UK Educational System | Teaching English | British Council

Age range: 11 - adult
Theme: UK educational system
Lexical area: Education

Instructions for language assistants in Italics

Classroom materials

Introduction:
As a language assistant you will probably have gone through (or you may still be going through) the British or Irish educational system so you will be able to tell your students about your experiences and give them first-hand information on how the UK educational system works. There are differences in the educational systems in the different countries that make up the UK so bear this in mind. If you haven’t had first hand experience of the educational system yourself have a look at some of the web links at the bottom of the page. You should easily find information about the educational systems.

Task 1 is a simple task to introduce students to the names of the different school stages and national exams. Task 2 gives students the chance to compare their country’s educational system to the British system. Task 3 is a reading text from the British Council’s Trend UK department about ‘gap years’. Task 4 follows on from the reading and asks students to plan a gap year. Task 5 looks at school rules and Task 6 introduces students to the Friends Reunited website which is hugely popular in the UK. It is a site for people to get in touch with old school friends and the task asks students to imagine their lives in the year 2026.

1. School Order
This task introduces students to the types of schools and main national exams in the UK. Use your own experiences. Please stick to your own experiences depending on where you grew up and adapt the task accordingly. Students will be more interested in your experiences than the system in general. If students ask, do tell them that the systems are slightly different in the different countries that make up the UK,
Now, in a jumbled order write on the board the different types of school you attended and the main exams you took. For example I would write:

University	GCSE exams (9 subjects)	Primary School
A degree	Secondary schoolA-level exams (3 subjects)	Play group

When the students have read the information ask them to ask you questions so they can put the schools and exams into chronological order. Draw a line on the board and put the schools and exams in order with the correct ages next to them.

Task 1 School Order
Listen to your teacher and put the exams and schools in order.

2. Let’s compare
This task leads on from task one. Ask your students to ask you for more information about the different stages of your education. As they find out as much as they can, you can ask them questions about their educational system. If you are already very familiar with it, pretend you know less than you do! Students should be able to draw up a table of comparison of their education system and the one you explained to them in task one.

Task2 Let's compare

Age

Education in the UK

Age

Education in my country

3. Breaking up the studies: The Gap Year
This is a reading task using an article from the British Council’s Trend UK department. Before you begin, make sure students understand the word ‘gap’. Use examples, like ‘MIND THE GAP’ or ‘there’s a gap between the table and the cupboard’. Then explain the idea of taking a gap year to break up your studies. Obviously, if you took one yourself, or have friends who took a gap year then tell your students about what you/they did.
Put students into two groups. Give one group copies of STUDENT A texts and the other group, STUDENT B texts. Give them time to read the text and to find out unknown vocabulary. Then pair up one A with one B and ask them to tell each other about the text they read.

Task 3 Breaking up the studies: The Gap Year

STUDENT A - Adventures

*a gap year is a period of time, usually an academic year, taken by a student as a break from formal education. It is often spent travelling or working.

A gap year* was once thought of as being undertaken because something somewhere had gone wrong on the route from school through to higher education and on to the start of a career.

But now, a gap year is positively encouraged by universities, and employers look favourably on any worthwhile experiences picked up while away from home because of skills gained such as independent learning, problem solving without a support network, self-sufficiency and internationalism.

Gap years are usually taken before heading off to university, but they can be taken at different times. For instance, to break up your degree course or even before taking up a postgraduate course.

It is thought that every year about 100,000 British 18-year-olds delay starting higher education in this way. That's roughly one in eight of school-leavers each year.

Australia is the most popular destination for British students, with bungee jumping and walking the Sydney Harbour Bridge top of their list of things to do. Other popular destinations include Peru, Thailand and India.

Source:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/japan-trenduk-archive-studentlife-breaking.htm

STUDENT B - Gap year maintenance

* a gap year is a period of time, usually an academic year, taken by a student as a break from formal education. It is often spent travelling or working.

Most students heading for a gap year take up a part-time job to save up for the trip. Even once they get to their destination they’ll work to earn their keep; popular jobs include bar work, fruit picking and being a tour guide.

Of course the gap year doesn’t have to be a full year travelling, students will often travel for three or six months because of lack of money.

Reflecting the increase in popularity of the gap year and the need to keep costs down, travel companies now offer structured gap packages where your entire trip is worked out for you. There are three main categories of a structured gap year activity:

expeditions, often with a conservation element and usually to developing countries
courses to learn a skill such as a language or something that they can later teach others to do, for example windsurfing
voluntary work, usually, but not always, outside the UK.

Sarah Boehm, 19, who went on to study medicine at Manchester University, taught English in India and found it the experience wonderful.

'We were allowed enormous flexibility in teaching the children – from general discussions on pollution and politics with the older students to games like I-Spy and lots of English songs with the younger ones. It has given me a sense of self-reliance that I can survive without everything at home. It's been an unforgettable experience.'

Source:
http://www.britishcouncil.org/japan-trenduk-archive-studentlife-breaking.htm

4. Plan your perfect ‘gap year’.
This task follows on from task 3 and is better suited to students who could imagine themselves at the age of a ‘gap year’ student, 15 upwards. Encourage students to use their imaginations and to plan a year that they would really enjoy. If you think your students will need help, bring in some travel brochures and an atlas to help them.

Task 4 Plan your perfect ‘gap year’.
Imagine you’re going to take a ‘gap year’. Next year you don’t have to go to school. You can travel anywhere you like. Money isn’t a problem, so you can go wherever you like and do whatever you like. It will be an unforgettable year. Work in pairs and plan your perfect ‘gap year’. Then tell your classmates about it.

5. School Rules.
Ask students about the rules in their school. Find out a couple and write them up on the board. Then ask students what they think about these rules. Then ask students to think about their ‘ideal’ school. Tell them it’s their perfect school and they can decide on the rules themselves. Give some examples, like ‘you’re allowed to use mobile phones in class’, ‘you don’t have to do any homework’ etc.

Task 5 School Rules.

	Our School Rules		Our ‘Ideal School’ Rules
x		x
x		x
x		x
x		x
x		x
x		x
x		x

6. Friends Reunited
I assume you all know about the Friends Reunited website. If you’ve used it, tell your students about your experience of it to introduce the task. If you have internet access, show your students the site and explain how it works. Ask students if they know of similar sites in their country. Then ask students to imagine it’s the year 2026. Write the year up on the board and help students to get their head around looking into the future! Set the scene for the students, for example, ‘Okay, so it’s 2026 and you have lost touch with all your classmates. You decide to use the Friends Reunited website to find some old classmates. You need to write a paragraph about what you’re doing now, in 2026. Write about your job, your family, where you’re living, your future plans etc.’ When students have written their paragraphs you can collect them all in. Mix them up and hand them back out to the class, making sure nobody has their own. Ask students to read out the personal info card they got and as a class, decide which student wrote it!

Task 6 Friends Reunited
Friends Reunited is a really popular website in Britain. It is a way to get in touch with your old school friends when you are older. Imagine it is twenty years into the future and you have lost touch with your classmates. You decide to use the website to find each other. Write a paragraph about what you are doing now. Use your imagination! Remember you will be twenty years older!

Friends Reunited
www.friendsreunited.co.uk

Personal Card Information January 15th 2026

Hi Ex – classmates!
(write about you here – your job, family, hobbies etc.)

Hope you get in touch soon. I’d love to know what you’re doing these days!

Internet links

British Council’s information about the British educational system.
http://www.britishcouncil.org/learning-uk-education-systems-school-education.htm -

The British Council’s website for anyone who would like to study in the UK.
http://www.educationuk.org/ -

The Scottish education system explained
http://www.educationuk.org/pls/hot_bc/page_pls_user_article?x=3209931640...

This gives some information about the English education system.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_England

This is the address of the Friends Reunited website.
http://www.friendsreunited.co.uk/press/aboutus.htm

By Jo Budden

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