain. Anyone who doesn't care, please pass swiftly by. Any UK-dwellers who have more up-to-date experience than mine, do comment with amendments.



The following refers to the state school system, which is what mostly applies. Private schools (some of which are also known as 'public schools') will be addressed later.

School year (for everyone) runs from early September to some time in July, with a holiday for Christmas (2 - 3 weeks), a holiday for Easter (2 weeks), and the long summer holiday (6 - 9 weeks). So, three Terms (Autumn, Spring and Summer). There are also half-term holidays in the middle of the terms. State schools have a week off, private schools (which have longer between-term holidays) usually just have two or three days around a weekend. nb Holidays, not vacations, though the latter term does get used at university.

Very small children may attend playgroup or 'nursery school'. Mine, for instance, went to a local nursery school, which was held in someone's home, three mornings a week, starting (once a week) when they were two and a half). The two other mornings a week they went to the local playgroup. Both paid for by us, though it's possible there may now be state (ie free) nurseries now.

Then, there is Primary School.

Children start school as 'rising five', ie in the year in which they turn five. Though some primary schools have an attached 'Nursery' which the kids can go to when they're four. Usually (I think) the child will join the 'Reception Class' in the term when he has his fifth birthday. So my Bun started in September (November birthday), and Boy started in April (June birthday).

With reasonable luck, they basically learn to read in Reception class. Then they go on to Year 1 (5-6 year olds), and Year 2 (6-7s). Reception and Years 1 and 2 constitute Infants School.

Years 3, 4, 5 and 6 constitute Junior School. Some Primary Schools cover both Infants and Juniors, others are one or the other. In my 'village', there was one Infants School and one Junior School (basically on the same site, but with separate entrances, separate Heads etc), and one Primary School, which was actually smaller but took children from Reception to Year 6 (and had a small Nursery on-site, too).

In Primary school, the general pattern is that the class teacher covers everything except Music and (possibly) Games/Sports. The class - ideally no more than 20 kids but in practice no more than 30 - will have its own classroom. The pattern of the day is something like, school starts at 8.45, there's 'assembly' where the entire school get together in the main hall for a bit of singing and brief moral instruction from the head or a senior teacher, plus notices/announcements. In my day, aeons ago, the singing was Christian, but these days perhaps less so. There's a playtime break mid-morning, perhaps 15-20 minutes, and then lunch: each Primary School will have a kitchen for the provision of cooked meals, but it's very common for children to take in packed lunch from home. Lunch break includes a play period. Then the day ends somewhere in the region of 3pm - a bit earlier (maybe) for Infants, perhaps 30min later for Juniors.

In most Primary Schools there will be a uniform, something simple like a sweatshirt and polo shirt in the specified colours, possibly with the school's name or badge on, and black or grey trousers/skirt. Plimsolls (house shoes?) are normally worn inside the building.

At the age of 11, it's time for Secondary School. Secondary schools are much bigger than Primary - six or eight different classes/forms in a year group, rather than the one/two which is likely in a Primary. But nowhere near the intimidatingly massive size that American High Schools seem to be. My town has a population of around 90,000. I don't know how many primary schools there are, but there seem to be about a dozen Secondary Schools here. It is (or at any rate, when mine started attending, it was) possible to select the school for your children based on something other than geography; naturally, some of the schools have a better reputation than others, and these days, some 'specialise', eg my kids' school was particularly good at Maths/Computing, another one in town has a good reputation for music and drama. But mostly, they'll attend the closest.

The basic pattern of the day is much the same as Primary school, but with an earlier start and later finish. There's likely to be Assembly, but for most schools it won't cover all the students as they have no hall large enough, so each group will have one assembly per week, and it'll be more for notices and a little homily than for singing. (Sad, really, I used to enjoy singing hymns at assembly. In the olden days.) Lunch time is usually staggered, in order to fit them through the dining room, and again, it's much more the norm now to take packed lunch than to eat the catered food. (When I was at school it was only the handful of Jewish girls or anyone with Weird Allergies who ate packed lunch. Literally five people out of nine hundred.)

Uniform isn't quite so much the rule at Secondary school, but it's more common than not. Again, usually something fairly simple, eg black/grey/navy trousers/skirt, matching blazer, white shirt, V-necked sweater/jersey/jumper in school colour. My children wore black jacket with the school badge sewn onto the pocket, white shirt, school tie and black trousers (there were blue jerseys but nobody ever wore them). All available through basic shops like local department store, Marks & Spencer, or the late lamented Woolworths. Other schools locally have a sweatshirt instead of a blazer. The girls at the local Catholic secondary school have to display themselves in pleated plaid skirts, poor things.

Specialist or not, every secondary school will cover the full spectrum of subjects (though something like Physics at a senior level may involve sharing teaching with another local school). The children have their own classroom as a base, but will have lessons with a specialist teacher for each subject. Back in my day, it was usual for the teachers to come to the classroom rather than having the students at the junior end of the school moving around all the time, but as we progressed up the school, we tended to go to them. I don't know whether it's still general practice. In most schools, year groups will be divided by subject into sets defined by ability, perhaps six sets for a year group of five classes, so they all take Maths etc at the same time.

We have two sets of public examinations. The first, GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) are taken in Year 11, ie when the students are 16 or thereabouts. By this stage, students will have dropped some subjects. Mine took 9 or 10 GCSEs each, I can't remember exactly. They will be awarded a certificate for each subject they pass (grades from A*, A, B, etc, I think E is the lowest pass grade but I could be wrong. I never had much experience with Fail grades...). So a very strong student could reasonably get 10 A* GCSEs. As well as the obvious subjects like Maths, English Language, French, History etc there are such things as Home Economics (ie cookery) and stuff like woodwork, needlework and so forth which has a fancy name now.

Students may leave school at 16, and many do - usually after taking their GCSEs, so that they have some qualifications. The exams are taken in January (some parts) and May/June these days, with the summer period being the most intense exam period. They are marked by outside agencies, and results are announced in something like the third week of August.

Years 12 and 13 are for historical reasons also often known as the "Sixth Form". At this stage, students specialise and do A-Levels (Advanced Certificate of Secondary Education, I think, but they're only ever referred to as A-Levels). There will usually be three or four subjects. eg my Bun did Maths, Physics and Chemistry, and I think Geography in her Year 12, dropping it after the AS-Level) and my Boy did Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Chemistry. (I did French, German and History.) These days, the AS-Level exams are sat at the end of Year 12, and the final A-Level at the end of Year 13. (In my day the first year of the sixth form was the 'fun' year - you were doing only the subjects you cared about, and had no important exams at the end of the year. We had no truck with this AS-Level nonsense.) Students show up for their exams, and when the exams are over so, effectively, is their school time, although there's usually a final assembly to say goodbye to them. There is no ceremony! NO graduation! The nearest we get is Prizegiving, which may happen in September: students may return to school one evening to pick up their A-Level certificates in a fairly low-key affair which does not involve mortar boards or photographs, though there may be a worthy ex-student invited to give a speech. At my kids' school, the GCSE students were also given their certificates at Prizegiving, and there were prizes for subjects, too, usually for students who were just starting Year 13, but sometimes for lower down the school. It's not compulsory, and most don't bother to go.

Many students don't stay on at school for the 'sixth form' but do their A-Levels, AS-Levels or the slightly more 'practical' alternatives at a sixth-form college. More relaxed, no uniform, probably a lot less effective at getting them through their exams... Oh, uniform requirements usually broaden a bit for sixth-formers in schools, eg my children had to wear a smart suit and shirt, with a tie for the boys. My own sixth-form uniform was a different coloured blazer and variegated tie.

A-Level results are announced in the middle of August (a week earlier than the GCSEs). During Year 13 (second year of Sixth form), students spend much time and anguish trying to decide where to go to university and what to do there. They apply through UCAS; there is a complicated form with details of their GCSE and AS-Level results, plus the student's personal why-you-want-me application and a teacher's report. Students can apply to six universities. The universities hold open days during the year for general visits, and some may ask candidates up for interview, though that seems less common nowadays than it was when I was applying.

Each university will decide whether to offer the student a place, and the student then decides which offers to hold. The offers are conditional upon the A-Level results, and the student may hold a firm offer and a backup - so if the first choice wants three A grades at A-Level, the prudent applicant will hang on to a backup offer of, say, ABB. (Offers these days are a *lot* higher than they used to be! When I was at school it was only Oxford and Cambridge (and maybe Durham) who asked for AAA, it was *far* more usual to receive some mixture of B and C grades in your offer.) The exact level of the offer made will depend on the standing of the university and the demands of and popularity of the course. Once the A-Level results are out, UCAS confirms which offer the student is going to be taking up by referencing the offers held and the results achieved. A student who hasn't managed to fulfill the requirements may apply to universities via the Clearing system, in which universities with spaces on courses advertise them and students grab what they can.

I said I'd mention the private schools, too. Okay.

We have Public Schools, which are a specific type of private school. Not sure how exactly they are defined, but they are different. There are a handful of girls-only public schools, and some mixed - more which have a mixed sixth-form, these days. But basically, the public school system is for boys. (If you want to do a popslash AU, this is probably what you'd go for.)

Boys destined for public school are likely to start out by attending Prep School - which starts at age 7, so is like an extended Junior School. Public School Entrance is at 13, and I believe there are exams, I *think* it's called Common Entrance and applies across all the Public Schools, but I may be wrong about that. Once in, the parents are involved in massive expenditure (from Prep School onwards), and there are smarter uniforms (google the Eton uniform!). Academic standards are usually high and the schools feed vast proportions of their pupils into Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Public Schools are boarding schools, although not all pupils board. The boarding will be within separate houses (the school is usually also divided into Houses, for the purpose of competition; at my father's school each House had a corresponding boarding house).

Private schools in general are a lot more varied, but are simply not supported by the state system, and so charge fees. They may be boarding schools, but aren't necessarily. Term times for private schools (including public schools) will be shorter than for the state schools, and they're likely to have far smaller classes and better facilities.

There aren't actually that many private schools, and the vast majority of the UK population attend state schools.

Universities: we used to have universities and polytechnics, the latter being designed to offer a more practical degree, the former more academic and specialising in research. Now we just have a vast array of universities and it's really important to know what kind you want to attend before you apply!

An honours degree (Bachelor's) is the most usual kind, and for the majority of courses, takes three years. Courses are in general, specific. If you go up to university to study English Literature, you won't have to take Maths, Geography, History etc. If you go to read Chemistry, you won't be bothered with French, or English etc - though there may be a foreign language option if you want it. So undergraduates are not as a rule 'majoring' in anything, or 'minoring' either; they're taking a degree in... whatever. Also, you won't be picking out a bunch of classes - you'll be told, at least as a first year, what they are. Generally speaking you then start to select in your second and third years, subjects within your course of study. You'll have lecture, lab work (if you're reading a science subject), seminars, and tutorials (very small groups for addressing work problems with a senior member of the university).

Tuition for a year is a bit more than £3,000 (for a British student). First years (freshers) will almost certainly be offered accommodation (people *can* stay at home and go to a local university, but few do, and they're kinda missing the point anyway) on or close to campus. It'll probably be around £4,000 for a year (well, nine months, they don't get to live there during the long summer vacation), more in big cities, especially London. Long, long ago British students did not pay tuition, and were in fact given a grant towards the cost of living as a student. Ah well. We have more universities now, and everybody is encouraged to go, whether their degree is of the slightest use or not. So students have to pay.

Oh, and not all our universities are campus universities. Oxford, Cambridge, Durham, Bristol, various others (mostly in big cities) do not have campuses. Oxford, Cambridge and Durham are collegiate - you apply to a particular college, and your study is directed/overseen by faculty members at that college, although lectures, lab work and the like will be common to the whole university.

You'll emerge from university with an honours degree (First Class, Upper Second, Lower Second, or Third - but that probably only matters until you get your first job, or are accepted for further study) or possibly with a humble Pass degree, and call yourself a BA or BSc (or something else if you read Law or Divinity, I believe). In fact, you graduate! And yes, there'll be a ceremony involving gowns and such. Details of which will vary enormously depending on the university. (At mine, we got to wear furred hoods - down our backs - and walked in procession through the town to the Senate House for a ceremony in Latin. Which was nice. Then there was a jolly good dinner back in college.)


I'm sorry to have to tell you that if you want a Scottish AU, you'll need to ask a Scot for information, as the system there works somewhat differently!

Comments

[puszysty.livejournal.com]

All this talk of a junior high being the norm...junior high's been phased out in Michigan (at least, I don't know anyone who attended a junior high), and middle school is 5-8th grade.