Do you know anything about schools in Britain?
Primary Schools:
At 5, by law, children start proper school. Infant school is from 5-7 years and Junior school from 7-11 years. The day begins at 9 a.m. and usually finishes at 3.30 p.m.The infant school has its own building and playground and is next to the junior school, with its own building and playground. There are usually about 35 children in a class and, in the infant school, as well as a teacher, there is a teacher´s assistant. Also mothers (and occasionally fathers) often go into the Infant School to help with painting, reading and practical lessons. Children have the same teacher for one year and she teaches nearly all of the lessons in the class. Perhaps another teacher has them once a week for music or P.E.
Classrooms are bright and cheerful with children´s work displayed on the walls and books, games and a computer in each classroom. The children usually sit in groups at tables and have drawers to keep their work in.
Children have to take tests at 7, 11 and 14. They learn English, maths, science and technology, history, geography and religious knowledge. A lot of learning is done through project or topic work, with an emphasis on children finding things out for themselves. They also learn about environment and, of course, do art, music and P.E.
Secondary Schools:
Children transfer from the primary school at 11.Secondary education takes from 5 to 7 years.
8% of British children go to Private Schools (called Public Schools). Another 4% don´t go to school at all.By law parents have the right to educate their children at home, if they can show they can do it properly. The rest go to the Comprehensive School. There are no vocational schools, or special art or music or technical schools in Britain.
Children study the National Curriculum that is: English, Maths, Science, History, Geography, Art, Music, Technology, Religious Education, Physical Education (P.E.) and a foreign language (usually French or German). At the age of 16 pupils take the main state examinations,the General Certificate of Secondary Education (G.C.S.E.),„O“ level (Ordinary).
Some pupils take 7 or 8 G.C.S.E.s but most pass 4 or 5 exams and then they may decide to stay on at school. About 66% of childrem stay on at school after the age of 16.
At 18 there are much harder exams called „A“ Levels (Advanced). About 10% of pupils take these, in 3 subjects only. There are 5 grades of pass- A,B,C,D and E. Mostly they are written exams.Everyone in the country do the same exams on the same days in May and June and then they have to wait until August to find out the results. All universities require the G.C.S.E. „A“ Level qualifications.Cheating is very rare in Britain. If someone is found
cheating, he will fail his exam and be in serious trouble. Exams are very closely supervised and rules about talking, looking at someone else´s work and taking papers into the exam are very strictly kept.
The majority of British school children wear a school uniform. Sometimes this is very formal: a shirt, a tie, a blazer with a school badge on the pocket and dark trousers. Girls also weara tie but a dark skirt instead of trousers, even in winter. Each school has its school colour (usually dark grey, dark blue, brown, dark green or dark red). Some schools send children home if they are not wearing a uniform or keep them in after school as a punishment.
British schools do a lot of sport, pupils have one afternoon a week of P.E. and all schools have football, netball, hockey and cricket teams. There are also school choirs, drama clubs ( most schools put on at least one play a year), chess clubs, art clubs and other activities. These are all called extra curricular because they are not part of the National Curriculum.
Most British secondary schools have about 750 students and 40 teachers.
Among the universities Oxford and Cambridge are the oldest and the most famous. Oxford was founded in the 12th and Cambridge in the 13th century.
