School System

[Craterus]

Here is the English (they do it different in Scotland and Ireland AFAIK) school system explained:

Infant School

Reception: Basically just playing with toys and doing jigsaw puzzles. Equivalent to Kindergarten I think. Start at age 4, and will turn 5 sometime in the year.

Year 1: Start at age 5, turn 6 sometime in the academic year.
Year 2: Start at 6, turn 7 sometime in the year. Do SATS at the end of this year. They are extremely irrelevant tests.

Junior School

Year 3: Start at age 7, turn 8 in the year.
Year 4: 8-9
Year 5: 9-10
Year 6: 10-11. Do more SATS this year. SATS are irrelevant at this age.

Secondary School

Year 7: 11-12
Year 8: 12-13
Year 9: 13-14. Do another set of SATS test this year. Still pointless tests.
Year 10: 14-15. In this year, most schools start their GCSE courses. GCSE's are a stepping stone to college.
Year 11: 15-16. Take your GCSE's this year, unless you've done early entry.

[professorspatula]

Well for England, you could also add the optional Years 12 & 13 (for students 17 & 18 years of age usually). That's further education, typically the last step before embarking on several years of drinking and copulating and living on baked beans at Uni.

[miho]

Can you please clarify what SATS and GCSE means.
Thanks.
Does this mean you start college when 16 years old? We start at 18.

Our school system is:
Primary school from 6 (turn 7 in the academic year) to 14 years of age.
Highschool is from 14 to 18.
After that it's college.

[Craterus]

GCSE are qualifications we get at the end of secondary school.
SATS are pointless tests used to.... wait... i don't know their use..

I don't actually know what the acronyms stand for. Go to Google UK and search for them. You'll find better info there.

[Mikeus Caesar]

SATS are pointless tests used to.... wait... i don't know their use..

The Maths SATS aren't pointless in year 9, as they define which Maths group you get into. If you get into a higher maths group, then you get to do the higher GCSE paper, which means you've got a better chance of getting good grade when the time comes for GCSE. But apart from that, SATS are entirely useless.

[ah_dut]

Mikeus, I managed to do the Sats easy in year 8...yes, I'm in an accelerated group but nobody I know (without a learning difficulty) has had significant difficulty with the SATS as long as you get the right paper (read 6-8)

[Ianofsmeg16]

SATs are a breeze compare to GCSEs...

oh lord i have my mocks starting in a week, revise!!!!

anyone know a 'learn to speak french fluently in a week' course?

[King Henry V]

I could help.

[King Henry V]

Ok so this is how my school works (bit strange as I changed from the French to the Swiss system without even changing schools):
Primary School starts at age 5 which is called the 12th year (Douzième)
The numbers then get lower, like a countdown (12th into 11th into 10th etc.)
Lower Secondary school starts at age 11 (though at this stage many have done the year again once so they are now 12), called the 6th year.
Upper Secondary school is when you choose between the Swiss Maturité (or Matura in German) or the French Baccalauréat (or if you're a real dunce you leave school to take an apprenticeship) starts at age 14.
One's History-Geography, Sciences and Arts exam is done at the beginning of the final year (Terminal). The Final exams are done exactly a year later at 18.

[ah_dut]

General Certificate of General Education
and Standard Assesment Test

Craterus basically explained how my school works though we're forms (year 7=form 1) work on up...