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steph puts the 'laughter' into 'manslaughter' (mydecember) wrote in rp_information,
@ 2009-07-18 16:27:00

Entry tags:

education: england, type: quick reference

education: england

Education: English School System Basics
by

mydecember

The English school system has some definite differences against say the school system of America and likely many countries. Mainly the names of the schools, how many we go through, the ages which we go to each school and the qualifications that we gain.

Below is a general summary of things which generally you would need to know. Basic things from what type of school they would go to when, the qualifications they could gain and such and when the terms are.

Public or Private?

In England there are two types of schools which are public and private.

Public: This refers to schools in which you would pay to attend and are often boarding schools. [wiki]
Private: These are schools which are run by the government and are called 'state-run' also. [wiki]

Types of Schools

We have five different types of schools.

Nursery: Age 3. This is full or part time and is not compulsory.
Primary: Ages 4-11. Children must start school from the age of 5 however most are enrolled into reception classes at the age of 4, it's unusual for them not to begin in reception.
Secondary / High School: Ages 11-16. This is compulsory.
College: 17-18. You do not have to attend college. You can either attand a college which is completely seperate from your high school or go to sixth-form which is a continuation of high school in the same building. Usually at sixth-form you no longer have to wear uniform though this depends on the school.
University: 18+. How long you are there depends on what kind of degree you are doing.

This table is very helpful with showing the school years.

Qualifications

GCSE: You complete your GCSE's in your last two years of High School. You usually take around 9 or 10 depending on the courses you take. There are three subjects you have to take: English, Mathematics and Science (single award, double award or triple award - depending on which of the three you take depends on how many GCSE's you gain in science). [subjects.] [wiki]
AS LEVEL: As Levels are basically half an A level and what you gain after your first year of College. These are qualifications in their own right but often you do go on to complete a full A level.
A LEVEL: The second half of your AS Level which you gain in college. [subjects] [wiki]
DEGREES: University level academic degree. The first level is a Bachelors Degree which usually takes 3 years to complete you can then go on to do your Masters and Doctoral degrees. [wiki]

Terms

English schools work with three terms:

Autumn term: September to December (half-term, October)
Spring term: January to Easter (half-term, February)
Summer term: Easter to July (half-term, May)

[wiki]

This is a very simplified version really, more of a quick reference though I hope it is helpful in that way. Scotland, Ireland and Wales have slightly different variations on this but in general this could work with the whole of Britain.

(Post a new comment)

	hammertech 2009-07-25 01:21 am UTC (link)
	This is badass. Can't count the number of times I could have used something like this. (Reply to this)

	english 2010-07-17 09:33 am UTC (link)
	Actually, "public school" is another term for "private school" in the UK and they mean the same thing i.e. fee-paying schools. Government-run schools are "state school". And I think they're making college compulsory soon. Stupid but oh well. (Reply to this)

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	informationsecu 2010-12-16 05:54 am UTC (link)
	English School System Basics is a post and it is great English school system also belong to Security Awareness Training. (Reply to this)

	wdccartwright 2012-01-27 03:38 pm UTC (link)
	This is mostly right, but there's other qualifications than just A-levels in college and there's also schools you don't have to pay to go to. (Reply to this)