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?

This us the same in English schools too
When my now 17 year old son was at primary school.he waa ink handed over in nursary and reception
The rest if of the years there was an expectation that the parent would be in the playground to meet them.

I'm really shocked at that stat, from Mumsnet I thought that 11+ and grammar schools were really common.

Safeguarding, OP. They're perfectly happy, eating lunch, hanging with mates, playing footie, going to the library or lunchtime clubs or whatever.

I’d hope 12, 13, 14 year olds can find their way to a shop for lunch and back without loss or injury, there would have been a riot if they’d tried to keep students in school at my Scottish high school. I remember with fondness going to my friends house during free periods in 5th year. Jamaica ginger cake and coffee watching whatever crap daytime tv.

No not at all,most were closed down in the 70,s
the nearest one to me is probably 20-30miles away .

Absolutely. What do they do with their free periods? Sit in school and study?!

Dear god. They should be out causing mischief.

Do you have church schools in Scotland? 🤣
Not being funny but this, this is a huge cultural difference especially in the west.

I fell in love with square sausage whilst in Edinburgh on holiday. I have not found a decent equivalent down here in London. I tried ordering some online, and it was cack.

(Misses point of thread)

Agree with the Sunday lunch thing

The back of! (Still not exactly sure what this means)

And I remember being confused when I started as a fresher at uni in Scotland and I'd see signs in pubs saying "no football colours". Growing up in NE England and a football shirt was the pub uniform. Obviously I learned the reasons but was a culture shock.

I’m in Scotland but I’ve never heard anyone say gutties - am thinking it’s a regional thing? Butteries definitely are, never heard of them until I spent a year in Aberdeen.

I wish the schools kept them in at lunch time, mine don’t go far and have packed lunches but a lot of the kids who go out get a load of shite from the local takeaways. Irn Bru isn’t really the drink of choice at the school because it doesn’t have a shit tonne of caffeine in it but DH has a relative who works for Barrs - it is indeed inescapable one way or another.

Where I grew up the ITV option was Border TV which includes English regions and we could pick up both the Scottish and English versions of BBC1 (and sometimes BBC2 was different) so maybe this meant we were relatively Anglicised. Never knew what people were on about when they talked about Glenn Michael’s Cavalcade.

What do they call the big light then?

Scotland isn't homogeneous! Whilst there are some legal aspects eg school ages, many cited differences will be quite different whether you are in the highland or the lowlands, the islands are different again and vary between them too. Rural living will be more like rural living south of the border than city living!

As for soup ? Really everyone I know makes soup and I'm in the sw of England currently!!! We have relatives in Scotland and their lives are more governed by geography than culture

Yes, where I grew up it would be much more
similar to living in Cornwall than most of the central belt of Scotland and the nearest big town was Carlisle. I looked at England every day from my bedroom window.

Oh the the kids in my town can leave school at lunchtime - it's definitely a small town vs city thing

Anyway, the main difference between Scotland and England is the pronunciation of the word “nougat”. End of.

The fish suppers in Scotland take a lot of beating,
I assumed this was just a piece of fish with chips?

I've always said big light as that is different to the wall lights. Midlands gal.

😂

Double nugget every day 🙌🏻

Free prescriptions, free eyes tests, no tuition fees and higher taxes in Scotland.
I'm sure there’s a link there

Free periods?

They don't have any (ime anyway!)

No free periods until 6th form round here!

Free sanitary products too.

Couple of observations from someone who has lived in both England and Scotland and currently in Northumberland

First, just a point that the government tried relatively recently to allow local authorities to set their own Sunday opening hours and they lost because the SNP refused to back it (even though it would make no difference to Scotland).

Anyway, bigger thing I would say is linked to a PP. Each English region has at least the population of Scotland in it. Yorkshire has about the same population as Scotland for example and London several million more. The regions in England have as much cultural variation as the each of them has with Scotland. In some cases the words, food and attitudes might be closer to Scotland than to other English regions. Often on MN there is an English poster saying about Grammar schools or the like and I don’t feel I live in the same country. And even within regions (as is the case with Scotland) there can be really marked cultural variation based upon geography and history (so the old coal mining regions of South Yorkshire are notably different to York or villages on the North Yorkshire coast).

Ultimately though I would say broadly the culture is close enough across the UK that small differences stand out. By that I mean if you were to go to China and different regions there it would all feel so different that you wouldn’t notice the smaller differences between regions and it would all probably just feel ‘Chinese’ (even if you could speak the language)

Only in bits of Scotland. Here in Edinburgh growing up it was rubbers or trainers.

There is! I’ve bought it in Iceland.

I'd call it 'the light'

The not-big-light would be the/a lamp. If I had any. <passes smelling salts> I know for not-big-light people that's probably quite alarming!

Something that completely caught me out when I came to Scotland was 'just now' to me, 'just now' has already happened. 'I was in town just now and I saw Janice'

Just now in Scotland seemed to mean in a minute / straight away / something like that?

Was very confused when a lady asked me if I wanted my food 'just now' as I ordered. I thought she was asking if I'd already had it and just wanted to pay! Tbh everyone in that interaction ended up confused😂

Forgot to mention the Scotland Baby Box - excellent, innovative scheme for new mums.

• It’s basically a box (that can be used as a baby bed) full of useful things for new mums. Completely free.

Just now means exactly that. Right now. “Did you see what happened just now” is the same as “did you see what just happened right now”

Do you want your food just now means do
you want it brought right out or are you waiting for someone/wanting a drink first etc.