The formal education in the UK is carried out in a structured manner and is all government controlled. Education is delivered in institutional settings broken down in nursery, junior and upper school settings Generally it starts officially in the child’s 5th year, so between the final few months of being 4 and approaching their 5th birthday, starting with Early Years. Before that most children will have been through the kindergarten/nursery or playschool system from the age of 2. As so many children have two working parents, there is a great need for the earliest of early years to begin. There are grants available for children from families below a certain pay level, families are provided £30 per week towards nursery years. But of course, this has repercussions on the family tax system.
The next stage after Early years is Primary school. The national curriculum requires children to attend primary and accessing |Key stage 1 and 2 – key stages are the official description of the breakdown in the stages of education. Then leading on to Senior or upper school, which are referred to Key stages 3 and 4. After 4, there are routes through colleges and/or university. The students of private schools usually have a set route through to the legal profession; medical profession or perhaps the military and everything in between. They normally attend private pre preparatory school to get the children into their very regimented system. These schools still have to deliver the national curriculum but it is in different reporting format and under another regime.
Every school has a board of governors who are basically trustees and take an outside look at how the school is run. There will be a mix of parents, and non parents. The Board are broken down into Finance, Staff And general Governance committees. They take an arms length view of how the school is working and they check that the paid school staff are operating as they should.
