Education in Great Britain

The present UK education system consists of daycare programs (for babies and toddlers); a 1-year "pre-school" (for 6 year olds), a 6 year primary school (starting at age 7 and ending at the age 12) and a 5 year secondary school (age 12-16). After secondary education in a comprehensive school, students at the age of 16 may choose to continue their secondary education in either an academic track or a vocational track, both of which usually take 3 years and give a qualification to continue to tertiary education. Britain learns progressive education-styled education. There are 3 terms per school year: The summer school holiday period is 10 weeks from the end of June until the 2nd week of September.
 * 1) First term begins in the 2nd week of September and continues for 15 weeks, ending in mid-December, excluding a 1 week mid-term break in the end of October.
 * 2) Second term begins in the 2nd week of January and continues for 11 weeks, ending at the end of March, excluding a 1 week mid-term break in the end of the February.
 * 3) Third term begins mid-April and continues for 11 weeks until the end of June.

Nursey/pre-school
High quality daycare and nursery-kindergarten are considered critical for developing the cooperation and communication skills necessary to prepare young children for lifelong education, as well as formal learning of reading and mathematics. This preparatory period lasts until the age of 7. To foster a culture of reading, parents of newborn babies are given three books, 1 for each parent, and a baby book for the child, as part of the "maternity package".

The UK has access to daycare centres for children aged 8 months to 5 years in place, and a year of preschool at age 6. Daycare includes both full-day childcare centres and municipal playgrounds with adult supervision where parents can accompany the child. Mothers can stay at home and provide "home daycare" for the first 3 years, if she desires. In some cases this includes occasional visits from a careworker to see that the environment is appropriate.

In pre-school, young children will be given more opportunities to gain first hand experiences through play and active involvement rather than by completing exercises in books.

Primary Education
They will be given time to develop their speaking and listening skills and to become confident in their reading and writing abilities. Mathematics will be more practical so that children can see how problems are solved and how important mathematics is in their everyday lives. There will be more emphasis on children understanding how things work and on finding different ways to solve problems. The curriculum will focus on experiential learning, active involvement and developing each child’s: There are no tests and they don’t measure them at all for the first six years of their education.
 * 1) Skills and understanding
 * 2) Moral Education (teaching of children in a manner that will help them develop variously as moral, civic, good-mannered, behaved, non-bullying, healthy, critical, successful, traditional, compliant/socially acceptable beings)
 * 3) Positive attitudes to learning so that they enjoy it and want to continue
 * 4) Self-esteem and self-confidence to experiment, investigate, learn new things and form new relationships
 * 5) Creative, expressive and observational skills to encourage their development as individuals with different ways of responding to experiences
 * 6) Activities in the outdoors where they have first-hand experience of solving real-life problems and learn about conservation and sustainability

Secondary education
Teachers, who are fully unionized, follow state curriculum guidelines but are accorded a great deal of autonomy as to methods of instruction and are even allowed to choose their own textbooks. Classes are small, rarely more than twenty pupils. Inside the school, the atmosphere is relaxed and informal, and the buildings are clean and tidy. Outdoor activities are encouraged and homework is minimal. Reading for pleasure is actively encouraged. Television stations show foreign programs in the original languages with subtitles, so that children even read while watching TV. All students in primary and second school have no formal tests and exams.

Comprehensive School starts at 10am and finish at 4pm, schools do not open before 9pm. Comprehensive school students enjoy a number of social entitlements, such as school health care and a free lunch everyday, which covers about a third of the daily nutritional need. In addition, pupils are entitled to receive free books & materials and free school trips. There are 4 classes which will last for 50 minutes with 15 minute break for each period.

Tertiary education
Students normally enter higher education (HE) from 18 onwards. There are no tuition fees. The typical first degree offered is the Bachelor's degree/Master’s degree.

All universities provide professional degrees. They have additional requirements in addition to merely completing the studies, such as demonstrations of competence in practice. An example of such a degree is Bachelor of Medicine is allowed to conduct clinical work under the supervision of senior medical staff.

Teacher
Both primary and secondary teachers must have a master's degree to qualify. Teaching is a respected profession and entrance to university programs is highly competitive. A prospective teacher must have very good grades and must combat fierce opposition in order to become a teacher. Only about 10% of applicants to certain programs are successful. The respect accorded to the profession and the higher salaries than the OECD average lead to higher performing and larger numbers applying for the positions, and this is reflected in the quality of teachers in the UK.

All teaching methods use progressive education, which is:
 * 1) Emphasis on learning by doing – hands-on projects, expeditionary learning, experiential learning
 * 2) Integrated curriculum focused on thematic units
 * 3) Integration of entrepreneurship into education
 * 4) Strong emphasis on problem solving and critical thinking
 * 5) Group work and development of social skills
 * 6) Understanding and action as the goals of learning as opposed to rote knowledge
 * 7) Collaborative and cooperative learning projects
 * 8) Education for social responsibility and democracy
 * 9) Highly personalized education accounting for each individual's personal goals
 * 10) Integration of community service and service learning projects into the daily curriculum
 * 11) Selection of subject content by looking forward to ask what skills will be needed in future society
 * 12) Less use on textbooks in favour of varied learning resources
 * 13) Emphasis on lifelong learning and social skills
 * 14) Assessment by evaluation of child’s projects and productions
 * 15) Maths classes don’t have a theory called pure maths, there is no focus on calculations, solving algebraic equations or factoring complex equations, they are taught more practical skills and ways of thinking about and learning mathematics. The students must read the problem, assess the situation, and figure out the answer. They are treated more like adults than children for more real life experiences from which to pull to problem solve. They have been given independence at a young age and have therefore figured out how to deal with real-life issues and problems on their own. They are not spoon-fed them all of the answers. They have learned how to read through a problem, think it through logically and actually attempt to find an answer before they give up.
 * 16) Physics is actually applied mathematics. The students can see how math is being used, applied and how it is relevant to the actual physical world in which they live.