'School Education' refers to the compulsory phases of education which the law requires children to attend: primary and secondary. The school education system in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland is divided into three stages:

			primary education, up to age eleven
			secondary education, up to age sixteen
			tertiary education, for those over the age of sixteen.

This page contains school education information on

			Funding and Management
			Structure and Curriculum
			Examinations and Assessment
			Quality Assurance

Funding                                                                                                                                         Back to Top

The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) in England, the National Assembly Training and Education Department (NATED) in Wales, the Scottish Executive Education Department (SEED) in Scotland and the Department of Education (DENI) in Northern Ireland dispense funding for education either directly or through other bodies such as Local Education Authorities (LEAs), agencies and funding councils. There are a variety of different sources of funding available to public-sector schools, as described below.

State Schools

• In England, Wales and Scotland, most schools are funded by their Local Education Authority and Education Authorities in Scotland respectively.
• Sixth form colleges in England are funded by the Learning and Skills Council and in Wales by the Further Education Funding Council for Wales (There are no separate sixth form colleges in Scotland).
• In Northern Ireland schools are largely financed from public funds through the Belfast Education and Library Board, the North Eastern Education and Library Board, the South Eastern Education and Library Board, the Southern Education and Library Board and the Western Education and Library Board.
• Specialist schools are state secondary schools in England that teach the full curriculum but focus on a specialist subject, eg arts, sports, languages, science and technology. There are more than 850 specialist schools like science or science and engineering colleges.

Independent Schools

• In the UK independent schools are financed by means of fees paid by parents or by donations and grants received from benefactors.

Management                                                                                                                                  Back to Top

State Schools: England and Wales

• All LEA-maintained schools manage their own budgets.
• LEAs allocate funds to schools based on a formula which is largely driven by pupil numbers.
• Each LEA-maintained school has a governing body comprising LEA appointed governors, elected teacher and parent governors, and people from the local community.
• The school governing body is responsible for overseeing spending and most aspects of staffing, including appointments and dismissals.

State Schools: Scotland

• Most state schools in Scotland receive funds from their local Education Authorities and have school boards which are made up of elected parents and staff members as well as others from the community served by the school.
• A small number of grant-aided schools, mainly in the special sector, are run by boards of managers who receive grants direct from central government.
• There is one self-governing school in Scotland which receives funding direct from central government.

State Schools: Northern Ireland

• Controlled schools, voluntary maintained schools and voluntary grammar schools are all largely financed from public funds and are managed by a governing body made up of elected teachers, parents and people from the local community.

Independent Schools

• Most independent schools have their own boards of governors and a bursar who is responsible for the school's finances. Any surplus income is used for the benefit of the school. The head is responsible to the governors but is usually given a free hand to appoint staff, admit pupils and take day-to-day decisions.
• Most of these schools in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are accredited by the Independent Schools Council (ISC) and in Scotland by the Scottish Council of Independent Schools (SCIS).

Structure                                                                                                                                      Back to Top

The structure of the education system in the UK has changed considerably over the recent years, reflecting successive governments' aims to improve quality, increase diversity and make institutions more accountable to students, parents, employers and taxpayers.

Primary Phase

• Pre-school education is available (often on a fee-paying basis) for children aged two to four/five through playgroups and nursery schools. The emphasis is on group work, creative activity and guided play.
• Compulsory education begins at five in England, Wales and Scotland and four in Northern Ireland.
• There is little or no specialist subject teaching and great emphasis on literacy and numeracy in early years.
• The usual age for transfer to secondary schools is eleven in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and twelve in Scotland.

Secondary Phase

• Compulsory education ends at age sixteen, though many pupils stay on beyond the minimum leaving age.
• About 90% of state secondary school pupils in England, Wales and Scotland go to comprehensive schools, which provide a wide range of secondary education for most children of all abilities from a district in the eleven to eighteen age range (twelve to eighteen in Scotland).
• At age sixteen pupils in England and Wales may transfer to sixth form colleges or tertiary colleges.
• In Northern Ireland and a few other areas of the UK, secondary education is selective with grammar and secondary modern schools.

Curriculum                                                                                                                                    Back to Top

In 1988 the National Curriculum was introduced into schools in England and Wales, making for a broader, more balanced and coherent schooling system. The curriculum sets out what pupils should study, what they should be taught and the standards that they should achieve.

The National Curriculum in England and Wales is divided into four Key Stages (KS), three core subjects (English, Mathematics and Science) and nine non-core foundation subjects. The Key Stages are age-related: KS 1 goes up to age seven, KS 2 from seven to eleven, KS 3 from eleven to fourteen (pre-GCSE) and KS 4 from fourteen to sixteen (preparation for GCSE and equivalent vocational qualifications).

In Scotland there is no legally prescribed national curriculum but the Scottish Executive Education Department sets out guidelines for teachers.

The curriculum in Northern Ireland is set by the Northern Ireland Council for Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment.

Examinations                                                                                                                               Back to Top

The most common age for pupils to transfer from state primary to state secondary schools in the UK is eleven. No form of examination has to be undertaken in order for them to do so. Entrance to independent secondary schools is by way of a Common Entrance Examination, taken at the ages of eleven, twelve or thirteen.

The British Council's Education UK website outlines the main categories of courses and qualifications in the UK, how they are structured and what is expected of students during their studies:

			GCSEs, A levels and other equivalents
			Career based qualifications
			English language courses

Assessment                                                                                                                                   Back to Top

England and Wales

The introduction of the National Curriculum allowed the implementation in England and Wales of Standard Assessment Tasks (SATs) which mean that pupils are assessed at various stages throughout their compulsory education. SATs are used as a form of national external testing, to complement teachers' own assessments and schools' internal tests and examinations.

• Towards the end of the first three Key Stages, when pupils are generally aged seven, eleven and fourteen respectively there is statutory assessment in language, maths and science through national tests/tasks and teacher assessment. Science is assessed through teacher assessment only at Key Stage 1. (In Wales, SATs have been abolished at Key Stage 1. Welsh is tested as a first language at Key Stage 2 while English is not compulsory at Key Stage 1 in Welsh speaking schools and classes).
• Results are published for each child, each school and the national averages for comparison purposes.
• At the end of Key Stage 4 (age sixteen), General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations are the principal means of assessment.
• A completely revised General Certificate of Education (GCE) Advanced (A) level has been introduced recently. Still taken after a further two years study (between age seventeen and nineteen), the new A level is based entirely on a modular approach in which candidates can take modules as they proceed through the course, rather than only being examined in a single session at the end of the course.
• All students now take the Advanced Subsidiary (AS) and then, where appropriate, proceed to the more challenging A2 to complete their A level.
• The new AS qualification represents the first half of the full A level and is designed to encourage take-up of more subjects in the first year of post-16 study.
• The second year of the full A level is called A2. A2 modules do not make up a qualification in their own right. Course work can contribute to the result. There is a coursework limit with a ceiling of 30% in most subjects for A levels. Like the old A levels, they are graded A-E.
• New Advanced Extension Awards (AEAs) have been developed which are designed to stretch the most able, based on revised special papers (S levels), available for first examination in summer 2002.
• Vocationally oriented qualifications are available in the form of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs), General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs) and Vocational A levels.

Scotland

• National tests in English (Reading and Writing) and Mathematics are designed to complement and confirm teachers' on-going assessments of pupils' progress in primary school and the first two years of secondary school. The tests comprise a large bank of materials at six levels of difficulty (A - F) from which teachers may request units of their choice at any time during the school year.
• Pupils may enter a range of public examinations for the Scottish Certificate of Education at standard and higher grades, it is common for pupils to take up to six subjects; they may also choose to study for vocationally oriented qualifications, eg Scottish Vocational Qualifications.

Northern Ireland

• There is statutory assessment at Key Stages 1 and 2 in English, mathematics and Irish (in Irish-medium schools), and at Key Stage 3 in English, mathematics and science (age of fourteen).
• Pupils study for the same range of public examinations as their counterparts in England and Wales.

Quality Assurance                                                                                                                      Back to Top

Raising the quality of education, and consequently the standards of achievement, is one of the Government's key aims. In order to ensure that this objective is attained, the UK operates a unique system of quality assurance which is open to public scrutiny.

England

The Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) is a non-ministerial government department which inspects and reports on the quality of education provided by state schools as well as the educational standards achieved in them.

Wales

Inspections are carried out by HM Inspectorate for Education and Training in Wales (Estyn).

Scotland

Inspections are carried out by HM Inspectorate of Education (HMI).

Northern Ireland

Inspections are carried out by the Education and Training Inspectorate.