The Educational System in England

The educational system in England is very complicated. It embraces two educational purposes: first it gives a general education to all children, and second, it selects the most able and gives them a more advanced education.

In most schools boys and girls learn together. In the first stage, which is called primary education, all children are educated according to the same programme. As they grow older, differences in ability and attainment become very marked, so it is considered necessary to offer different programmes.

There are three stages of education: primary, or elementary, education, secondary education and further (higher) education.

Primary education (from 5 years of age to 11 years of age). A primary school is subdivided into an infant school for children aged 5 to 7 and a junior school for children aged 7 to 11. In small country places both the infant department and the junior department may be combined under the roof of one school.

     Secondary education (from 11 years of age to 16 years of age). Until recently, there were three main types of secondary schools: grammar schools, technical schools and modern schools. Children were sent to one of these three types of schools  according to their abilities. These three types of schools  still exist, but their number is decreasing. They are being replaced by the so-called comprehensive schools. The comprehensive schools are the most modern development in secondary schools. The main advantages of the comprehensive schools are that these schools are open to children of all types of ability from the age of 11; they are large schools which give a much wider range of subjects than smaller schools, so that teenagers can choose a course of studies according to their individual inclinations and abilities.

The comprehensive school gives the following range of subjects, from which children can choose: English, French, German, Latin, history, geography, art, music, woodwork, metalwork, needlework, commercial subjects, mathematics, general science, religious instruction, physical education.