The British School System
Compulsory education in Britain begins at the age of 5 and ends at the age of
16.
At first children have to go to primary school, which corresponds to the german
Grundschule.
Primary school consists of Infant school, for the 5-7 year- old pupils and
Junior school, for the 8-11/12 year- olds. The results of primary education
should be that pupils are able to read, to write and to calculate without any
problems. That's why these three subjects are the important ones and in which
children first of all are mainly taught. Besides, they are taught in art and
religion. Religion has to be taught at every school.
After Primary school follows Secondary school. Over 90% of the seconders attend
a comprehensive school which is comparable with our Gesamtschule. The other 10
% attend a private or independent school where they have to pay fees.
Comprehensive school includes the classes 7 to 11 or 7 to 13 and is attended by
12 to 16 or 18 year-olds.
School life
Every British school gives lessons until the afternoon which means that pupils
sometimes have to stay at school till 4 pm. That's why every school offers
lunch and gives a long break for it. The food is free for pupils whose parents
have financial problems. There are no further breaks except a 15 minutes break
for breakfast. One lesson runs 40 minutes.
A very long tradition is the everyday Assembly. Among this arrangement, a
person, generally the headmaster, reads out one or some parts of the bible and
interprets it ( for the pupils). It always takes place in the morning before
lessons. The boys and girls have to come shoeless into the assembly hall or
gymnasium and have to be very very quite. Some teachers have to pay attention
if everyone listens to the headmaster and they get angry if someone doesn't or
is late. If a pupil is often late, he or she gets a blame or something else.
After the Assembly, the young people have to go to their classrooms
immediately. It's also a difference to Germany that they have to go to the
teachers classroom instead of waiting in their own classroom till the teacher
comes.
Another big difference is, that teenagers in Britain have to wear school
uniforms. (But I will give you some more information later)
exams & their problems
English pupils get their marks in form of letters. A is the best and G the
worst.
British have to write a lot of tests and exams with high/big demands.
Altogether, they have to write 4 important exams that are called Key Stage
Exams. They have to be written at the end of Infant school and Junior school,
in the middle and at the end of Secondary school in 3 subjects: english,
calculating and science, ( At infant school the subject Science is replaced by
` ability of reading´.)
At those times, pupils have the age of 7,11, 14 and16. The Key Stage Exams help
to compare the results of pupils and schools with the national average results.
( Also to see if the pupils have reached the achievements.)
Aged 14 to 16 they take GCSEs. (GCSE is the shorter form for General
Certificate of Secondary Education.) The GCSEs are one of the important
qualifications and correspond to the german Realschulabschluss. The government
thinks of dropping mathematic as a compulsory GCSE subject because a lot of
teachers and educators think it is enough for pupils to learn the use of
numbers and that it makes no sense to force 14 to 16-year-olds to learn further
things of mathematics. This subject could be left to students who enjoy maths
and plan to study it. Educators think, most pupils are interested in learning
languages or humanities.
After passing the GCSE, pupils can leave school and get a job or stay at school
and do their A-Levels. The majority decides to try further qualifications. If
they have their A-Levels, they are able to go to university.
Learned man say that pupils who want to get their A-Levels do learn many hours
to master this demands and if they work until midnight, they suffer on a lack
of sleep. Consequences are often defective concentration at school, depressions
or even
violence. The same problem with Key Stage Exams 1 and 2. All parents agree that
schools put their children under enormous stress. They haven't time anymore to
do things they are really interested in and which children should do. That are
things like playing ballgames, meeting friends or doing things with their
family.
But it seems as if schools just want their pupils to reach the standards.
additional information & pedagogical problems
. school uniform
The pupils don't like their school uniform, because they don't feel like an
individualist anymore. A lot of teenagers also don't like them because of the
colours, which are often ones like black or grey and the majority says that
their uniform is uncomfortable too.
School uniforms often consist of a blazer with a t-shirt or a blouse below it,
a tie and a pair of trousers for boys and a coat for girls in summer.
The idea is to make pupils look equally so that nobody will be discriminated
against because of his social problems which could be less money (or things
like that).
. swearing at school
A special programme, which is part of a project named Personal, Social and
Health module, was introduced since September2002. ( PSHM also covers topics
such as sexual health and education, drugs, smoking and relationships.)
Within this programme, schools give their pupils lessons in which the 11-16
years-old have to write down as many swearwords as they can think of. Then the
teachers describe and explain them to their pupils, because specialists think
that pupils don't know what their swearwords really mean.
The aim is to get young people to look carefully at their language and see if
they really meant to say what they did.
A lot of parents are against this programme as they think that their children
just get a wider range of disgusting words.
. Children's growing lack of respect
It is not easy for teachers to handle teenagers at the age of 12 to 16 when
they start interesting for things and people who really don't have to do
anything with school. Teenagers, especially girls, want to show their
independence by bad behaviour and doing the opposite of that what teachers want
them to do. This problem is getting more difficult now because parents aids
their children by taking their children's side when teachers try to discuss and
solve discipline problems with pupils and want to remind the school rules. So
when Pupils see that even their parents don't have any respect for the
authority of teachers, they wonder why they should have it. But teachers don't
say anything about things like that in the publicity because they don't want
others think they couldn't control their classes.
More and more violent incidence happen, but headmasters don't want to talk
about it for fear of bringing their schools into disrepute.
. Smoking
Smoking at school is absolutely forbidden. If a pupil is caught in the act, his
parents will be informed immediately.
Until now, there is one school in Britain who let's its pupils smoke. They are
allowed to with their parents agree. A spokesman for the Department of Health
said that it was very unusual. Other schools reacted shocked.
[ Hand-out]
Education in Britain
The British School System
Age: 5 - 7: Infant school Key Stage Exam 1
8 -11: Junior school Key Stage Exam 2
12-16: Secondary school Key Stage Exam 3 at the of 14
GCSE ( General Certificate of Secondary or Education) at the age of 16
12-18: Secondary school ( A(dvanced)-levels at the of 18 )
The Key Stage Exams help to compare pupils´ and schools´ results with the
national average results.
After passing their GCSEs, the young people can leave school and get a job or
stay at school and do their A-levels. If they have their A-levels, they can go
to university.
Before primary school, parents have the choice if they want to send their
children into a kindergarten.
school life
. 15 minutes Assembly before lessons in which the headmaster reads out a part
of the bible. The pupils have to come shoeless into the Assembly hall or
gymnasium and have to listen to the headmaster carefully
. After the Assembly, the young people have to go to their lessons.
. The Seconders have to go to the teachers´ classroom instead of waiting for
the teacher in their own classroom
. Pupils have 2 breaks: first break ca. 11 o'clock and second break for lunch
at 1 o'clock ( it takes 1 no further
breaks hour)
. One lesson runs 40 minutes.
. Every school offers lunch; the food is free for pupils whose parents have
financial problems.
. Lessons run until the afternoon.
. Teenagers in Britain have to wear school uniforms at school. The idea is to
make everyone look equally so that nobody will be discriminated against because
of his style or lack of money.
A is the best .
English pupils get their marks in form of letters and G the worst.
. Pupils have to attend school until they are 16 years old.
. Pupils do not have to repeat a year if they do badly
