I’m moving to the UK soon and I tried learning about the education system but it confuses me to the point when I stop thinking and sit in silence because I’m used to elementary and high school (at any age if it’s public school) but I don’t get the year 3 or 10 or levels or these capital letters put together and I wanna cry I’ve never felt this stupid.
Like, I’m in grade 10 and I’m going to London. Do they have textbooks? Can I get them online (for free haha)? I want to study it before going there. Do I choose what I want to learn? Please explain it calmly and in detail dissected please
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The UK has a bunch of different education systems. And some wonderfully confusing terminology.
There are separate, government-funded systems in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, each with their own terminology, rules and levels. Because these systems change every so often there are schools using older systems and ones using newer systems.
This includes some publicly-funded religious schools, and an increasing number of privately-operated but publicly-funded schools (many run by multi-school trusts). Some of these schools are selective (only let some students in), most are oversubscribed.
There is a healthy(ish) private school system that runs across the country. These are schools that are privately-run and privately funded, with fees for the students. As these are private they run on a mix of the different systems.
On top of that there are the “public schools” which are a group of elite private schools, which mostly do their own thing.
Some of these schools are boarding schools where students live at the school, there are mixed schools (some boarders, some day students), and there are single-gender schools and mixed-gender schools. It is all a giant mess. And – as with much of the UK – the system is crumbling. Some schools are doing great with plenty of money and resources, some schools are literally falling apart (there is an on-going scandal involving a particular kind of concrete used in older school buildings that has a habit of crumbling).
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So, you are in US Grade 10, and going to London. In the main English system that would be Year 11 (in Scotland it would be S4, in Northern Ireland Year 12).
In the state-regulated (so publicly-funded) school system Year 11 is the 5th year (and sometimes final) year in “Secondary school.” Year 11 is the second year of “Key Stage 4”, which used to be the final level of compulsory education in England. In the “public school” system it would be 3rd year of school.
Key Stage 4 ends with national “public exams” called GCSEs. Students sit 5-9 of these (maybe more if they are keen), including in English, Maths, some form of science, and usually some foreign language. The courses are set by the Government, but the exams are run by private organisations or exam boards. Individual schools choose which exam board to go with for which subject. Students tend to get some choice in which options they study (beyond the compulsory ones), but the schools may limit that (depending on which teachers they have available). Some subjects (and exam boards) require course work, but almost all have exams that are sat in May-June, at the end of the school year.
Rather than simply graduating school as you might do in the US, academic success is measured based on how many GCSEs you get, and what grades (in England they are graded 9-1, with 9 being the best, and 5 and above being a good pass).
Joining a school in Year 11 is going to be awkward as you are joining in half-way through the courses. You may have to do some extra work to catch up in some subject (although you’ll also be ahead in some others).
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Year 12 and Year 13 are Key Stage 5, sometimes called Sixth Form. Some secondary schools cover these years, or there are dedicated schools that just do sixth form, called “colleges.” At sixth form students generally pick 3-5 subjects to study for “A-levels”, more advanced versions of GCSEs, which they sit at the end of the two years. Getting decent A-levels is generally needed for going to university (which generally have 3-year undergraduate courses, or 4-year in Scotland – and cover just one subject). University applications are done at the start of Year 13, but offers are usually conditional on getting certain results.
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Text books will be provided by the school, and will depend on the subject and exam board. A lot of the material is available online – [BBC Bitesize](https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/secondary) is a great resource for the basics, but there are plenty of websites with information. Also /r/GCSE
The school year is generally split into 3 terms, September-December, January-early April, late April-July, usually with a one-week “half term” break in the middle. Many schools will have school uniforms, they will have compulsory sports or physical education (but generally not examined), and the school day tends to run from about 9am to 3pm, but this will vary from school to school.
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