For example, there's secondary school, is it the same thing as high school? I kind of want to know since some of my friends there go to secondary school. I never actually got the chance to ask them. haha.
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It's surprising how many people ask this sort of thing... Secondary school is the sort of thing as an American High School, but at the same time very different. The most important differences are these: 1. Qualifictions & Specialisations. In the US you finish High School at 18 with a diploma, having taken SATs and for the clever ones APs. In the UK, secondary school proper finishes at 16 with GCSEs. A General Certificate of Secondary Education is an externally assessed qualifcation in a specific subject - like history or mathematics. It's assessed by formal exams and coursework (though the amount of coursework is now being reduced due to cheating). Students choose their GCSE options (beyond the compulsory subjects) at 14. It's the first significant choice they're allowed to make about their education. Typically there aren't many options due to the amount of subjects which are compulsory. Most students will get about 9 GCSEs with a grad of A* to C. Anything below a C is more or less worthless. High achievers will probably do 12 or more and get mostly A* or A. After 16 students can leave education, or take vocational qualifcations or A levels. A levels are the usual route. Usually secondary schools have a "sixth form" attached to them in which A levels are taught, but there are also "college of further education" which are separate from schools. A levels are academic qualifications in a specifc subject, also formally assessed and they take 2 years. Usually students start 4 subjects in the 1st year, and drop one, finishing with 3 full Alevels and 1 "AS" level. Many university offers of admission are conditional upon getting A level results of a certain level. 2. Assessment. Students are very heavily assessed in the UK - there are SATs (not important they way "SATs" are in the US) at 13 GCSEs at 16, AS levels at 17 and A levels at 18, in addition to the various mock tests that teachers run before each major test. 3. Differences in attitude. American schools often have various awards for student for everything from attendance to academic and sporting achieve. This isn't nearly so prevelant in the UK. There also seems to be a much greater emphasis on sporting achievement in the US - partly because of scholarships to universities based on sporting achievement. In the UK scholarships of any sort at university level are rare because the way universities are organised and paid for. 4. Cultural differences. There are a surprising number of denominational state schools. In some cases this is nominal (church of England schools are usually in fact open to all and make no serious enquiries about whether parents are practicing or even religious in anyway), but in others there is a real difference in admission limitations and education delivery (still within the national curiculum). There are also schools with small (by US standards) numbers of pupils, particularly in low population areas. Another substantial difference (for students at least) is that secondary schools have school uniforms (though FE colleges at 16-18 do not). It is also unheard of for schools to regularly have a police presence on site as I've heard is the case in some areas in the US. 5. Vocational Education. As well as academics GCSEs and A level, there are a host of "vocational" qualifications which are intended to prepare people for work rather than university. These include GNVQs (replacing 4 GCSEs), B-TECHs, HNDs, City & Guilds exams and so on.
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