Question:
British schools are divided into Public Schools (fee-paying) and State Schools (free). One can also be "privately educated", i.e. not go to school at all. If one's rich and aristocratic one hires one's own tutors and governesses :-) - if one's not and doesn't approve of the school system one can be taught by one's parents (there are some formalities to follow in that case). The state schools transfer from junior to senior school at 11, the public schools at 13.
I can only comment on how my (boarding) school was organised. On entry at 13 one went into the "third form" or the "fourth form". They were three of each, sorted by ability (and previous education): 4A > 4B > 4C, 3A > 3B > 3C. After a year we were resorted into 5A, 5B, 5C - 3A/B/C went up into 4X/Y/Z and then 5X/Y/Z. We were taught in forms by the same "form master" for the basic subjects: latin, english, religion, greek (for those that took it) and by specialist teachers for PE, music, art. For all other subjects (modern languages, sciences, maths, history, geography, etc) one was "setted", i.e. sorted by ability in those subjects. There was a lot of running around between lessons with the pupils going to the masters. O levels were normally taken in the fifth form, i.e. at age 15 or 16 depending on where one started, except that as I said I had to wait until I was 16 because the DoE enforced an age limit for a couple of years.
Is it right? What is your comments or opinions???
Answer:
It was interesting to browse through the Clifton College web site and see the beautiful buildings and grounds. of course, had education here going back to the 11th century and beyond, but I think those teepees have been lost to antiquity.
There are a couple more branches to our educational system that I have not mentioned yet. They are community, or junior college systems and our adult education system.
Community colleges serve sort of a dual purpose. 1) they are inexpensive and can be used as a stepping stone to further higher education at a college or university. Community colleges typically offer a two year degree (AA -- Associate of Arts) and usually offer the sorts of classes one would take at a university for the basic educational requirements I mentioned previously. 2) they are for use by the community, so if one had no college education and wanted to take a course on History or learn to play Tennis, one could enroll for those courses only. There are probably some jobs that require an AA degree and so some would pursue this course of study for 2 years. These colleges are local with one or more in each state county.
Adult Education is very different and probably the least formal of them all. There is no degree to be obtained -- only specific classes. So one might take a course on Preparing 2003 taxes, Japanese Cooking, Preparation to take the Real Estate License etc. The instructor may not have any formal education or certificate, but has some sort of expertise with the subject. Minimal fees may be charged for each course.
