r2i forum

Can someone explain school /college system in the UK. Treat me as a beginner in this regard and please explain what we need to look for, how does the system work from 3yr old to Uni, what's the academic year, what are the do's and dont's......

TIA

Primary education:

Key Stage 1 (in an Infant or Primary school)
Reception, age 4 to 5
Year 1, age 5 to 6
Year 2, age 6 to 7

Key Stage 2 (in Junior or Primary school)
Year 3, age 7 to 8
Year 4, age 8 to 9
Year 5, age 9 to 10
Year 6, age 10 to 11

Secondary education:

Key Stage 3
Year 7, age 11 to 12
Year 8, age 12 to 13
Year 9, age 13 to 14

Key Stage 4
Year 10, age 14 to 15
Year 11, age 15 to 16 (GCSE exam)

A-levels or 6th form education :

Year 12, age 16 to 17
Year 13, age 17 to 18

Students aiming for university entry study 3 or 4 subjects to A-Level and can expect to receive a university offer based almost entirely upon the results of their A-Levels.

Bachelor's degree (typically three years).

Thanks 2 punjabi for prompt response...

few more queries..

How does one select a school? What are the things to look for? Are public schools good or for good education one has to go for pvt schools?

b2b,

For school selection, for public schools you don't really have a choice. The admissions depend on catchment(3 miles) area. So if you have any particular school in mind please move in that area before the admissions happen.
I did this when my daughter went to secondary school. Once she got admitted and settled then in one year i moved back to a neighbourin cheaper area. This is one thing you will have to bear in mind. If there is a good public school property around that place will be extremely expensive.
My experience was, primary schools are normally good everywhere. It is the secondary schools that have huge differences. Also, primary school admissions used to be regulated by the council and the whole process in easier as such. For secondary, you will have apply to each school separately and they move with their own speeds.
For private schools, they are too expensive (£8000 to £16000 per year ). Also, the environment is ver secluded. My daughter went for a weekl and she was extremely unhappy. So we had to move her back to council school. But that may be just her personality type. She didn't like the attitude of the children and was in tears almost whole week.
There are grammar schools in neighbouring counties of west london. The ones i know of are in slough and langley. The schools have an entrance exam called 11plus. They have ver high academic standards and no fees. So they are a good bet. You will need to prepare your child for the 11plus a year or atleast 6 months prior to admissions. In my case I only came to know about these schools 2 weeks before the exam which was very short time to prepare and my daughter lost the admission by 2 marks.
For public school selection, you can see ofsted reports. They should there on bbc website or ofsted website. Personally me i prefer to see the school results as a selection criteria. In that respect i found upmystreet.com very useful. I enter a postcode or an area and then there is a school link that fetches all the schools along with their results (GCSE) and that way u can see the overall percentage. I found that despite of the heavy intake some council schools had very good results. So i thought those kind of schools would be really good and i think(well i hope) it works.
Apologies, this post is not very organised as i have my younger one playing in my lap so i am rushing thro'. However, if you have any specific questions please let me know.

Neesha 4 ,

That's a very very useful info really - exactly the sort I was looking for.

One question - I saw a few R2I aspirants bringing Indian academic books and getting their kids to study those as well. I found it quite odd. Is that really needed? How difficult it is for children studying here to go to Indian education system?

b2b,

Yes some people teach their children Indian curriculum when they are near the R2I team. It is mostly languages I would have thought. But who knows may be others as well.
What I would do is, when i near my R2I time (say 6months - 1year) I will get the syllabus of the grade my kid will go in and then compare it with whatever he/she has learnt in the UK, list down the missing bits and teach them just that. I don't like to stress my children much. But each person has his/her own way and i respect it.

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Heaven and Earth live forever because they don't live for themselves - Tao