Cultural differences Scotland and England

[CauleyMacGlochlin]

So surprised to see on a recent thread that in England secondary school pupils are often not allowed out of school for lunch until 6th form, which Google tells me means 16-18. I'm gobsmacked. I've never heard of anything like this in Scotland and I've lived all over the country (grew up in Glasgow and moved around in adulthood)

I also recently discovered that English school pupils can't leave education at 16. They have to stay in education til 18 unless they have an apprenticeship.

Got me thinking about cultural differences between the countries that I've maybe been oblivious all this time. Any others?

There was a fabulous bbc documentary a few years back called "The Scheme" set in Ayrshire somewhere

It was sad and depressing and is a must watch for all the people that want to move here for the "idyllic" lifestyle they think we all lead

Plait, surely?

We say 'how come?' but not 'how?' on it's own. I don't know what 'oose' is!

What's a wedding scramble? Sounds interesting 🤔

That’s really interesting. Thanks for the explanation. It’s clearly a deep-running cultural difference as it seems unnecessarily bureaucratic and limiting to me to make it difficult and expensive for teachers to pursue a new area of expertise, but I am sure for others it is a marker of excellence.

Very few full time teachers (in English schools, at least) would have time to pursue a new area of expertise without taking a career break to do it. Since it's already hard enough to recruit teachers and to find enough supply teachers to cover for them when they are off school, I don't think schools would be keen on facilitating it.

Who thinks we live an idyllic lifestyle? Tourists?! I think it's actually the complete opposite: many, many people in the rest of the UK think Scotland is the poor relation (apart from Edinburgh, that they all think is posh, but the 'schemes' have the same problems as any other big city). Glasgow, in particular, still gets the No-Mean City stereotype, which is far, far away from reality for 90% of Glaswegians.

Interesting.

@SummerDays2020

Lots of coins are chucked, I think traditionally by the bride's father, onto the street outside the church. All the children scramble to pick up as many as they can and keep whatever they get.

It's also often done on the street before heading to the church and all the local children come running to the scramble.

Please explain these words! 😀

Ah Marvin fae the scheme. Forgot about that show.

Not sure if it’s local to where I grew up but we would always say “going up the town” to mean going to our local town centre and “going into town” to mean going to the local city which for us was Glasgow

Yup I'm in Angus now. Originally from Glasgow and the first time I heard someone saying they had a jobbie to do I laughed a lot.

@Puffalicious I was meaning the regular posts on scotsnet about wanting to move to Scotland that homogeneous mass for the good life.

Often from posters who have little knowledge or experience of the country

Do Scottish schools have longer lunch breaks? DD had 40 minutes which wasn't long enough for anyone to walk up to Tesco and back. The school said that shorter lunch breaks gave the pupils less chance to be disruptive. They also had full timetables until 6th form, so no free periods up to age 16.

We had 50 minutes when I was at High school. The local high street was barely 5 minutes away though so it was plenty of time to go there and back. We regularly went to a cafe for lunch and still had time to get back.

Interesting

I learned a new language a few years ago so that I'd be able to teach 3, but I was only able to do that because I was working very part time at the time. Heavy workload is a large part of what's causing the teacher recruitment and retention crisis. Most full time teachers are working a big chunk of evenings, weekends and/or holidays. I'm on half-term this week and just sitting down to my long to-do list...

An hour here. Shops, chippy and park across the road.

Traditionally when the car driving the bride to the church left her street where she lived, the father of the bride would throw a bucket of small coins out of the window of the departing car (bronze, silver, the odd £1 coin) for the local kids to 'scramble ' to pick up & keep for sweet buying/ adding to piggy banks.

The kids/ other male wedding party would cry 'Scramble!' so the kids would know it was happening & run from the end of the street.

It sometimes also happened at the groom's street too (we did it at my brother's wedding in 1981). It's largely died out now, but I still hear it happening in some villages. It was a very working class thing.

I have such fond memories of these growing up.

It was also very common for the younger ones in the wedding party (under 16) to get 'a wee bung' - a £1 note- from the groom/ father of the bride/ random uncles over from Ireland. It was mighty profitable being the youngest sibling/ cousin in a large family, so loads of weddings.

My ex DH lived in a very MC area & none of this happened.

Ah-ha. I get you now.

@SummerDays2020

Oose - fluff and dust on your jumper or couch or whatever
Skelf - when you get a skelf of wood stuck in your skin and have to remove it with tweezers
Slater - a woodlouse
Stank - a drain in the street
Squint (or squinty) - lopsided
Bumfled- material that's all tangled/rumpled and needs straightened out

It does seem the fashion to reduce lunchtime. My DD's friend only has 30 minutes (also 30 minutes at break). My DD has 30 minutes break and 1hr lunch. I like it because it means she has time to eat and also to do an activity of her choosing whether a sport, a club, reading in the library, colouring or just hanging out with her friends. It gives her a proper break.

I assumed the poster write 'plat' to describe the pronunciation. Yes, it is spelled plait but is pronounced 'plat'.

It does seem the fashion to reduce lunchtime.

I didn't know lunch breaks were so short in England and I think that's bloody criminal. Kids should have a proper break, it's not just about getting enough time to cram your dinner down your throat.

I think it’s a bit of an understatement to say “There are some Catholic schools”.

The reality in many parts of Scotland is that it would be unthinkable to go to a non-denominational school if you are Catholic (by which I mean culturally Catholic rather than an active churchgoer). Catholic schools are widely provided by the state to cater for this.

I went to a high school that was supposedly non-denominational and I did not have a single Catholic fellow pupil. They all went automatically to the Catholic schools. The Catholic secondary was just as big and modern as the non-dom schools. There were buses in to the Catholic High school from a wider area than for the ND schools. There was serious, nasty rivalry between the schools including (I kid you not) people throwing things at the Catholic school bus as it went past. Horrible. This was not in Glasgow or Dundee.

We can’t let the children walk home unattended by an adult unless they are over 9 or sometimes 10.

I agree. I was appealed when looking round schools for DD. Only the grammars and RC school (where DD goes) have retained the hour.