To wonder if differences between Scotland and rUK are generally known?

[weescotlass]

I see lots of posts about UK and British issues, that seem to refer to England only.

Is it generally understood that Scotland was a separate country pre 1707 and already had its own legal and education system in place, which were retained on the creation of the United Kingdom?

Therefore house buying, school exams, wills, divorce, university degrees, criminal law, policing etc have real distinct differences.

Are people who use the term UK not aware of the differences when refering/advising on something that affects England only?

Genuinely interested and not meaning to cause an argument. I find the differences really interesting, things like inheritance law when people ask about wills, or issues when a buyer pulls out of buying a house. I don't want to comment on new/current controversial legislation!

I had no idea the Scottish education system was set in the 1700s.
I knew many laws were different, and house buying, and the court system.

But Scotland was so keen on the EU that many of its laws must have been subject to the EU, when the UK was a member?

But then in any country ruled by Nicola Sturgeon and her cronies, the law hardly mattered...

What do you mean by "set in the 1700s"?

Daphnis156 what do you mean re the EU? I don't understand your question.

I guess she means that since Scotland England both had a lot of EU law, that would make their laws more similar.

The answer to that @Sunsetboardwalk is that so did France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Hungary, Denmark etc etc and their systems are very varied indeed. EU law is/was often about principles but each Member State could implement those in its own way. It also rarely dictates things like court procedure, which is where Scots and English law differ the most.

Heather my question referred to the comments about schools.

I’m in Scotland & Scottish. I & everyone I know refer to the school after primary as Secondary school (so first school then second school) there are different types of Secondary schools, High school, Academy as well as in my town Colleges (from age 11/12 to 16-18) - different from a college you’d attend following on from Secondary school. My husband & I attended Academy while our daughter attended a High School.

All the secondary schools round my way are called X Academy but they are not academies in the way they are in England in that they have not opted out of local authority control - that sort of school just doesn't exist in Scotland. There is also a school near where I grew up called Musselburgh Grammar - and that's not a grammar school in the English sense either.

Other than private schools they are just names - they are all non-selective comprehensive schools. Selection still done via parents choosing where to live! But not by the school. (I suppose you could say faith schools select by faith to an extent).

Sorry @Sunsetboardwalk , I tagged you in “the answer to that” when I should have tagged @Daphnis156 .

Are you saying that your “Academy” was run in a different way to your daughter”s “High School”?
I thought it was literally just a choice of name, with no significance to high vs Academy.

Though as I said upthread, I think that quite a lot of private schools choose to be called “Academy” as it sounds a bit posher (Dollar and Morrison’s are examples). But state schools are free to use “Academy” too.

My DD attended a state school which happened to be named town academy, no different to town high school along the road. We don't have different types of aye high school.

I’ve just done a little survey on Wikipedia. It seems that “Academy” is the most common naming style for state schools in Aberdeenshire and Dundee. Highland has a mixture of the two, then as you go into the Central Belt (where I am from) it’s almost exclusively “High School”.

And here’s an example of a former “High School” being renamed “Academy” after merger with another state school, but there is clearly no structural significance in the name.

I also noticed that fewer private schools than I expected are called “Academy”, it just so happened that the two near me were- possibly because the term was less used in the state sector in my area. Many of the private schools are just called “X School”.

In my area (East Dunbartonshire) there are 10 secondary schools. 7 are "academy", 3 are "high school".

But it just all means the same thing. Schools, school intake, exams and catchment areas are definitely what crops up here the most on threads as the two systems are very different yet people moving from England to Scotland or vice vera are constantly trying to compare the two.

Perth has Perth High, Perth Grammar and Perth Academy. I’m sure there were differences between them in the past, but they are now just all standard comprehensives.

Contrary to.what you read on mumsnet most schools in England are comprehensive a,lot are becoming academies and many are managed by multi Academy trust,s we do have Catholic and C ofr E comprehensive, s but even these many ate managed by multi Academy trusts
I know mumsnet bangs in about Grammar schools but in reality there are very few Grammar schools and are very area specific

It’s not almost exclusively “high” - I’ve worked in academies, high schools and grammars. All used interchangeably, but the name often depends what type of school it was way back when.

High schools are usually non selective schools in origin, whereas academies or grammars often were traditionally selective. However; now they are all non selective.

Names are just names - high school of college

Although to add to the fun don't for get Madras College which is a normal non-dom secondary in Fife

Er, I know where I come from and I checked the usage in my area. Wherever you taught, it was obviously somewhere else?!

In England, I've noticed a lot of Private Girls schools have High School in the name. (Eg Sheffield High School, Blackheath High, Bromley High)

I’m aware where I live and teach and it’s most definitely in the central belt; across four different local authorities.

To keep with the NLC theme you started; 5 of the 23 secondary schools don’t use “high” in the name. When we exclude catholic schools (since they have different origins and therefore are more likely to use “high” as opposed to “academy” or “grammar”) its fairly even between “high” or another name.
South Lanarkshire has sought 50% academy/grammar schools too.
Glasgow go mainly with “secondary” - very few high schools or academies and no grammars
Edinburgh has lots of “community high schools”
West Lothian is almost exclusively academies with some community high schools too. Same with East Lothian, but it’s more 50:50 there.

Historically in Dundee, the academies were from the days of the 11+ and were fee paying, there was Harris Academy, Lawside Academy (catholic) Grove Academy and Morgan Academy. If you passed the 11+ you got a free place, otherwise you went to your local secondary….since everything went comprehensive the academies retained their names, but that’s all, they’re just secondary schools.

The Academies in England bear no resemblance to the old system we had locally

And none of those places are the part of the Central Belt that I come from, which is Stirling/Falkirk. Which is where I was talking about. 12 schools, 11 called “High School”. I don’t even know what NLC stands for?!

North Lanarkshire council - the council which hosts Cumbernauld Academy, a place you cited in your post.

What you may have meant was in your small corner of the central belt there are very few schools with “academy” in their title - it’s certainly not the case for the majority of the central belt. Both the councils you cited have tiny populations.

Oh for goodness sake, we are both making the same point anyway, which is that the names are meaningless. I just thought it was quite rude of you to try try to tell me that I was wrong and you knew better, rather than a polite question about what reference points I was using.