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...

I think Verily meant there are no Church of Scotland bishops.

Is it only Scotland that has religious segregated state schools (ie state schools that are Catholic only) or do those exist elsewhere?

I find the differences fascinating, especially when some aspects of culture cross borders, and when language is distinctly different between places that are geographically very close.

I’m assuming verily means there are no bishops in the Church of Scotland tbh, rather than in Scotland.

Is it only Scotland that has religious segregated state schools (ie state schools that are Catholic only) or do those exist elsewhere?

They have this in N Ireland as well.

We have those in Wales too I think. I went to a Catholic school that was funded by the Diocese and the state I think.

“Is it only Scotland that has religious segregated state schools (ie state schools that are Catholic only) or do those exist elsewhere?”

They exist - it’s just that in Scotland you don’t really get other faith schools, so it’s catholic or non denominational instead of a mix of churches.

@icebearforpresident I'm wondering if I remembered it wrong, was 20 years ago and had gone to a closing date rather than being under offer, I was treating having offers in and a closing date and under offer as the same thing but can appreciate the difference now. I've only bought a house once! I do remember we had to act very quickly

@Venger, in Scotland we call Swedes turnips but we also call other turnips turnips, it's just you don't see than often.

I started life in Yorkshire, spent teenage years i Lancashire as an adult lived in Oxford, Wolverhampton, London.

Yorkshire fish and chips are cooked in beef dripping, no skin and the fish is often haddock. You can buy 'golden' lemonade, as a child I remember being 'yellow' lemonade.

In Lancashire the chip shop always also sells gravy, pies and 'butties', a meat pie butty is perfectly acceptable.

Pie and peas in Yorkshire is not often eaten but if it is the pie is pork, in Lancashire it is meat and potato pie and is practically a national dish.

If you go to something like a pub quiz you are likely to get a pie and pea supper thrown in.

Butties only exist in one chip shop in Oxford and there is an explanation of what it is. This is the chip shop ear the John Radcliffe hospital which employs quite a few northerners.

Skin is left on chip shop fish. They are cooked in oil.

In Yorkshire a 'special' is a large fish and can also be sold with 'bits'or 'scraps', in Wolverhampton it is a smaller than average portion sold in a small trey.

Fish and chip shops in London are good if they sell huge portions of chips regardless of anything else.

Small local chains of sandwich and pie shops exist in Lancashire, one of these, Greggs, has gon national but in Lancashire you have others such as Oddies. They are well worth a visit, Oddies savories are excellent.

In Oxford you don't have a Christmas party for the hospital, you have one for your department but the shole hospital has a ball, they have another one in summer.

Charity shops in Oxford are a great place to buy of a cheap ball gown.

Lots Of Londoners don't know / do not visit whole parts of London. One of my flatmates claimed to know London well, when he moved from Hampstead Garden Suburb to Golders Green he went down one branch of the northern line to Camden and then travelled up the other side.

I used to do the trip either on a motorbike or the bus that stopped outside the front door and took 10 mins.

I am fully conversant with words for a small individually baked bread, it can be any of the following:

batch
bun
bread cake
tea cake
barm cake
oven bottom (cheating there as they are larger)
bread roll
cob
sofy cob
hard cob
morning roll

I have seen films at
a cinema
the flicks
the pictures

Is it only Scotland that has religious segregated state schools (ie state schools that are Catholic only) or do those exist elsewhere?

To my knowledge Wolverhampton has 2 RC,1 C of E and 1 Sikh school at 11+, lots more primaries are 'faith' schools.

Lancashire has loads of RB schools.

Roundabouts in London become "islands" in Brum. Which was a tad confusing as we had "islands" in London too - the raised, usually lit with signs, sections between the two sides of a road for pedestrians to use to split the crossing into two.

Also school attendance seems to be a massive thing in england. In scotland there is very little issue if children are off through sickness, mental health etc, in england people are fined and even sent to jail. I have never heard of people talk about attendance percentages or awards in scotland.

Yes agree sunday lunches in pubs are not really a thing in scotland, not is easter, and i have only ever heard of christingle on MN.

Toddlertea, yes

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

Both my kids have worn logo'd blazers to secondary school from S1. It is part of their uniform, as is the tie. The rest of the uniform can be bought from anywhere, we are just told the colour scheme. For ours it is black trousers/skirts and white shirts. No-one cares about your hairstyle or hair colour either

@sashh Greggs originates fro the north east, not Lancashire.

There are letters sent out about attendance in Scotland but you dont get fined for term time holidays

isabelle the free nursery education in NI can definitely be more than 12.5 hours. Maybe a part-time or playschool place would be that little? Mine went to nursery from 9am-1:30 I think, maybe 1? 5 days a week.

I also buy uniforms from supermarkets, just the crested jumpers and t-shirts from 1 or 2 suppliers. Primary school anyway.

We don't really have private schools here (there are some, but definitely not many). Grammar schools are very common but not overly exclusive in that probably 35% of kids go to one?

Nobody i know has ever been fined for taking their child out of school for a holiday.

Not only do we go to funerals and wakes of colleagues parents etc., we spend £100+ on a normal wedding present per couple and £300+ on siblings.

Indian restaurants are pretty much the only takeaways you wouldn't purchase chips with curry sauce from (ironically) and we don't have that many of them. In my town, the Chinese takeaways outnumber the Indians by about 12-1.

We've been doing Santa and Halloween since long before I was a child. And most people here spend at least £300 per child from Santa.

Yup, Gregg's is ours. We're mind though and have shared it with the rest of the country.

Cooplands is a Northern bakers and is nicer than Greggs. We're not sharing that one.

We have chip butties in Notthumberland too, you can get batter on which is little flakes of loose batter. Some shops go the whole hog and sell battered chips. Chip butty splash is a chip butty with a splash of gravy, curry, or mushy peas.

For lunch today I had a ham and pease pudding stottie from Gregg's. My London friends claim they don't know what pease pudding is.

Buses can be fairly rubbish here and not joined up. Our three main companies are Arriva, Go North East, and Stagecoach. You can't use a ticket/bus pass from one on another so depending where you are going to might have to buy two (or even three) tickets for one journey if you're using more than one company. We have a Metro train system across some of the region that needs it's own ticket too.

Gregg’s definitely from the NE, I remember when they were Gregg’s of Gosforth. (Area N of Newcastle u Tyne city centre) .

I have a friend living in the Scottish highlands. When she said her journey home was slow because of a haar I thought she meant the pop group A-Ha were in town!

We call those loose flakes of Batter scraps Venger you might have a chip.buttie splash but do you get pea wet?😂

The Mental Health Act is different is Scotland and doesn't grant police the same powers to remove people they are concerned about the a place of safety.

isabelle the free nursery education in NI can definitely be more than 12.5 hours. Maybe a part-time or playschool place would be that little? Mine went to nursery from 9am-1:30 I think, maybe 1? 5 days a week.

Yes, maybe it's the difference between them attending an actual school and a playgroup? There was no nursery school in my area only what used to be known as a playgroup.

The Employers for Childcare website specified 12.5 hours which is where I took the figure from, but the family supportni.gov.uk refers to 'at least' 12.5 hours. My mistake, sorry.

I also buy uniforms from supermarkets, just the crested jumpers and t-shirts from 1 or 2 suppliers. Primary school anyway.

Yes, I've bought skirts and trousers from supermarkets but never sweatshirts as they are always logoed. My original post wasn't very well worded, what I should have said was that I've never heard of a school where you could buy the entire uniform from the supermarket.

Playgroup yes. Playschool was the TV show. Only nursery schools have provision for what is considered a FT place (but some offer pt morning and afternoon sessions).

Ni gets 2 months holidays, normally all of July and August off, but this last 2 years my kids have started back at the end of August (thurs and fri last week). No school is open in July at all afaik. This can be useful as holiday accomodation tends to be cheaper before the English schools get off.

Also children aren't allowed in pubs

They are where I am (and yes I'm in Scotland) but it's rarely advertised so you just have to ask if it's ok, the licenses are different so some pubs it's only if you are having a meal (and then for one drink afterwards if you're lucky), others it's only if you're in the beer garden, but my local allows kids in the bar until 9pm. You never see kids in there though as most people assume they're not allowed. We're in a small town rather than a city though, I can imagine a lot of cities are stricter about it. They also do a mean Sunday dinner at my local but we rarely have a roast on a Sunday even doing it ourselves, I think Sunday dinners as a whole are less of a thing here nowadays.