Things that are different in different parts of the UK

[isabellerossignol]

I thought it might be interesting, and informative, to have a thread about how things throughout the UK. Not customs or traditions, but actual practical things.

So, for me, as someone in N Ireland the first things that spring to mind is that the following things differ from England.

The compulsory school starting age
The cut off date for when you go into one school year or another
The names of the school years

And then I know that with education, Scotland is different again...

In Scotland, calling a woman a cow is a huge insult (means she's a slut) whereas in England it's just a generic insult like she's being moody.

In Scotland, turnips are large and have orange flesh. Swedes are small, with white flesh. The English have this the other way around.

Not in the North East of England, our turnips are large with orange flesh and swedes are small.

We do get gravy on our chips in Yorkshire.

And chip spice.

For a chip buttie one would skip the gravy because it would make the breadcake all soggy.

Whether you ate it while walking home down the snicket or the tenfoot would be a surefire way of determining whether you were born within the city boundaries or not. I suspect this comment can be used to locate me to within a few square miles.

Asked for "large fish and chips" in Cornwall once. Was given a tiny piece of fish and a massive portion of chips. At home the size-word relates to the fish; the chip portion is ridiculously huge regardless.

In Scotland some swear words can be used as a term of endearment between friends including the c word.

Ooh I'm an army brat there's TONS of differences all over the country.

Public holidays, what things are called (from school non uniform days to what a bread roll is called), loads of different foods and drinks and the names for them, slang having different meanings for the same words/phrases in different parts of uk, different habits with eg play dates and end of school year traditions, how birthdays are celebrated...

Loads of differences even just within a few miles of locations, fascinating.

“I’m in Scotland and every school I’ve ever been aware of has had a uniform?”

Weirdly my high school didn’t(it does now)... but I didn’t mean that, lol.

I mean they have a uniform code, but it’s much more general than in England and not enforced like it is there either, because they can’t go, well you agreed to these rules when you chose this school. (Which is how they can have really strict codes in England.)

So it’s things like, black trousers/skirts and navy jumpers - jumpers with badges available here... but never these exact trousers and jumper.

Some schools will ask pupils to wear blazers, but until S5 it’s not actually enforced, so nothing happens if they don’t wear a blazer in S3.

There’s no sending pupils home for their haircuts.

Stuff like that.

Oh and talking of high schools, American secondary schools are called high schools because Scottish ones are, not the other way round.

Also academies in Scotland aren't academies like in England, it’s just another word for secondary schools and that’s just their name.

The headmasters of high schools are called rectors, with no religious connotations.

Halloween was always a big deal, we went guising instead of trick or treating where you had to tell a joke or sing a song to get rewarded. We carved turnips instead of pumpkins to make lanterns. At parties you would have dooking for apples, eating doughnuts off strings hanging up and dipping for monkey nuts in a tray of treacle.

New year/ Hogmanay was always a big deal with first footing, ie visiting people with a bottle of whisky. This seems to have died down now but still a lot of street parties and other celebrations.

High school is s1-s6, there is no separate 6th form colleges.

The uniform code was pretty strict at DDs high school, she was segregated from school one day for wearing luminous pink socks and constantly in trouble, including suspension, for refusing to wear her tie. She was a rebel without a cause so took to stupid stunts like that. They needed a logo jumper from s1 and blazer once they got to 5th year. I've never heard of any problems with hairstyles though, nail varnish was always removed but loads of kids wore make up.

In Wales (which doesn't seem to have much representation on this thread!) you can leave school at 16 and get a full time job. I only recently discovered that in England you have to stay in education or do an apprenticeship/work placement rather than be able to just leave.

We don't have academies or grammar schools, thankfully.

Our childcare offer also doesn't start until the term after a child's 3rd birthday. It also seems that school nurseries for 3-4 year olds are far more common here than in England. Almost every child I know starts school nursery at school, usually with full uniform etc.

And as a PP said, Welsh is compulsory until 16 although only short course, which is mostly a waste of time, or was when I was in school at least.

I'm from the north of England but went to uni in Scotland.

Things I noticed

Easter is not really a thing in Scotland- my university holidays never coincided with Easter so I didn't go home to celebrate it.

Pubs- going for Sunday lunch in a pub isn't really a thing in Scotland?? Also children aren't allowed in pubs.

Football colours not allowed in pubs- I get why but this was madness for me as someone from the NE of England!

Bank holidays
Sunday opening
School systems
Legal system

@ParkheadPatadis
THANK YOU

We don't use 'ginger' in shetland, and I was trying to remember it (I lived near Glasgow a few years ago and it eat common there), but failed miserably.

You can put in an offer on a house that's already under offer in Scotland, I know because I did it, it's still a sealed bid though. I won the bid but much later found out I had outbid my new neighbour's mother, which was a bit awkward.

That's pretty unusual though. In most cases a house wouldn't be viewed if it's under offer. Generally closing dates happen when two or more parties have noted interest in a property and are ready to offer. In ten years working in estate agency in Glasgow I only saw this happen twice and that was when the buyer approached the vendor directly rather than through the estate agent. It was generally 'frowned upon', though not in any way illegal of course.

Having said that, this was a long time ago now and things may well have changed!

The hours you can buy alcohol in Scotland are restricted compared to England.

What you call your evening meal varies regionally.

Regional words for wasps, fog, bread rolls, little alleys/snicketa/twittens/ginnels.

I mean they have a uniform code, but it’s much more general than in England

You hear about the super strict uniforms or being forced to use a single supplier through people moaning on mumsnet. It's not common to all schools.

@CatteStreet did you grow up in Leicestershire? We always had different holidays.

There are 10 public holidays each year in N Ireland.

The free childcare scheme doesn't exist here. Although there is pre-school education free of charge, for up to 12 1/2 hours a week. But when mine went it wasn't actually free because you still had to pay other charges to the pre-school to cover running costs. The education bit was free, the running costs weren't!

Re buying houses in Scotland, harrysnotter’s post correct, I’m an estate agent and what the previous poster describes I have never seen happen. Once we have an agreed, FORMAL offer everything stops. As agents we tend to negotiate the price between buyer and seller so at that stage there may be more than one party involved (who will never know what the other party is offering) but once the formal offer comes on from the solicitor no one else will see that house. Even that situation is rare though, once we have more than one party interested we go to a closing date.

Long vodkas, I recently discovered (thanks to mumsnet), are a Scottish drink and not well known elsewhere.

So does that mean Teenagers in Scotland only wear Blazers for their last year of secondary school?Regarding uniform in England I'm pretty sure primary schools can't insist on parents buying logoed, stuff I never have ,people on here may choose to buy the logoed stuff ,but certainly around here most supermarkets sell polo shirts and sweat shirts in the generic colours of all the local primary schools, secondary schools are stricter but it depends on the school my sons school uniform consist of black trousers and blue shirts which I can buy at any supermarket ,but I have to buy the school tie and Blazer and PE kit at a uniform shop.

You hear about the super strict uniforms or being forced to use a single supplier through people moaning on mumsnet. It's not common to all schools.

Whereas in N Ireland it is absolutely standard with all schools. Have never heard of a school here where you could buy the uniform in a supermarket. They don't even sell secondary age uniform in supermarkets here, or even things like sweatshirts for primary age.

When I was at school we had to go to a specific shoe shop who had a printout of the specific shoes that each school allowed along with a photo of them. So you had a choice of maybe four different pairs of shoes. Shoes not on the list were not allowed. Thankfully nowhere seems as strict as that anymore.

“So does that mean Teenagers in Scotland only wear Blazers for their last year of secondary school?”

Depends - on things like how many other teenagers wear them, the teenager, the parent...

It’s about 50/50 at the school my DC went to until they’re over 16 and then they can enforce it, because they choose to be there for S5 and 6.

I think there's some confusion, things are not the same all around Scotland either, there are regional variations here too.

Where I live Easter & Halloween are HUGE! Maybe because a fairly catholic area?

Slang from Glasgow to Edinburgh to Aberdeen etc varies greatly.

When Scotland and England were joined up it was specified that the important institutions remained entirely independent.

At that time these were:

Law
Religion
Banking
Education.

Parliament wasn’t as powerful then so it was never envisaged that we would be assimilated as much as we have been.

The relics of this independence remain:

Entirely different legal system- murder doesn’t even have the same definition in E&W as Scotland! Contract formation is different (see house buying). Inheritance is different (you can’t disinherit your dcs in Scotland). Divorce law is different. Rape has a different definition. Juries are a different size and have the not proven verdict available. Super injunctions in England dont apply in Scotland. (See Ryan Giggs). Libel/ defamation is different. The age of marriage is different. (History of eloping to Gretna)

Religion: the CoS is Presbyterian whereas the CoE is episcopalian. There are no bishops in Scotland. The reformation was more cathartic in Scotland with fewer of the remnants of Catholicism left in the church.

Banking: different bank notes and Scotland still has paper £1s.

Education: every state school in Scotland is a comprehensive. Every one is run by the council except Jordanhill which has a direct grant from the Scottish Government. There aren’t as many private schools. Catchments are all set. The church doesn’t control any schools. The starting age is more flexible - from 4.5 to 5.11. There is no reception year. Parents can’t be prosecuted for taking dcs out to go on holiday.
Scotland had 4 universities for hundreds of years whilst England only had 2. The undergraduate degree is 4 years and for most students they study 3 subjects in their first year. You can graduate by age 20 in Scotland if you started school aged 4 and went to uni from 5th year.

Yes, one of my old school friends is a Scottish Bishop!