The first stages of education your child will receive will be Primary and Secondary, these are the years between ages 5 and 16, however, these years may soon be subject to change, by the year 2015, plans are in place to make primary and secondary school compulsory up to the age of 18. The school year tends to begin on the 1st of September, or the next week day available if the 1st falls on a weekend. You typically have two choices for education systems, one is ‘state funded' and the other is ‘private independent' schooling. State funded is as it sounds, it's funded by the state so completely free for the parent, small charges may apply for extracurricular activities your child may wish to be involved in such as swimming, theatre visits and other types of field trips. Private schooling requires payment from the parents and can cost anything from £2500 to £30000 annually; some private schools are single sex, however nowadays most private schools will cater for both sexes.
Whether you choose to go private or state funded, the curriculum is generally the same with some variation on what is taught.
Subjects are generally the same across the board, with schools teaching Art & Design, Citizenship, Design and Technology, Geography, History, Information and Communication Technology, Modern Foreign Languages, Music, Physical Education and Religious Studies, including of course the 3 main subjects – English, Maths and Science, which must be taken every year until the students leave.Once this section of education has been completed, students may then choose to go into further educations. Once the student has taken their GCSE examinations, they may be eligible to move on to college or sixth form (providing they gain the required results). This stage, like Primary and Secondary, can be state funded or independent.
During these years, students may learn about other subjects not typically taught in schools, such as Media Studies, Psychology, Law, Theatre Studies and a wide variety of other topics. Going to college or sixth form allows students to gain more advanced qualifications, allowing them into more complex jobs, or simply giving them the grades they need to transition into higher education once their 2 year course has been completed.
