Help needed from anyone in/from the UK,please. Differences between UK and US schools

[lummox]

My mum is going to give a short talk about England at my niece's school in the US today. Could anyone help with some differences between the two systems that might be interesting to 6/7 year olds?

We've thought of uniform - any other thoughts?

Doh - title should have read "help needed from anyone in the US please"

Hi Lummox

The differences from my own experience:

No school 'assembly' in US
No Religion in US schools
US kids sing pledge of allegiance in the morning!
No uniform
US School have yellow school bus (UK has no special bus)
UK schools hours 9pm - 3pm whereas US 8:15 - 2:45 (1pm Thurs)
UK schools have 'book bags' US kids have backpacks!
UK kids start at age 4 in the US it's 5
UK kids have PE kit whereas no such thing at my local US school
No 'Sports Day' in US school
US has 10 weeks 'Summer Vacation' and no 'Half Term' whereas UK kids have 6 weeks 'School Holiday' (over the whole year it's the same numbers of weeks in each country)
US Kids go to Summer camp!

Hope that helps!

That is a fantastic list redflipflops - thank you so much for taking the time. Talk a great success (kids love hearing about other kids I think). Can't imagine everyone singing the pledge of allegiance every morning, although I guess it isn't any more bizarre than the Lord's Prayer which I think we said every day at primary school.

I would say that some private US schools do sometimes have uniforms, a half-term etc...

What about the bottle of milk the UK kids used to get every day in school? I know its not current, but it might be worth mentioning.

Schoolwork is much easier in the US!
Please don't tell them that, as they are easily offended, but my child is just completing Grade One in a private school in the US and will spend the summer catching up to go into primary three in Scotland. I think that the "good job!" "awesome" culture has a lot to answer for.