EDUCATION SYSTEM IN THE UK

PRIMARY AND SECONDARY

EDUCATION SYSTEM

• primary education stages:

• KEY STAGE 1 – infants (ages 5 to 7)

• KEY STAGE 2 – juniors (ages 7 to 11)

• secondary education stages:

• KEY STAGE 3 (ages 11 to 14)

• KEY STAGE 4 (ages 14 to 16)

 TYPES OF SCHOOL
• 2 main types of school : STATE school & INDEPENDENT school

• INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS
• aren’t paid by the government
• also called private schools, have more freedom over how they
run themselves
• the teachers can make more decisions about what they would
like to teach
• about 7 % of the child population of the UK go to privately run
independent schools
• have been single-sex schools, but the co-educational method
increases nowadays
• STATE SCHOOL
• paid by the government
• have to follow the national curriculum
• non-selective in admitting all students

• comprehensive school
• a school which anyone can go to, regardless of how well they do
in exams – everybody is taught together

• faith school
• focused on a particular religion
• have to follow the national curriculum
• more freedom when it comes to what is taught about religion
• grammar school

• select their pupils using an exam known as the 11+

• exam often involves things like maths, verbal reasoning,

comprehension and creative writing

• used to be hundreds of grammar schools in England and Wales,

but in the 1960s, the government changed that rule

• they still exist in parts of England and Northern Ireland

 DIFFERENCES IN THE UK EDUCATION
SYSTEM
• education in England may differ from the system used elsewhere
in the UK
• 2 systems – one covering England, Wales and Northern Ireland &
one covering Scotland

• English, Welsh and Northern Irish system emphasised deapht of

education

• Scotland puts the emphasis on broadness

 FACTS ABOUT EDUCATION IN THE UK

• full-time education was compulsory for all children between

the ages of 5 to 16

• under a government act in 2008 the age was increased to 18

• primary schools are almost always gender-inclusive

• compulsory school ends the minute the students have taken

their GCSE examinations

• students in the UK usually wear uniforms

• almost everything they need for school is provided for them

• it is very unusual to repeat a year

• individual schools are usually autonomous

• you study fewer subjects than in many other countries

• a school day lasts from 9 until around 3:30

• there is usually many extra-curricular activities to do after school