luv 2 explain the british school system

please help me. I'm an American who has never had to deal with week this. i have a 10 and 7 yr old. primary school - got it. no sweat. but grammar schools? what are they? comprehensives don't exist any more, right? sixth form? gcses? a-levels? (and university placement based on PREDICTED a-level performance??) i am LOST dude. oh and what about the international baccalaureate eh??

england and wales school system, please!

plz to excuse my autocorrect, i guess i don't get "SECURE PLUS" this time

ahh xpost see i am SO DIMM!

In very general terms, most schools are comprehensives and select based on catchment area (proximity to where you live). Grammar schools may look at catchment area but also typically select on the basis of academic aptitude. No new grammar schools can be built (apart from in Kent, for some reason). You also have academies and free schools but that gets overcomplicated.

Either way, at the age of about 14-15 you do GCSEs, which have some effectively compulsory subjects (English, Maths, sciences, often an MFL) and some you may be able to select. Most people do around nine. A-levels are the next step up from that, a (pretty much free) choice of usually three or four subjects.

IB is six subjects usually and they’re linked together so it is hard to pass some and fail others (which you can do with separate A-Levels). You also need to do maths and MFL, which most English students would normally steer clear of. Very few schools do them.

And Wales has its own system now too!

my 10-y-o's teacher apparently told him he "should go to a grammar school". i don't know the implications of that. i don't even know if there is one near me in e. London.

i do know the is the option of an intl school that offers the IB.

are there A-levels or gcses at all if you're doing an IB? And if not, what do universities go by?

for a non-IB school, you do 9 gcses PLUS like 4 a-levels? all at the same time?

sixth-form is like... two years after secondary school? or in place of the last two years of secondary school?

don't know what an MFL is :(

I suppose it’s worth touching on the role of academies as well. As part of a reform of comprehensive schools, the government basically created a bunch of different statuses and systems with a view to ‘giving parents more choice’. You have some traditional comps left, which are funded by the local authorities but you also have academies funded directly by the Department of Education. Some of these have a particular focus (art and design, science, etc). They’re all run by non-profit trusts of various quality and salubriousness.

Grammar schools are generally seen as more prestigious / a blight on the social fabric of the country depending on which side of the political divide you fall. They’re selective so you theoretically have more able students and it acts as a form of streaming. This is seen as unfair by lots of people given that the default for most people is mixed ability classes. They’re often well funded and well resourced through legacies and donations as well. There are grammar schools in and around London but they will typically require learners to travel further, which is a pain in itself when you’re a kid, unless you are extremely lucky.

You do either GSCEs / A-Levels or IB. Most universities will accept both. The advantage of IB is that it’s international and can be used all over the place but it’s common for international universities to accept A-Levels as well.

GCSEs precede A-Levels, so if you do GCSEs and love art but hate history, you can choose to do art at the higher level and drop history, etc,

Sixth form is either your last two years at your current school (when you are doing A-Levels) or two years at a separate college that just focuses on those two years and ch younger children.

MFL is modern foreign language (ie not Latin).

And Wales has its own system now too!

― ShariVari, Thursday, July 18, 2019 2:14 PM (seventeen minutes ago)

oh damn

6th form is the last two years of secondary school and it can be in a separate 6th form college. It used to be optional But it is an opportunity to move school.

all extremely helpful, thank you guys and particularly you, SV.

yeah the academies thing is like.... fuck an academy. there's one near me, massive, incredible facilities, built privately with Olympic money, supposedly focused on 1) performance and 2) science but that was apparently sort of abandoned, original head teacher split after a year, the only thing I've ever heard about it is that there are "gangs" (?? doubtful) and that discipline is a big deal.

Fuck a grammar school before fuck an academy tbh.

Most comprehensive schools (so most schools full stop) are academies these days and you get good ones and bad ones. The best thing to do might be to go to an open day at any of the options available to you and check out the vibe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_grammar_schools_in_England

Some areas don't have any grammar schools at all

A 6th-form college is the same thing generally as a Further Education (FE) College. Or can be part of a school - but they provide the same thing.

If you hear talk of 'the eleven-plus' that's the entrance exam for grammar schools btw

Re the IB, it may have changed but I was offered the chance to do it (at FE college) after GCSEs instead of A-Levels - I guess this is just the 'diploma programme'?