In short, can some Brit explain to me how the school system over there works?
Topics I am unclear about include: 'public' vs. 'private schools'; options (???) about what path is taken in pre-university schooling; what ages are required to go to school; what is an O-level? A-level?; are there equivalents to American graduate school programs? Please feel free to explain anything you believe would aid in my comprehension of the system.
Basically, even after brief researching (wikipedia), I don't understand anything because the information is written assuming I know things I don't. If you could possibly act like you are explaining it to a 6 year old (hopefully without being condescending, but any info is better than none), I would greatly appreciate it.
(By the way, if someone over there is interested in learning about the American system and is unclear on anything, I will gladly answer, although from what I have pieced together our system is much less complex than the British system.) Basically you can forget "public" schools. It's a term used for five or six particularly old private boys' schools such as Eton.
Private schools are schools that you pay to attend.
State schools are free ones.
School years run September to July, and there are 3 terms: autumn, spring (up to Easter) and summer. You have to start school the term after you are five, and most kids start school in the September of the school year in which they will be five - this is "reception". The September after that they are in "year 1" and so on. It's very rare for kids either to be advanced a year, or held back - a very few might be advanced if they are at the old end of the year and bored silly, and their parents made a screaming fuss. I've never heard of any child repeating a year once they've started in the system, but occasionally a child who is right at the end of the age group and also obviously not ready (say, a child born prematurely at the end of August who really should have been in the next year anyway) will start school a year late and stay with that set of children all the way through.
Most schools are either "primary" for ages 4-11,years R-6, or "secondary" for ages 11-18, years 7-13. Not all.
We don't have O levels in England any more, and haven't had for twenty years. The exams you take at age 16 (year 11) are GCSEs (and you normally take 8+). Then at 17 (year 12) you take AS levels - 4 or 5, and at 18 (year 13) you take A levels - normally 3, sometimes 4.
One thing which is rather different from the American system is that your grades depend almost entirely on your performance in the exams at the end of the year. And these are external exams, set nationally and marked nationally. Your teacher has no input into your final grade. At all. (Except for teaching you of course :) ) Nor do tests done in class, homework assignments, etc. etc.
We don't have a credit system. At all. You just do exams. No AP classes in school to carry over to college, and no transfer of credits from one school to another, you'd just go into the year you'd be in by age. You might, occasionally, be able to transfer from one university to another, but usually you'd have to start the entire course again.
After year 13 you go to university. Normally for three years as an undergraduate (some undergraduate degrees are 4 years). You choose your subject right at the start - before the start, in fact, you apply to a specific university to do a specific degree, and it's non-trivial to be allowed to change. After that you'd do either an MSc or a PhD / DPhil, which are British graduate degrees. These always include research, they are not considered taught courses (though an MSc may have quite a large proportion of taught course / exam. A PhD will have little or none).
And, of course, many people don't go right through. You can leave school at 16, many more leave at 18 and don't go to university, and most people who go to university don't carry on to do a graduate degree.
Wales is like England. Scotland is different. Look it up on the internet. Well... I'm an Australian and all I can answer is the question regarding the debate over Private Schooling V Public Schooling.
Public Schooling is free education like your schools in the U.S. Private schools are like your exclusive schools in the U.S that you must pay highly to attend. The debate is basically about which path is best for your child, private education or public. Simple:D.
Unfortunately O- level and A- Level has stumped me O.o :D Well as you may know a private school asks for a fee from the students maybe of an average of 拢8000 a year. On the other hand public school charge very little if anything. The educations system for both are good except that maybe in the private school you will have better facilities eg a bigger sports ground or more experiments to do in labs where more equipments are needed. The class size for the private school is about 20 while it can be like 30 for public schools.
Now pre-uni schooling generally start at o-level which is the same as GCSE. ( General Certificate Of Secondary Education) GCSE's are taken over 2 years and start when u are in Grade 10. These exams take 2 years to prepare and are taken at the end of year 11. The results of these exams are give sometime in august. Depending on the school and how good the child is you can take between 8-12 with 10 being the average number of exams. It is required to do Science, Maths and English and then other are whatever you want. The grades range from A*-U. With A* being around 85% and U is 40%.
A-levels start at Grade 12 and end at Grade 13. They are broken in 2 levels. When u are in Grade 12 you on average will do 4 subjects any of your choice and this is know as AS-Level. Then depending on how well you do and what oyu want to do at uni you will choose to do 3 out of the 4 subjects and study each in a greater detail. This year 13 is known as A2-Level. When u complete both years it is known as A-Level ( Advance -Level).
Now students start looking for unis at the end of year 12 and start of year 13. Depending on how well u do in year 12 and what the teachers think of u as a student they will offer u CONDITIONAL places for year 13. For example if you do chemistry/ maths/ and biology and want to do medecine then a uni may say that if u get AAA ( which means atleast 80% in every subject) then u will get the place. If not then no. The system of getting a place at a uni is a lot more detailed then this and i wouls advice you to contact a school to get a better info or u can contact me for more info |
