Re: OT: School systems (was: Re: Introduction)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan Jones" <devobratus@...>
To: <CONLANG@...>
Sent: Sunday, April 13, 2003 8:36 PM
Subject: Re: OT: School systems (was: Re: Introduction)


> Joe wrote:
> >In England(and Wales), if anyone's interested, we have the following:
> >
> >Age 4-7: Infants(Reception Year-Year 2) - equivalent to kindergarten, I
> >suppose, but it is usually lumped in with School.
>
> Reception onwards is compulsory, AFAIK American kindergarten is not. Also,
> it's rare to see seperate Infant and Junior schools, normally they're
> lumped together in one building as "Primary School", with Senior school
> often called "Secondary School".
Yes, I'm dividing it as much as possible, because I've seen various
divisions of it.

> >Age 7-11: Juniors(Years 3-6)
> >Age 11-16: Seniors(Years 7-11), at the end of which GCSEs are taken.
> >Age 16-18: Sixth Form (Years 12 and 13), and A levels are taken as exams
> >throughout the Sixth Form
>
> After the age of sixteen there are three options, not just Sixth Form. You
> can either leave school, go on to Sixth Form and do A-levels or go to
> College and get a vocational qualification. This isn't really as clear-cut
> as it seems, as many Secondary schools have Sixth Forms, where only
> A-levels are offered, yet many Colleges also offer A-Levels as well.
>
Yes, but this is about -school systems-

> It's worth noting that several counties have slightly different systems:
>   Age 4-9: First School
> Age 10-13: Middle School
> Age 14-16: Upper School
>
> It might also be worht noting that there are two types of "Senior" state
> schools (private schools are a wholly different matter): Comprehensive and
> Grammar. A Grammar school is selective; pupils are chosen at the age of
> eleven by taking an exam called the Eleven-Plus[1]. Grammar schools have
> the reputation of being more academic and offering a better standard of
> education. Comprehensive schools are open to anyone. Historically, Grammar
> Schools are older, as they were first set up to teach Greek and Latin
> grammar, and to this day remain the only Secondary Schools in the UK to
> teach Greek or Latin as a compulsory subject to the age of 14 (Latin is
the
> most common, followed by "Classical Civilisations", which is a cop-out in
> my opinion as it involves very little language work. Greek is pretty rare
> even in Grammar Schools, although the one I went to did teach basic Attic
> Greek as an option for those who chose to do Latin as a GCSE, like me).
>
>
Yes, though Grammar Schools are being phased out(or maybe in again).

> The abbreviation "GCSE" means "General Certificate of Secondary
Education",
> which replaced the older "GCE" ("General Certificate of Education"), which
> in turn had replaced the old O-Levels (O for "Ordinary", hence A for
> "Advanced" in A-Levels). GCSEs are taken in around eight different
subjects
> (although you can take as many subjects as you want- I've  taken fifteen,
> for example[2]), taking exams in English, Maths, Science, Technology and
> Religious Education is compulsory, the other exams are in subjects chosen
> by the pupil at the age of fourteen and must include at least one Humanity
> (either Geography or History) and one Modern Foreign Language (Welsh
> doesn't count in Wales). GCSEs are graded from A* to G. You can also get a
> U grade, which means "ungradeable"- i.e. so bad the examiners can't make
> head not tail of it, or "failed".
>
> Dan
> [1] the 11+ used to be compulsory, now it's optional and not organised on
a
> national scale- really it's just an admisssion test set by individual
> Grammar Schools.
> [2] In English Language, English Literature, Maths, Biology, Chemistry,
> Physics, History, Religious Education, Latin, French, German, Italian,
> Spanish, Welsh and Technology, if you're interested. I was lucky enough to
> have a school which allowed me to take all these exams- most would limit
> you to about eight or so. I failed Technology, by the way ;o)
>
>
I'm only taking 10.  I wish I could take 15, but I'm not organised enough to
handle all the homework, etc.

Damn, gave away that I'm GCSE age.  If anyones interested though, I'm taking
English, Science*2, RE, Maths, German, French, Spanish, History, and
Geography.  Basically though, those are the only ones that I could do.