What's school like?

Can someone shed some light on what primary school is like here, like in comparison to school back in the US? It's still a while till my kiddo starts school here, I think, but I am curious! When I talk about school with my husband it just seems like it's a completely different process! Report cards, semesters, even how long we go to school. I've asked neighbours but I think you have to have a knowledge of what school is like back home, to be able to tell me what's so different about it here lol!

Well, I'm British and haven't gone to primary/elementary school in the US, but I have American cousins who have been through it in recent years (they're now teenagers). Also, my dad is a peripatetic music teacher and so he works in various primary schools.

It's been 23 years since I left UK primary school so it may have changed, but I'll have a go, at least from what I remember of it:

- you start school in the year you turn 5. My birthday is at the end of May so I started when I was 4 years and 3 months old. My brothers were born in early August and early October, so they were 4 years and 3 weeks, and 4 years and 11 months respectively, when they started primary school.

- school years are determined by age, not by ability. So, unless there's a serious need to keep a child back or move them up a year, everyone in the same class will be the same age (I only know of 2 kids in my 7 years of primary school who were held back).

- normally, you're eased into primary school, so you start off just going to school in the mornings, then just in the afternoons, and finally for a whole day

- the school day is usually about 8:45 or 9 am to around 3:00 to 3.30 pm, though it does differ by school

- the school year is split into 3 long 'terms' (although I think they technically call it 6 short terms now):
Autumn term = Early September to mid-December, with about a week off for 'half-term' at the end of October
Christmas Holidays = 2 weeks off
Spring Term = Early January to Easter, with a week off for half-term in mid-February
Easter Holidays = 2 weeks off (Easter is either the middle weekend or at one end of the 2 weeks, depending on when it falls each year)
Summer Term = After Easter to late-July, with a week off for half-term at the end of May (my birthday was ALWAYS in half-term)
Summer holidays = 5-6 weeks off

- primary school is split into 'key stages':
1) Key Stage 0 - Pre-school and Reception class (age 3-5) but only the second year (Reception) is compulsory
2) Key Stage 1 - Year 1 and Year 2 (age 5-7)... SATs tests in English and Maths are taken at age 7
3) Key Stage 2 - Year 3-Year 6 (age 7-11)... SATs tests English and Maths are taken at age 11
(see here for some SATs info/past test papers: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum-assessments-practice-materials)

- there are no report cards (that I know of)
- there are no cumulative grades (or any grades at all)
- when I was in primary school we had no homework at all for the entire 7 years... I don't think this is the case anymore though, because I remember my youngest brother getting some homework (I was in primary school 1987-1994, he was in primary school 1995-2002)

- I don't recall ever having a fixed 'schedule' as such - our teacher would just announce when we were doing certain subjects. So we didn't have set 'periods' for each subject and we stayed in the same classroom all day, with the same teacher for all subjects, except maybe for music and drama (not sure if this happens in US elementary schools or not)
I've just found this 'typical primary school day' example on a Hereford school website: http://www.shobdon.hereford.sch.uk/a-typical-day/

Hope some of this helps .

Hopefully someone can shed a bit more light on the tests, but I believe some test scores are done towards the end of primary that determine which secondary school you get into?

Also a big thing in the news here is that the parents can be fined if you take your kid out of school and have an unauthorised absence.  There is a lot of complaints over it as holiday prices go up a lot during breaks.

Hopefully someone can shed a bit more light on the tests, but I believe some test scores are done towards the end of primary that determine which secondary school you get into?

There's the 'eleven plus' exam (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleven-plus), but that's really only for grammar schools/schools that use academic selection for admissions - it was originally introduced in the 1940s to determine whether you should go to a grammar, comprehensive or technical school. I only know a couple of kids who took the eleven-plus because 33 of the 36 kids in my primary school class went to comprehensive secondary schools and we didn't need to take it (I started prepping for it because my parents were thinking of sending me to private school, but then we decided against it and I went to a local comprehensive instead).

Other than that, there's the SATs tests/exams at age 7 and 11 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Curriculum_assessment), though I'm not sure if they have any bearing on what secondary school you go to - they weren't introduced until after I left primary school

Can someone shed some light on what primary school is like here, like in comparison to school back in the US? It's still a while till my kiddo starts school here, I think, but I am curious! When I talk about school with my husband it just seems like it's a completely different process! Report cards, semesters, even how long we go to school. I've asked neighbours but I think you have to have a knowledge of what school is like back home, to be able to tell me what's so different about it here lol!

Our daughter is 5 and we just moved this summer so I had been doing all the legwork to enroll in Kindy this fall but life changes and now she is starting here in the UK instead. Here's what I can say in addition to what others have written:

Whereas many kids in the US do a private pre-k program at age 4, kids here do "reception" as part of primary school at age 4. So everyone is applying for their primary school a year earlier than most US kids. As far as curriculum and day-to-day activity, Reception seems to be almost identical to a standard Pre-K program, which I know is going to vary by state. The only difference we noticed (coming from MN) is they start a phonics program in reception. A friend said reception is not actually mandatory but most families choose to do it.

The other big thing I noticed is that where we live in London while there are loads of schools to pick from they don't vary all that much in what they offer. When I was looking at public school choices in MN we could pick from just as many options but they were all different--Spanish/french immersion vs. Montessori vs. magnet schools, for example. It actually made it easier to pick a school here because we just toured the ones nearest us and requested those.

I'm not sure what is specific to the schools we looked at and what's done nationally but the classes don't mix up the kids each year. Our daughter's class will be the same a for a few years but it sounds like the classes in each grade interact a lot more than compared to what I know of in the US.

I can add a few things:
In my experience, classes don't change from year to year which can be a problem if your kid doesn't have friends in that group.  Even worse is when your kid is bullied, it can last for 7 years. 

I think there is a common criticism of UK schools that they start teaching reading and spelling very early, far earlier than other European countries. 

Over the entire school experience, I have been struck by how obsessed teachers are with estimating progress and then judging wether the kids have reached that estimate.  Parent teacher conferences are like reading a spreadsheet: "last year it was estimated that Johnny would reach 5c, this year he has reached 6d" with no explanation of wether that is good or not.  Frankly, I don't care what someone has predicted for the future, I care about where my kid is now. 

Also with schools overall, the grading systems are baffling and changing constantly.  Last year, they kept the scale (A to F for example) but changed the meaning of each grade.  All of a sudden, Fs were good!    Parents universally freaked out when their kids brought home report cards showing backwards progress. 

Now that I am ranting, there is also this bizarre attitude that no one is supposed to get a perfect grade.  In America, it's common to get %100 on a test if you have mastered the subject.  Here, 16 out of 20 is seen as excellent.  Sounds like a crappy result to me, but apparently there is a cultural thing where no one can get a perfect score.  I don't know if they put questions that weren't covered in class, or what they do. 

It must be really hard for my kids because they are constantly coming up to me and proudly announcing they got 12 out of 20 on some test, or achieved 3G when they were expected to achieve 54 and I can't be excited because none of it makes any sense.

Oh my gosh, in uni when I got my first mark back I had to leave the room and cry in the bathroom.  I thought a 62 was failing.  It turns out it's actually fine.  Of course if you start school as a kid here you get used to it, so hopefully it's only crazy sounding to parents from the US rather than the kids too.

Well, I'm British and haven't gone to primary/elementary school in the US, but I have American cousins who have been through it in recent years (they're now teenagers). Also, my dad is a peripatetic music teacher and so he works in various primary schools.

It's been 23 years since I left UK primary school so it may have changed, but I'll have a go, at least from what I remember of it:

- you start school in the year you turn 5. My birthday is at the end of May so I started when I was 4 years and 3 months old. My brothers were born in early August and early October, so they were 4 years and 3 weeks, and 4 years and 11 months respectively, when they started primary school.

- school years are determined by age, not by ability. So, unless there's a serious need to keep a child back or move them up a year, everyone in the same class will be the same age (I only know of 2 kids in my 7 years of primary school who were held back).

- normally, you're eased into primary school, so you start off just going to school in the mornings, then just in the afternoons, and finally for a whole day

- the school day is usually about 8:45 or 9 am to around 3:00 to 3.30 pm, though it does differ by school

- the school year is split into 3 long 'terms' (although I think they technically call it 6 short terms now):
Autumn term = Early September to mid-December, with about a week off for 'half-term' at the end of October
Christmas Holidays = 2 weeks off
Spring Term = Early January to Easter, with a week off for half-term in mid-February
Easter Holidays = 2 weeks off (Easter is either the middle weekend or at one end of the 2 weeks, depending on when it falls each year)
Summer Term = After Easter to late-July, with a week off for half-term at the end of May (my birthday was ALWAYS in half-term)
Summer holidays = 5-6 weeks off

- primary school is split into 'key stages':
1) Key Stage 0 - Pre-school and Reception class (age 3-5) but only the second year (Reception) is compulsory
2) Key Stage 1 - Year 1 and Year 2 (age 5-7)... SATs tests in English and Maths are taken at age 7
3) Key Stage 2 - Year 3-Year 6 (age 7-11)... SATs tests English and Maths are taken at age 11
(see here for some SATs info/past test papers: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum-assessments-practice-materials)

- there are no report cards (that I know of)
- there are no cumulative grades (or any grades at all)
- when I was in primary school we had no homework at all for the entire 7 years... I don't think this is the case anymore though, because I remember my youngest brother getting some homework (I was in primary school 1987-1994, he was in primary school 1995-2002)

- I don't recall ever having a fixed 'schedule' as such - our teacher would just announce when we were doing certain subjects. So we didn't have set 'periods' for each subject and we stayed in the same classroom all day, with the same teacher for all subjects, except maybe for music and drama (not sure if this happens in US elementary schools or not)
I've just found this 'typical primary school day' example on a Hereford school website: http://www.shobdon.hereford.sch.uk/a-typical-day/

Hope some of this helps .

Will definitely take a look at those links! I went to school back early 2000s and did my husband and boy are our school experiences different. I thought he was joking when he talked about not doing his homework and not getting in trouble for it.  When I was in school, you definitely had homework and you definitely had to do it. Your grades would suffer terribly and sometimes teachers would send stuff home for your teachers to sign. You even had midterm 'progress reports' sent in the mail and your parents had to sign them. School was not a pleasant experience grades wise lol!

Now that I am ranting, there is also this bizarre attitude that no one is supposed to get a perfect grade.  In America, it's common to get %100 on a test if you have mastered the subject.  Here, 16 out of 20 is seen as excellent.  Sounds like a crappy result to me, but apparently there is a cultural thing where no one can get a perfect score.  I don't know if they put questions that weren't covered in class, or what they do. 

It must be really hard for my kids because they are constantly coming up to me and proudly announcing they got 12 out of 20 on some test, or achieved 3G when they were expected to achieve 54 and I can't be excited because none of it makes any sense.

I have employees taking accountancy exams for qualifications.  50% is a pass.  So a half-assed job is good enough...   

I have employees taking accountancy exams for qualifications.  50% is a pass.  So a half-assed job is good enough...   

It only takes about 70% to get an A* at Physics GCSE...

I am a secondary teacher. I've had one kid get 100% on one test. Ever. I've been teaching for 6ish years... I don't 'teach to the test' but I do cover the syllabus that I'm given. The tests are mostly about application so tend not to be standard 'recall.' I am still shocked at how low some of the results are!!!

Glad to hear that rant at least made some sense. 

Oh my gosh, in uni when I got my first mark back I had to leave the room and cry in the bathroom.  I thought a 62 was failing.  It turns out it's actually fine.  Of course if you start school as a kid here you get used to it, so hopefully it's only crazy sounding to parents from the US rather than the kids too.

It only takes about 70% to get an A* at Physics GCSE...

I am a secondary teacher. I've had one kid get 100% on one test. Ever. I've been teaching for 6ish years... I don't 'teach to the test' but I do cover the syllabus that I'm given. The tests are mostly about application so tend not to be standard 'recall.' I am still shocked at how low some of the results are!!!

When I studied abroad in the US for my third year of uni, they converted my grades to UK grades when I got back... I got between 56% and 66% for US grades that ranged from B- to A+.

I actually felt they were really harsh conversions because I'd worked so hard that year (harder than in the first 2 years of uni) and after years of struggling to understand Quantum Physics, it just clicked that year, yet the converted grades were lower than my first and second year UK grades . I was not happy because they cost me the chance of getting a First in my degree... those low grades meant I needed an average of 80% in my final year to get a First, which was never going to happen .

I think you need to know your path in life at about nine here. It seems to come from the aforementioned 11 plus tests where it was either grammar school and thus a civil service/banking career, or down the pit.

I think you need to know your path in life at about nine here. It seems to come from the aforementioned 11 plus tests where it was either grammar school and thus a civil service/banking career, or down the pit.

That's not very encouraging at all! I'm almost 30 and feel like I still haven't made up my mind what in the world I really want to do with myself hahaha (I've figured out what I DON'T want to do at least!)

That's not very encouraging at all! I'm almost 30 and feel like I still haven't made up my mind what in the world I really want to do with myself hahaha (I've figured out what I DON'T want to do at least!)

I've always wondered about those people who have a clear idea of what they want to do from an early age.  Like, how do they do that?  How do they settle on any one thing?  I would tell myself it's because they just embraced the thing that they got the most positive feedback for.  "I am really good at sums, but can't spell.  I will be an accountant!"  Or, "I have a good imagination for storytelling, but I don't know how to find X or why I would want to.  I will be a writer!"

But, then, what if you are able to do everything that was ever thrown at you?  How do you choose if your choices aren't limited by your capacity and you are interested in everything?

My answer was to just keep going to school 'til I achieved a terminal degree and then kind of floundered around.  But there must be a better way!  Surely there is a "best fit" career out there for me, and I just haven't found it yet.  Or maybe I'm just destined to make embossed tortilla presses in my workshop and sell them online.