EDUCATION IN THE UK
1) School life
The school day
The school day in the UK starts at 8.45 am or 9.00 am. Morning lessons finish at 12 noon. Afternoon lessons start at about 1.15 pm, and finish at 3.45 pm or 4.00 pm

 

Lunchtime
A lot of children stay at school for lunch.
Many children have “school dinners” in the school canteen. Hamburgers and chips are very popular! Other children take sandwiches. Some go home for lunch.

Getting to and from school.
Children who live  a long way from their school sometimes go there by “school bus”. The bus takes them to school in the morning, and it brings them home in the afternoon, at about 4.00 pm

Clubs

After school, many students go to their favourite “school club”. There are Chess Clubs, Stamp Collecting Clubs, Drama Clubs, Music Clubs…

Holidays
British children have short “half-term” holidays every term. They have three weeks’ holiday at Christmas, two or three weeks at Easter or in the spring, and six or seven weeks in the summer. The summer holidays usually start in the middle of July, and end at the beginning of September.

 

Lessons
In secondary schools, lessons last for fifty minutes.
In the morning, children study all kinds of subjects, for example English, mathematics, history, geography, science, French, design and technology, and comparative religion.

In the afternoon, many children do sport. There are traditional boys’ sports, such as football, rugby and cricket, and traditional girls’ sports, such as netball and hockey. But there are also other sports which are popular with girls and boys, for example, volleyball, basketball, tennis, swimming and gymnastics.

 

 

SCHOOL UNIFORMS

Dans la plupart des écoles britanniques, les élèves portent un uniforme. Pour les garçons : pantalons gris ou bleu marine, chemise et cravate aux couleurs de l’école. Pour les filles : jupe de couleur sombre (gris, brun, bleu marine, vert foncé), un chemisier blanc, un pullover de même couleur que la jupe. Tous portent un blazer.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS
Environ 6% des jeunes Britanniques fréquentent des écoles privées. Les plus célèbres, et surtout les plus anciennes, sont les « public schools » qui, en dépit de leur nom, sont des écoles privées, très coûteuses et réservées à une élite.
Eton, Rugby, Harrow et Winchester sont parmi les plus célèbres.
On y entre à l’âge de 13 ans après un examen d’entrée qui se prépare dans les « prep schools » (prepatory schools) où l’on entre à 7 ans. Presque toutes ces écoles sont des internats, mais tous les élèves ne sont pas des internes.

STATE SCHOOLS
L'enseignement public au Royaume-Uni:
Infant School (5-8 ans) > Junior School (8-11 ans) > Comprehensive (11-16) > Sixth form (16-18)

OU

First school (5-9) > Middle school (9-14) > Upper school (14-16) > Sixth form (16-18)

A 16 ans, on passe le GCSE et à 18 les A-Levels.

(extrait du manuel Apple Pie)