For more than a decade, the English education system is considered one of the best in the whole world. Thanks to a good balance between the preservation of traditions and the introduction of the latest educational programs, schools in England and Great Britain manage not only to give students excellent academic knowledge but also to skillfully develop social and personal qualities in them.

Primary and secondary education in England (from 5 to 16 years old) is compulsory. Parents are required to either send their children to public or private schools or obtain permission for homeschooling and periodic testing of knowledge. Education in public schools is free but available only to citizens of the United Kingdom.

Primary education in England (Primary School) is the first (not counting kindergartens - Nursery School for children from 3 years old) step of education, created for students aged 5 to 11 years. In fact, most children enter primary school as early as 4 years old, in the so-called preparatory class (Reception Class) in the educational institution chosen for further education. This is done mostly since at the age of 5 a child may no longer get a place in the right school. Formally, since education is compulsory for children from 5 years old, up to this age a child can skip classes, even if he is already enrolled in the Reception Class.

English primary school includes 2 levels of education - Key Stage 1 for children from 5 to 7 years old and Key Stage 2 for children from 7 to 11 years old. However, some private schools within the Primary School offer an expanded curriculum for students up to 13 years.

Types of Primary Schools in England

There are both public and private primary schools in England. State ones can be non-religious and religious.

Public non-religious schools

Public schools that combine all levels of education (from 4 to 18 years old) are very rare. Basically, primary schools operate independently of secondary schools and are mixed - for the joint education of boys and girls.

Non-religious are elementary schools familiar to our understanding, where children are enrolled on a territorial basis. Each educational institution has its own catchment area, that is, a certain fixed territory. If you live in a given territory, the child is most likely to be enrolled in the school assigned to it. The catchment area of several schools may overlap, in this case parents can choose an educational institution based on personal preferences.

State religious schools

These schools are funded by both the state and the respective religious communities. Even though a large role is assigned to religious education, many of these institutions also provide higher-quality academic buildings in comparison with non-religious state ones. Due to the high quality of education, many strive to send their children to religious schools, but it is quite difficult to do this - it is necessary to belong to a specific community, be regular parishioners, and make donations. Today in England there are Catholic and Anglican schools, Muslim, Jewish and Hindu, and some others.

Private Schools

There are two types of private primary schools in England. The first is Preparatory schools, which operate autonomously, without being tied to any particular secondary school (or schools). The second is Junior schools, which work in cooperation with the secondary school and are their first stage of education.

Both types of private schools have tuition fees. The cost of education can go up to 15 thousand pounds per year. Generally, due to high school admission benefits, Junior schools are significantly more expensive than Preparatory schools.

Along with the high cost, private schools also provide quality education. The competition for admission to such educational institutions, especially elite ones, is always very high. For a child of 4-5 years old to be enrolled in a prestigious private school, parents are often forced to submit an application already at the birth of a baby and start preparing for admission in a year or even more.

Features of education in schools in England

The curriculum of English primary schools is in many ways similar to the Russian we are used to, but it is much broader. From 5 to 11 years old, children study a little more than 10 subjects, including mathematics, English, literature, biology, chemistry, physics, computer science, history, music, geography, additional foreign language, social studies, and other humanities and exact sciences.

Primary school students do not have grades and homework; however, periodic tests are carried out for the quality of knowledge assimilation. Teachers and educators are in constant contact with parents, inform them about their child's progress.

The daily routine of junior schoolchildren is different from the primary school in our country. Each school day a lot of time is for games, walks, sports, creativity, research, scientific experiments.

In English elementary school CIS International School, special attention is paid to the issues of socialization of the child. After completion of the Primary School course, students not only receive high-quality knowledge sufficient for admission to any secondary school but also master the skills of interacting with other children and adults, working in a group.

Private primary schools in England are very popular with foreigners. A constant presence in an English-speaking environment allows the child to easily master English as a second native language. As a rule, at the time of graduation from Primary School, all children already speak English at the native level.

Admission process

Admission to public and private primary schools in England is different. To be enrolled in a public educational institution, parents must apply to the local council. The application is submitted via the Internet a year before admission, up to 6 interesting schools can be picked in it in descending order of priority. When allocating places in schools, the Local Council considers the student's residential address. Priority is also given to children who already have brothers or sisters in their chosen school.

Private schools independently establish the procedure and deadlines for submitting applications, and the Local Council has nothing to do with admission to such educational institutions. In some schools, an application must be submitted immediately after the birth of a child, in some - 1-1.5 years before the start of school. Approximately 1 year before enrollment in Reception Class, most schools conduct admissions tests for toddlers.