The British School System School Life

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 ...