DIFFERENCES BETWEEN BRITISH AND AMERICAN SCHOOLS (UK VS USA)
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.ย. 2024
- What are the big differences between British and American schools? I've worked in both and have several comparisons to make for the UK vs USA education systems.
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In the UK, the head of year normally deals with the bad students.
Also the equivalent of a guidence counceller is a safeguarding manager.
Or you can have a mentor
Rosie Eggleston i know this comment is from months ago but in my school the head of year always does year group assemblies as well. I'm in year 10, so we have a year 10 assembly every week on Thursdays. My school is also separated into 2 halves in regards of tutor groups (not sure if others are). For example I'm in V and our half of the year consists of tutors VAHN and the other side of the year is ELSO. Every Monday everyone from every year who is in VAHN has an assembly, and then every Tuesday everyone from ELSO has the exact same assembly.
Or form tutors
It’s called a dean
I imagine someone’s already pointed it out, but in the UK we *never* refer to a university as “school”. School is where you go from age 5-16, college from 16-18 and university from 18-21. Although some schools are also colleges, and some universities are internally divided up into colleges.
+dunebasher1971 I actually have never heard that so I am really grateful that you gave me that feedback. Great to know! :-)
I also want to add that you need 3 a levels to get into university, which you can take once you leave school at 16 and takes a minum of 2 years to complete.
Clowntrooper
In the US, saying you went to University would be considered quite pretentious, even though you personally wouldn't have meant it that way.
In the US you graduate high school at age 18, and go to college/university from 18-21 (in the US there isn't much of a distinct difference between college and university, they're terms that are used interchangeably).
Actually, you don't. I have no A-levels. Instead, I did a BTEC and went to uni after that. I have since gotten a post-grad diploma. Still no A-levels.
WHY DO AMERICANS THINK WE ALL LIVE IN LONDON AND LONDONS THE ONLY CITY IN UK WHEN ITS CLEARLY NOT
MaJaWaGD IKR WHAT ABOUT LIVERPOOL, LEEDS, MANCHESTER, GLASGOW, EDINBURGH, CARDIFF and much, much more!
Darth Gallactica YEASSS
WHY DO YOU STUPIDLY INSIST ON PRETENDING THAT 320 MILLION PEOPLE IN THE U.S. ALL THINK EXACTLY THE SAME THING???
JamesJ Fisk WHY ARE U EVEN THINKING THAT I DIDNT EVEN SAY EXACTLY ALL...
Bah you live in the city of England
in the UK we have Years not Grades
+Welshboyz Gaming thank you for clarifying. I always remember it as the year here is one higher than the grade. For example, a Year 8 student is a 7th grader in the US. ;-)
Nope because I was in 4 year of school uk and went to school with a friend in the us same age and was in nineth grade so that's 2 years lower in us we wher both 14.
She may have had to retake the year or something
Nor do we call them schools really at University lol.
First of all, British schools are nothing.like UP books, secondly only nursery to hear 5 have to sit on the floor, in year 6 and up u get chairs
British school are absolutely nothing like Harry Potter movies ffs
She didn't say English schools were like Harry Potter movies. For fucks sake, learn to listen.
Ha my school is
JamesJ Fisk - She said she was surprised how many similarities there were. Learn to listen. ;) She then failed to mention any. I thought she could have, at least, mentioned the mandatory, 'defence against the dark arts' classes, that all british pupils have to endure...
Jack Kay in my school we do have houses and house points like hp it’s annoying
Mine is lolll i love it
You forgot to talk about College, Sixth form and apprenticeships. You didn't mention how we leave high school at 16 in the uk and we choose wether we want to stay on at sixth form, go to college or get an apprenticeship until we're 18 and then go to university.
You also didn't talk about the differences between GCSE, BTEC and A-Level.
Also in the uk high school is ages 11-16, where in the US I think it's 14-18? We don't have middle school in the uk.
Nice meme, there is no such thing as middle school in the UK.
ShiKoneko chan Yes there is, it just isn't very common.
Speaker Sex It can be called both names, high school is just the more popular term.
Speaker Sex My school was called a high school and last time I checked Scotland was still a part of the UK.
The town I lived in have middle school for year 5 to 8 then you went to high school. Middle schools exist.
"BTEC exam" ???? The whole point of a BTEC is that there is no exams
A. Ham btec do have exams. I did btec health and social care exams during my gcse and they are also introducing it for level 3 (sixth form) from this year onwards
They have changed.
I do btec right now my science btec has no exams and my ict btec I have one short practical for exam
It depends on the btec in sport there is a small exam that's about an hour long
I don't know about other btec courses, but for the btec course that I'm doing, we are the last year that's going to do Btec without exams. For the next year that's going to do my course, they have to do written exams which kind of defeats the whole purpose of Btec ...
usually in assembly's you only sit down on the floor if your in primary school.. if your in secondary school (aka high school) we have chairs to sit on instead.
+Elise Read how many schools have you been to?
Sunny London 4 different secondary schools cause my dad's job moves around alot... it's just my experience I don't know whether it's the same in your school or any other school... but in my primary school I sat on the floor for assembly's :)
+Elise Read I haven't spent much time in primary schools. I had a job in London that sent me to different schools nearly every week. Very few secondary schools didn't sit in the floor. Are you in London or somewhere else in the UK?
Sunny London no I'm in Brighton :)
+Elise Read that's very interesting! Maybe it's just a more popular thing to do in London?
I think it's important to note that in Britain nobody cares about any sports teams unless your in one of them. We don't have stadium like places to watch any of the school sports clubs, we usually just have an AstroTurf field which the kids at my school call "the cage" as it is in fact inside 4 cage like walls. Our clubs don't have a special kit or a name or mascot and nobody really cares about the trials to get in. Also, unless you pick P.E as a GCSE or A-Level option you don't get anything for it and it is just done on a health basis.
+Liv Hall thank you for adding this. I agree that from my experience here you don't approach sports teams like we do in the US in schools.
Liv Hall in my school we had Games (compulsory exercise once a week) and then PE which was compulsory for Years 7-9 then an elective for GCSEs
Yet per head of population we considerably out performed the USA in the last Olympics, but I think it varies a lot in different parts of the UK.
when i was at school, if you were bad at sports you got bullied for a day or two after every PE lesson, and there were at least 3 PE lessons a week. That was in UK 1980s, back when bullying was seen, like domestic violence, as something for the people involved to sort out, nobody else's business
also in 1980s UK we had to play out in the rain and do sports in it, tough. No indoors no astroturf, except indoors for snow, school stayed open with snow and we had to walk to it. No car lifts, no closing.
in my school (uk) we sit on chairs in a massive hall with a stage so i doubt what u just said was right, thats only for the young kids
Jacob Brown no I have 2 assemblies a week and we sit on the floor for both
Same
The reason that we don't have homecoming in the UK, is that hardly any of us actually like our schools and therefore don't want to go back
True 😂
Also because its like a football thing and we don’t have a big football/ rugby team. I mean we have one (football) but nobody cares about it and they don’t do massive games or anything 😂
(Speaking from my experience, may be different for you idk)
It's only kids in primary schools who have students sit on the floor
Robert Bellamy no it isnt im afraid
I've been to a bazillion uk schools, and none of them sat on the floor for assemblies... They all use stacking chairs.
The only exception is primary schools schools (5-10 year olds).
+N Albertsson a bazillion? Wow. You must have missed the 10-15 secondary schools that I have seen who have kids on floors. I guess if you're comparing that many to the ones I have seen, you probably wouldn't agree with me.
@Sunny London
Yes, a bazillion!!!... I used to be Jimmy Saville's personal assistant, so I've seen every school ever!
once in a while when the main hall at my school is being used during a year group assembly, we sit on the floor in the sports hall
We don't sit on the ground, she's talking complete bollocks.
+infinity 2 why would I make up this information?
Sunny London idk, you tell me.
Actually in my school, the primary school students would sit on the ground and the older ones would sit on benches
Toothless That's primary school, not high school.
Only primary school children sit on the ground (until year 6) and the rest of the time everyone is sitting on chairs
This is not the whole UK,certainly not Scotland,I think she basically means London.
sooperhooper England
I know but her headline is UK v USA,even England V USA is inaccurate ,its should be London v USA.
+sooperhooper I agree. However, no one searches London vs USA.
I do understand that but are you aware that many people who do not stay in London (basically the rest of the UK) get a bit annoyed that the media in general think that London IS the UK and the everything revolves around London,it can get pretty boring and frustrating.
Then you do a channel which has a misleading headline to gain viewers only to find that what you are comparing as being the UK basically only happens in one city and nowhere else.
@@Sunny_in_London Why base everything around London then? They are just one area of many in the UK.
Most of this wasn't accurate or the most interesting as you could have made it. You could have talked about uniforms, grades compared to years or things like the different types of school you go to (e.g. primary or elementary).
+Jiayu.chen123 thank you for the feedback. I outline most of that in the blog post I wrote about originally. Have you had a chance to read that?
Homecoming is an American tradition and has nothing to do with the UK
We have prom at the end of year 11 and then at the end of y13. But we don't do homecoming. Most english schools are broken into house system , usually historical families of the area assigned to a colour. Throwout the year they will have house competitions to gain points for there house (house points) and then sports day at the end of the year that decides the winning house. Also to any Americans reading this most school lunch halls survey fish and chips on fridays😂
Itzzz Amy-Jayne omg SO true! This is EXACTLY what happens in my school! VERY accurate!
Itzzz Amy-Jayne And old gits hate schools for calling end of year parties proms lol
Yh and there is normally a variation to the uniform depending on your house, e.g a person in 'yellow' house might have a yellow stripe or badge on their blazer.
You only have proms now because the UK copied America lol. It's dumb because most British parents can't afford proms like Americans can.
my old school never split into "houses". at most we had merits which were awarded to individual students but that was quickly dropped past year 8. My new school does the house system though
Great video, although being a British student, I have some stuff to add!
1) In British schools, you are limited to where you can go to school. This is called a 'catchment area.' I live just under 3 miles from my 'local' school, so I nearly didn't get in, as they prioritise people who live near. In fact, next year, my school are not allowing students from close surrounding villages to attend, as they can go to schools in nearer, larger towns. It is very rare to attend a school with entrance exams, as they nearly always cost a large amount of money. However, many families do prefer their children to learn more at a private school.
2) At university, or uni, it takes around 4 months to receive an acceptance or non-acceptance, regardless of when you send the application. If you don't get accepted into any university. You can still get onto a course through something called a 'clearing,' which is the system used to distribute remaining vacancies between July and September, provided you have already applied for University through UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.)
3) What is an SLT? We call teachers 'staff.' Typical schools also have 1000 students, never 650. We have a headteacher, which, more formally, are referred to as 'headmistress' or 'headmaster.' We don't necessarily have deputy heads of sixth form, or heads of each years.
4) In a typical UK school, we have many counselling systems, for example, there is a student reception, where you can go to with queries. Most schools also have a counselling system unique to that school.
5) Assemblies are held in the hall, often sitting on chairs.
6) Parent communication is HUGE in the UK. Parents are very often talking to teachers, if that's face to face or by phone. Letters are often sent home, exclaiming success or behaviour issues.
7) In the UK, we don't have homecoming, yet we do have these tiny weird prom things are the end of each year, for leaving students in year 6, 11 or 13. They are much bigger in the US, as I'm aware.
Wow she must've had the shock of her life coming from American schools to London schools
I think in general British schools seem more serious than American schools, and everyone I know agrees including an American. You don’t wear uniform, you don’t have the same stressful exam system - your schools are more like university to us, loads of students and sports teams and mascots. We just don’t have that, and yeah we usually wait for the teacher to dismiss us. We also used to always stand when the headmaster walked in - til we got a new one, and the entire school made this unwritten pact never to do it again, even the teachers, cos he’s a prat. Standing when senior members walks in is pretty uniform though. The U.K. are obsessed with creating obedient people who are almost over prepared for work, since work is actually way more relaxed than most schools are. Even in sixth form we have to wear a “dress code”- we have to look smart, like we’re going in to an office. We get dress coded for things like not having a collar - I’d never DREAM of showing my shoulders or any part of my chest or I’d get a detention.
We don't have uniforms lol funny, i wore uniforms for elementary school k-5. Some schools do have uniforms. And the ones that don't have uniforms have dress codes. And girls get dress coded all the time for shorts or dresses. I'm in middle school now and i don't wear uniforms anymore and I'm glad. So you guys don't have sports teams wow my school has basketball,soccer,cross country,volley ball,and more i just can't name them. And cheerleaders. Oh and we have to wait for the teacher to dismiss us to.
Uk serious school no after sats we done barely any wor
You know how she said how it's a little heavy that we have so many teachers ITS BECAUSE WE BAD BEHAVED
wtf britsh schools are nothing like harry poter movies see I been spending 10 mintets trying to figer out how to spell poter still cant fucking do it I went to the top 3 worst schools in wales that's in the uk every student that gise in good comes out bad
SuperKillWaria 123 the only thing that hogwarts and English schools have in common is wearing a uniform and having the year be split into houses/forms 😂
SuperKillWaria 123 in my high school we have houses with different colours of ties for each one. There are also seven groups in each house, but there's a lot of people in each. We call these mentors. One house is called Juno, the tie colour for it is red, and there are different groups like JU1, JU2 etc.
bruh i think you have dyslexia
SuperKillWaria 123 its double t. So it's Harry Potter
i wish i went to an American school.... seems so much more fun
Hell
Lawrence Stevens that’s true
@Dave Leys Huh?
American schools Seems more complicated to get around than my school(uk) We have sertain areas of th school with letters on them from A to E.
A:English department
B:music
C;science
D:languages
E:gym
I don't want to get shot so no thanks
You make quite few references to Harry Potter and Hogwarts as a comparison school. What you failed to realise is that Hogwarts was based in Scotland, Which has no connection to the English education system.
+Ian Taylor Thanks Ian! Aside from Hogwarts being fictional, I really only feel that way because they both have houses and uniforms. Neither of those are nearly as common, if found at all, in the US.
My main point remains,england has no say in a scottish education.
read the books
Ian Taylor only really the author and where the movies were set though and Scottish schools are really rough and nothing like hog warts
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogwarts
I did the 11+ grammar test. when I was in year 6. It’s a test many children do to get into certain schools. This test is optional. You do the test early September and wait for your score which gets posted to you within the first 2 weeks of October.
You then send back an order of schools with number 1 being your first choice, etc. You have to write your list no matter if you did the grammar test or not.
Then you wait 5/6 months for another letter telling you what school you are going to unless you are going to a private school.
So children are put through a lot of pressure to do well on that 1 test on that 1 day at just 10 to 11 years old.
This doesn’t happen all over the UK but it does where I come from.
In the UK are college and university actually two distinct things? In the US the terms are used interchangeably
gap year is what rich british students do haha
No i'm not even rich and i had that. Gap year is not only for the rich people.
allie Ivanka for the lazy too
Brother Kash is it lazy if you work for your money and travel with it?
traveling is different. a gap year just to take time off
where does the money come from? bank of mum and dad?
You did not mention ,the Americans in general know nothing about history of geography.If it is outside America,they have never heard of it.
terry gill That is actually mostly incorrect.
Social Studies is a study in school that is in every grade since Middle School (Jr High- Ages 10-14). In 6th, it is Geography, mostly Oceania, Africa, Europe, and a little on North America. 7th focuses on Asia and South America's geography, while in 8th grade, US/Specific State History is taught.
In High School, it begins with Human Geography, which is an extension of basic Geography, and/or World History, which covers almost all of human history. Then Microeconomics and such throughout Senior year.
Education systems here in the US do, indeed, focus on the outside world. We aren't that self centered. :)
are you such a geography expert ? can you name evry state in the US without googling ?
BogusOp0001345 ...That is actually easy.
And I can also name all the State Capitals without googling, and almost every single country without googling...
So, I honestly don't get your point. I'm not an expert, but I at least know basics like that.
You really are the dumb one. We first get taught Geography and History in Pre-K or Kindergarten. I honestly bet I could name more countries and world news then you, and I still have 3 more years of high school left. Stop being so insecure about your own country.
Qartoon Productions you're telling me you can remember almost 195 countries. Like more than 50%?
You’re forgetting though that British schools are smaller. So much smaller, in general, than American schools, in both physical size and pupil density. That’s why we don’t have these massive events etc, and that’s why we aren’t restricted by one school. Five high schools are walking distance from where I live. We get our results in year 11 AND year 13, if we even go to sixth form. We can’t tell you what results like because you didn’t tell us how you get your results. We do our exams in May, go off for an extended summer holiday, get our results in August. It’s that simple. In your article you wrote that a teacher could teach all years within a week...that’s actually an understatement. A teacher can teach 5 year groups in a day if they’ve been given a class from every year. Also, we DONT sit on the damn floor in assembly. That’s in primary school. Never heard of a load of 15 year olds sat on the bloody floor, getting dirt on our uniforms. No, we don’t have homecoming. we don’t even really know what that is. We have one prom at the end of year 11 and year 13. That’s it.
Emdontplayguitar im im year 11 and to think about it ,uk schools are so much more depressing and boring conpared to us schools
Emdontplayguitar Actually in many schools (mine included) only the eldest years sit on chairs at the back of the hall with the teachers, years 7-9 (or year 7-11 if the assembly has 6th form as well) sit in front of them on the floor
Thank you for adding this. My experience in London in based on seeing mostly what you’ve mentioned.
Bork Bork in my school u only have assembly with each year group at a time.....only at Christmas and at the end of the year do we ever have it together and even then is just 7 8 and 9
Emdontplayguitar it’s not small have u been to British schools before u are saying that?
I want to know the difference between high school exams/grades. We have GCSE's but what do Americans do?
Yes with the guidance counsellor thing we had counsellors at school but head of year dealt with most problems.
Katie Potatie GCSE=SAT or ACT and some do both... don't do these..can't go to college
My school in Scotland had Guidance Teachers that take care of the students needs. They also teach classes.
Btw, things like Homecoming are fun. I have a son in the school marching band. We turn out to see him in the Homecoming parade. The bands from the Jr and Sr Highs march, along with the football team and the cheerleaders who are usually riding on floats that the high schoolers made to be pulled by pick-up trucks. The parade starts in a designated part of town and ends at the high school. The Homecoming King and Queen and the members of their court ride on the floats or in convertibles to wave to the crowd. There's a Homecoming dance and the Homecoming football game. The marching band performs during the game half-time. Alumni can return to watch the game with the school kids and the families of the players/cheerleaders/band members. Oftentimes, the alumni still may have young family members who attend the school or family members that still live in the community. There's lots of cheering, food and drink, and socializing. Some schools allow tail-gate parties, too, as long as alcohol is not served. Universities and colleges in the US have Homecomings, as well. It's tradition.
In the U.K. You can get an hours detention for having a bobble on your wrist and they can tell you which way to leave the academy ( there is a footbridge to the left and crossings to the right and now if you use the crossings you get a detention )
In my school the deputy heads pretty much couldn’t do anything more than a teacher could do. All the heads of years only lead assemblies (and their normal classes) for the year and I doubt the heads of sixth form don’t do much more than heads of years. (I’m only yr 8 so I don’t know much abt 6th form)
Clearly haven't been in the north of England 😂
Emma Plummerr 😂
+Ella Evans what's different in the North?
I don't think any high schools sit on the floor in assembly's
+Emma Plummerr I have seen at least three do it in the past year. One is an independent school ranked in the top 20 in the country.
Sunny London oh ok
In the UK, legally you don't have to go to school. You can write a letter to de-register or just never register your child and you're good to do whatever
I'm go to school in the UK and it is separated into 3 schools.
So Year 7 and 8 would be lower school.
Year 9 and 10 would be middle school.
And year 11 would be higher school.
And then it would be sixth form and college etc.
official Megan Oh ok
Alicia Anderson ive never heard of a uk school like that lol and im in year 10 ,secondary school is year 7-11 college or sixth form is 12-13
I live in the uk
4-11 Primary School
11-18 High/Secondary School
it used to be lower-middle-upper everywhere but around 15 years ago they started to phase them out. I don't really know why though.
You say this is US v England then continually refer to the UK. Scotland, a member nation of the UK, has a completely separate education system.
in british high school, if you have family issues or just issues in general you usually go straight to your form teacher and then if they think it’s serious you’ll go to head of year.
No bulletproof vest required
Not sure about other schools in the UK but in mine we have 'registration' and the person who runs it is our 'form tutor' we are put into classes according to what house we are in and from there every house has 2 groups of students per year. Our form tutor does registration etc.
We do have a formal. It’s like a fancy homecoming but with dinner and alcoholic drinks (it differs between schools)
also high school is different in America I don’t think Uk has middle school
I think some areas do but most just have primary and comprehensive
What kind of secondary schools are you at where there are only 650 students???
Clounagh Junior High, Northern Ireland, UK. Also even worst behaved as two pupils used schoolbags as boomerangs in the computers rooms and shredded 4computers plus a small fire, horriable attendance
Students who take a year break between high school and university tend to travel to find out what they want to study
Uk is a collection of different nations (not countries) such as Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland. And she was based in England (London) so it might be different from other schools in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.
In the USA you don’t have to go to the school in your district you can do what we call the lottery and where some schools do a random draw or you can take a test and see if you are accepted into that school.
My school lessons start at 8:35an and the day ends 3:00pm
We have break 10:45-11:00
And a lunch hour 1:00-1:40
Also in UK we have school uniforms. People will say it's making students robot like... But in reality is to stop the poorer kids getting picked on because they can't afford designer clothes
Although that's a good benefit of uniforms, it is not the reason for them in the slightest. Uniforms in schools have been going for centuries in the UK.
Kids go to college first before university in Britain. Not all schools have sixth forms here in Grimsby and Cleethorpes the majority of schools sixth forms formed a sixth form college back in 1989 my secondary school lost a number of teachers but a secondary school up the road was closing and that is where the new sixth form college called Franklin College opened and the local college also took over part of the building, Grimsby Institute is one of the top 5 colleges in Britain. When I was in middle school and secondary school we had discos.
Not to mention head of subjects, heads of departments, pastoral managers (in charge of health and wellbeing) the nurse, sixth form, college, prom, houses, uniform, seagulls and ages for different schools.
In Scotland it's different also we have guidents teachers
I’m in a uk school and we have to wear school uniforms I’m pretty sure public American schools allow you to wear what you want as long as it’s sensible
interesting for me as British schools have changed so much: we were 50 to a class, no counselling or nothing, we had to play and do PE outdoors even in rain and sometimes snow, we had nothing to drink all day except some water at lunch time, bullying was considered nature taking its course, not adult business, we did hours of dictation and copying off the blackboard it was so boring such a nightmare, that's my main memory of school, dying of boredom copying things off the blackboard. Stuff like maths we had to copy out the questions longhand, no numbers write them in letters, then the answer the same. German: copy out the questions off the photocopied sheet, write the answers. Lots of that during class. 1980s. My first year boys and girls had segregated playgrounds. Girls didn't play football just netball. Morning started with 2 hours of maths, but done by copying out of the textbook. 3-4 PE lessons of 2 hours a week, always team sports, i always got chosen last. They didn't test or diagnose you for anything, until you went to secondary school, that's when they found i had hearing problems and couldn't see the blackboard! Just nits. Now it's autism, social services, all sorts of tests. On the other hand, no knives at school, scared of teacher - stood up when they came in, silence when told, but very violent at the secondary school, lots of beating up, often see blood on the walls, but hidden from teachers. Everyone smoking on the school bus cos it was legal at 15, they just claimed to be 15, bus driver didn't care, would drive off early sometimes you'd be left at the school. Boys always trying to pull girls' skirts down etc, lots of sexual assault as i now know it's called, girls had to wear skirts no choice.
That's if the school has a sixth form. Something that wasn't explained here is that secondary school starts at age 11 and finishes age 16, (don't ask me the grades) after which the students can either go to a vocational college or a sixth from college which is two years and sometimes though not always an extension of the secondary school.
I live in the U.K. ( I'm year 10 ) and we had school counsellors who come in to our school on different days. To be able to talk to one of these counsellors you can ask them yourself or get referred from your teachers or parents. But everything in 100% confidential ( unless it is putting someone in danger ). I have only started receiving counselling one month ago and it is already benefiting me, and I can see a definite difference in my school work because of my stress and anxiety being reduced.
+Evie Church Evie, thank you for watching and offering feedback. I hope the counselling continues to benefit you. As a former assistant principal in the US, I know many children reach out to receive advice and assistance from trained professionals in schools and the rewards are substantial. School is certainly stressful on both sides of the pond. All th best to you!
Sunny London thank you very much!
Not everyone has 3 deputies. Not every school has a sixth form. Some schools are sixth form colleges only.
When you are in University you will mostly have the One subject you learn and then join societies to learn other skills, whereas in america you choose one Major course and then minor courses. I am learning Media and have only been doing media for the past three years, I only go in for my lectures and then go back to where I live, I mostly go in 2 or 3 days a week.
I’m my secondary school each year has a pastoral manager which is basically someone who will sort out arguments and year trips and stuff like that and the head of year will deal with all the important stuff (I think)
In the uk, if you have family problems, a disability, financial problems etc, the students gets put down as pupil premium what they basically do is give free equipment e.g pencil case, notebooks, and stationary etc, they also pay for school trips so you get it free and they pay for school meals. There is a person that runs it and you could talk to them like a guidance counsellor about any problems or worries and they would sort it out. This could be from giving advice to getting more useful textbooks. Hopefully that's helpful I don't think that it has it in every school.
A guidance counselor in the UK is just a councilor idk if everyone has them but we do you can go see one if you want to chat and we also have VT or Vortical tutoring which is when all years are put in mixed groups, we have a VT teacher and you will remain in that group with that teacher until you go to sixth form its like a family inside of school
In the uk the head of the year group will sort out bullying, family problems and bad behaviour from students ,while also teaching a class
Assemblies in the UK do involve chairs. Primary schools may not have chairs, but secondary schools do.
Thank you for the feedback. I have only been to two primary schools but nearly 25 secondary. More than half the secondary (including independent schools) had students sitting in the floor.
From my recent experiences as a student who didn't meet their desired grades on 'RESULTS DAY', they are entered into a system called clearing (run by UCAS). This is where students go to find their preferred course at universities that have spaces left. You then call the university, tell them your grades, and then a representative will either reject you or accept you with a verbal offer. E.g. I recently didn't get into my first choice uni, so I was eligible for clearing, so I rang up different unis to see if they would accept me with my grades. I had multiple offers from different unis, so then it's a matter of what uni you prefer. Literally all students will find a place at uni, however some students may use the gap year to redo their exams to get in to a better uni or others don't go.
Thank you for such a thorough comment. Best of luck to you this year at uni!
i'm from the uk, my school has a therapist, a guidance counsellor and a careers counsellor
the waiting to find out about uni thing is hell. And stupid. In my day, there were no retakes, if you failed that was it, for life. And it was on paper, so the first university you chose got your application pretty early, but of the five, the last 2 got it too late as each one decided (ie left it on a shelf for a month or 2) then sent it on to the next one, so the last one got there really late, too late. We had religious assembleys with prayers each morning, sitting on the floor. No guidance teachers, teachers were to obey, not guide or counsel. No proms etc. We didn't have 'year 2' etc, we had 'i'm in first year of primary/secondary' etc. I think middle school and your uni thing are very civilised. Lots of secondary school violence, including massive whole-school-gang fights. But no knives (we did have knives, we just didn't run round with them), so no deaths. Oddly, as it was violent period, and men who went out friday and saturday to get drunk and fight were perfectly normal, socially-acceptable men. Rough, not everyone's type, some would avoid, but it was the era of football hooligans, it wasn't weird, just extreme.
I cant believe that US kids get 12 weeks in the summer, but i prefer how it is in the UK because when you leave in year 11 (last year of secondary school before sixthform/college) you get a longer break
A big difference is with sports, a lot less people care about sports teams, definitely don’t get crowds coming to watch and hardly ever will you get into a uni just because you’re on the football team, and no such thing as jocks
Wrong in secondary school it goes up to year 11 but if your going on about collage then in collage u can spend 2-4 years there and then go to uni (uk)
Results day is hell. Right after the exams most people are pretty confident with there scores. But as results day gets nearer self doubt and despair start to kick in.
We're Americans in London and all four of our children are in British state schools, for about a year and half now. The older three are in a local secondary school (coed), and from what I can tell, the equivalent of a high school counselor is called "pastoral care," in which school staff work in that office and offer guidance in social and career path issues.
Our schools in the UK also rely heavily on weekly online newsletters and email for communication with parents. In contrast to our experience in American schools, where teachers often share their school email address for direct communication between parents and teachers, the British schools filter all emails from the outside (including parents), so you don't really have a direct line to individual teachers. You email the school your specific question and they get it to the appropriate person. For all of my children, they have a physical paperback "school diary" that serves as the primary communication tool between home and school. It worked the same in the schools we attended in the U.S., but they called them "agendas" or "communication folders." You can write notes, sign off on reading, etc.
Great blog and video post to help understand basic differences! And Sammy Girl's points about school assemblies definitely match our kids' experiences here in their British schools.
Beth Kriebel wow! Great to 'meet' you. Thank you for providing such an informative comment. I agree with the Pastoral care component matching guidance counselor but here it seems to be one person for the whole school, rather than assignments by last name in smaller groups in the US. I completely forgot about the assignment books here both in my blog post a few years ago and in the video. They are so sacred in the U.K.! I don't have children so my experience has. Even through employment in both systems. What advice about the U.K. System would you give American parents moving to London that you wish you had known?
Uni applications are often done through a clearing house.
Sort of. It's like someone's tried to explain it to her and she's using that to explain it to other people. Formally University is still called University, people may refer to it as "Uni" colloquially but all formal documents will need you to put University. Secondly the system is computerised and done through UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admission Services) where you send them your personal details (name, age, adress), personal statement, your AS grades and predicted grades. You choose 5 universities and courses at those universities to apply to through UCAS. If you apply for Medicine/Dentistry anywhere or you want to go to Oxford/Cambridge your application needs to be in by the middle of October and if not by the end of January. You can hear back within days (one of my 5 I heard back from within 3 days with an offer) but you have to heard back by the middle of March. The university doesn't have to give you an offer (again one of mine rejected me) but most of the time they will. You then have a couple of weeks to decide which one you want to have as your firm choice (where you go if you get the grades on the offer they gave you (and even sometimes if you just miss it)) and one as your insurence choice (typically one with lower grades on the offer to act as a back up in case you don't get your firm choice) and let UCAS know by completing it online. Then in the summer you sit your exams (late May to the end of June) and results day is on a Thursday in August (typically the second Thrusday). Some people do that jump photo thing but nobody I know did one or even thought of doing one. If you can't attend the Results Day you can ask for them to send your results to your house or designate a person to collect them for you (a parent or other relative). If you don't get into either of your choices you go into clearing where universities list what courses they still have places on and any requirements for prospective students (a history course would likely want a history A-level). You look for one that you are intrested in applying to and phone them in order to see if they will accept you and that repeats until you have a university to go to.
Most people also have to apply for student finance so that you can pay tuition and have some money for travel and other expenses.
This information is not complete because I got my firm choice and it might not be up to date because I went through this process a few years ago.
Edit: Yeah. It's not heavy to have that many people. I went to a school/sixth form where the Head Master/Principal was also looking after two other schools (he was good at taking underprofming schools and bringing them upto standards) so he was there maybe 1 or 2 days a week. We had a Deputy Head. The SLT are usually there as to people with more authority (only they could expell you for example) but did little if they didn't have other duties. Most of the SLT were Heads of Year (the people who would be in charge of the each year group). We had a Head of Sixth Form. The thing is your Head of Year would know you better and would be easier to talk to then the Head or Deputy Head. They would also be likely to drop in on classes and check on people who needed it (if they had previously gone to the HoY with an issue or had underprofmed across the board) to make sure everything was going okay. We also had Tutors of each form (we were set by SATs scores or other test results and had Maths, English and Science as that set for the first few years) who kept day to day administration like telling us things we needed to know and who we would tell if we had a pre planned absence (if you were going to be late because you had a doctor's appointment for example). Also they were all typically teachers in their own right sometimes even head of the department (my year 13 tutor was also Head of English aswell as an English Teacher and my Sixth Form Head of Year was both a Psychology and English Teacher). It's not excessive to have a teacher (the tutor) for 10-30 students (the lower set classes had less people so they could have more one on one time) and then a Teacher (Head of Year) for 5-6 classes (typically around 120 students). And then because Heads of Year were SLT, the Deputy Head and then Head.
Assemblies was a mess. Primary schools have them every day and sit on the floor during them. Secondary schools have them once a week (per year group, year 7 will have an assembly on a Monday, year 8 on a Tuesday and so on with year 12 and 13 not having them unless needed) and sit on chairs. The other years will sit in their Tutor's classrooms and get told the things they need to know and maybe do some work.
What do you mean guarded? Seriously, schools will let parents know then and there if they have a problem with their child if it's serious and if not it's upto the child to tell the parents. For example at my secondary we had very strict rules on mobiles and if you got yours taken from you by the teacher, you had to tell your parents.
Does anyone know what it's like applying to an American school if you started of in the Irish school system
We do have guidance teachers in secondary school which I suspect is similar to councillors
For someone who has supposedly taught students in the uk you should of known that students apply via UCAS to universities.
I said I have been to numerous schools and worked at them. That doesn’t necessarily mean I taught, nor does it mean it was all at the secondary level. You’ve watched quite a few of my videos and left very harsh feedback on them all. Curious why you’re spending so much time on them if you have such a difference of opinion.
So if you finish high school in the US and you want to be a teacher in the UK does that mean you go to college in the UK or a university?
you can get a counselor in college but you have to actively seek them out
In elementary school we sat on the floor of the cafeteria for assemblies because we didn't have an auditorium.
This is not the British system it’s the English system in Scotland it’s very, very different. I’m not sure about England but in Scotland we have guidance teachers that serve as heads of houses and deal with behaviour and issues. If behaviour does not improve it’s referred to head of year.
I think the taking time off thing in US is based on what school you want to go to. If you are going to a University or non-community college, you can't take time off because right after the application and exam process you are expected to go right after in the fall, otherwise from what I see, you would have to go to community college and then transfer. My friend took one year off and I took 2 years off. She goes to a community college and I am going to a vocational college. Upon going, we just went back to our high school and got the needed papers, you bring your diploma and other needed info and that was it.
Your talking about English and American, because Scottish schools are way different. For example Year 13 England is S1 in Scotland
Instead of A guidance counselor, we have student managers or pastoral hubs which do the exact same thing
I have heard people talking about "A Levels". What is that? Are there other Levels? I have also heard people say: "I am reading in....". What does that mean?
Form tutors at my school are basically guidance counsellors but also heads of year
I go to a secondary school and the closest person to each pupil is the form tutor. Form is a class of all different years (year 7-year 12) in the same house and it's a time to socialise for 20 minutes. Every form has a form tutor who is the teacher who will get to know you best. You will be with the same form tutor throughout school. You can talk to them about family problems, health problems, friends, feelings and just a chat in general.
😌
Also British learning is more strict (in my opinion) in the us from vids and movies I have seen the kids are quiet for the teacher when there talking then there more chill when they do the work and are sometimes allowed to talk and maybe go on their phones? Correct me if I'm wrong?
homecoming is basically our prom you wouldn't get that it in primary schools often but in secondary and sixth form you can get it
+Hsusu Shhsushs homecoming is a full week of activities that have a football game and a dance.
Homecoming is in the fall and Prom is in the spring in the US. :) and homecoming is dedicated to our football team. We usually have a football game at home on a Friday and then that Saturday night we have homecoming ❤️
nursery
reception
primary school 7-12
secondary school (high school) 12-16
sixth form/college 16-18
university 18-21
and only primary school students sit on the floor when your in year 6 you sit on benches or chairs.
Over half the schools where I have been have all students except Sixth Form on the floor. Thank you for watching and adding the breakdown of ages to schools.
I think the closest us brits have to homecoming is reunions. Except it’s just your year or class. And it never takes place in the school. Most brits have minimal attachment to their school
The equivalent to a guidance councillor in the uk is a tutor wich you go to before you first kesson
school in the uk is also the same as the us it depends where you live to which school you go to its called a catchment area
We use chairs.
We have tutors for pastoral care.
Our schools are nothing like Hogwarts
Gap Years can also take place whilst being at Uni, eg between your first and second year.
We don't have metal detectors or massive security in our schools.
In the U.K. we typically have form tutors that are there to help with things like us guidance counsellors but we also have heads of houses, councillors and careers advisors at my school and year eleven buddy up with year sevens that need more hepl
+Grace Clarke thank you for watching and leaving ideas. Sounds like you are in a lovely school with great pastoral care.
This is a English not a British guide to schools. The system is quite different in Scotland.
Here in scotland we go to the school that is near us unless its private. We also get our results in the post
UK Seniors are year 13? Here in the US we have seniors at year 12 (kindergarten obviously not counting as 1st grade)
As a British student I can confirm that you don't have to take an entry exam to get into about 80-95% of schools in the UK, really the only schools that do that are Harrow and a few other private/boarding schools
You get a pastoral care teacher like that in uk high school they can also teach other classes like math or music they and very like a guidance counsellor
Only sit on floor in primary school (1st and second grade)