The story of British schools

State education. Primary and secondary education

Education in Britain is provided by the Local Education Authority (LEA)in each county. It’s financed partly by the Government and partly by local rates (a kind of property tax). Each LEA is free to decide how to organize education in their area.

All state schools in Britain are free, and schools provide their pupils with books and equipment for their studies.

Nine million children attend 35,000 schools in Britain. Education is compulsory from 5 – 16 years.

Parents can choose to send their children to a free nursery school or a pre-school play group to prepare them for the start of compulsory education. But sometimes such nursery schools do not have enough places for all who would like them and these places are usually given to families in special circumstances, for example families with one parent only. Such schooling under the age of 5 is voluntary.

Children start primary school at 5 and continue until they are 11. Most children are taught together, boys and girls in the same class.

The story of British schools

• For largely historical reasons, the schools system is complicated, inconsistent and highly varied. Most of the oldest schools, of which the most famous are Eton, Harrow, Winchester and Westminster, are today independent, fee-paying, public schools for boys. Most of these were established to create a body of literate men to fulfill the administrative, political, legal and religious requirements of the Middle Ages.

• From the 16th century onwards, many ‘grammar’ schools were established, often with large grants of money from wealthy men, in order to provide a local educational facility. Grammar school is a secondary school which teaches mainly academic subjects, although many grammar schools now also have technical courses.

• From the 1870s local authorities were required to establish elementary schools, paid for by the local community, and to compel attendance by all boys and girls up to the age of 13.

• By 1900 almost total attendance had been achieved. Each authority, with its locally elected councilors, was responsible for the curriculum. A number of secondary schools were also established by local authorities, modeled on the public schools.

• The 1944 Education Act introduced free compulsory secondary education. Almost all children attended one of two kinds of secondary school. Children took an “eleven plus” exam at the age of 11. At this exam they were selected, or “streamed” according to the results. The decision was made on the results obtained in the “11 plus” examination, taken in the last year of primary school (at the age of 11). 80 cent of pupils (those who failed) went to “secondary modern” schools where they were expected to obtain sufficient education for manual, skilled and clerical employment, but where academic expectations were modest. Modern schools offered general education with a practical bias. Such schools provided a general education with a practical bias.

The remaining 20 per cent went to grammar schools. Some of these were old foundations which now received a direct grant from central government, but the majority were funded through the local authority. Grammar schools pupils were expected to go on to university or some other form of higher education. A large number of the grammar or “high” schools were single sex. (Some children went to technical schools. Most courses there were either commercial or specializing in technical studies. Boys and girls who were interested in working with their hands and learning in a practical way, they could learn some trade.) Thus, after 1944 almost all children attended one of two kinds of school – they were streamed.

• In the 1960s this system was changed. By the 1960s there was increasing criticism of this streaming of ability, particularly by the political Left. A lot of people thought that this system of selection at the age of eleven was unfair on many children. So in 1965 the Labour Government introduced the policy of comprehensive schools which offered suitable courses for pupils of all abilities. Today most children at 11 go to secondary schools called comprehensives.

• Comprehensive schools combine all types of secondary education. They offer a wide range of subjects, from art and craft, woodwork and domestic science (cooking & housekeeping) to the sciences, modern languages, computer studies, etc. Comprehensive schools are non-selective: you don’t have to pass an exam to go there. They accept a wide range of children from all backgrounds and religious and ethnic groups.

• In addition there were, and continue to be, a number of voluntary state-supported primary and secondary schools, most of them under the management of the Church of England or the Roman Catholic Church, which usually own the school buildings.

• 90 % of secondary schools in England, Wales and Scotland are co-educational. Free secondary education is available to all children in Britain since the 1944 Education Act of Parliament.

After school

At 16 pupils take a national exam called “GCSE” (General Certificate of Secondary Education), introduced in 1989, and they can leave school if they wish. This is the end of compulsory education. Roughly 90 per cent of children receive their secondary education at comprehensive schools.

For those who wish to stay on, secondary school can include the two final years of secondary education, sometimes known in Britain (for historical reasons) as ‘the sixth form’.In many parts of the country these 2 years are spent as a tertiary or at school or at a sixth form college, which provides academic and vocational courses. During the two voluntary years of schooling, pupils specialize in two or three subjects and take the General Certificate of Education (always known simply as “GCE”) Advanced Level, or “A level” examination, usually with a view to entry to a university or other college of higher education. The sixth form prepares pupils for this national “A level” exam at 18. You need “A” levels to enter a university. New examinations, Advanced Supplementary (AS) levels, were introduced in 1989, to provide a wider range of subjects to study, a recognition that English education has traditionally been overly narrow. The debate about the need for a wider secondary level curriculum continues, and Labour is likely to introduce more changes at this level.

Further education has traditionally been characterized by part-time vocational courses for those who leave school at the age of 16 but need to acquire a skill, be that in the manual, clerical or technical field. In all, about three million students enroll each year in part-time courses atFurther Education (FE) Colleges.Thus, other 16-year-olds decide to leave school and go to aFurther Education (FE) College to study for more practical (vocational) diplomas relating to the world of work, such as hairdressing, cooking, engineering, typing, dress making or mechanics. Here most of the courses are linked to some kind of practical vocational training.

Scotland

Scotland, with a separate education tradition, has a slightly different system. Children stay in the primary cycle until the age of 12. They take the Scottish Certificate of Education (SCE) usually at the age of 16, instead of A levels, they take the Scottish Higher Certificate which is more like continental European examinations since it covers a wider area of study than the highly specialized A level courses. Many take their “Highers” aged 17 rather than 18, with some opting to take a further examination later, the Certificate of Sixth Year Studies (CSYS).

In secondary schools in Scotland, pupils may study as many as 6 subjects up to the age of 18. In England, usually only 3 subjects are studied during the last two years of school, the sixth form.

Private education

Some people choose to pay for private education in spite of the existence of Free State education. The State does not control them. There are 2,400 private schools which are also called independent schools,andthey have been growing in number and popularity since the mid-1980s. Seven per cent of British school children go to private schools.

Private schools are called by different names to state ones. We distinguish the preparatory schools, (often called “prep”) for pupils aged from 7 up to 13, which prepare children for the Common Entrance Exam at 13; and the public schools, for 13 to 18 year-olds. These schools are very expensive and they are attended by about 5 per cent of the school population.

The fees vary from about ₤250 a term for private nursery to ₤3,000 a term or more for a secondary boarding school (pupils board, i.e. live at the school).

The most famous private schools are called public schools and they have a long history and tradition. It is often necessary to put your child’s name on a waiting list at birth to be sure he or she gets a place. Children of wealthy or aristocratic families often go to the same public school as their parents and grandparents. Eton is the best known of these schools.

The majority of independent secondary schools, including public schools, are single-sex, although in recent years girls have been allowed to join the sixth form of boy’s schools. Independent schools also include religious schools (Jewish, Catholic, Muslim etc.) and schools for ethnic minorities.

Life at school and university

Education is an admirable thing. But it’s well to remember

from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

Oscar Wilde

The school day

There are normally three school terms in Britain: Autumn, Spring and Summer terms. The British schools usually have 10 days at Christmas, 10 days at Easter and 6 weeks in the summer from the end of July to the beginning of September. British children do not go to school on Saturdays. An average school day begins at 8.45 and finishes at 3.15.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 2240