Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

Flip

1 2

Original poster

So Sixth Form isn't Year 6? A plea from the clueless...

47 replies

tharsheblows · 09/05/2008 21:38

Argh, how does it all work? They go from year 6 to secondary school and then what? When does university start? What's this about Sixth Form schools and colleges? Do some go just to Sixth Form and some go to something higher? When are GCSEs? Do I put an apostrophe in the plural of GCSE or not? What is it all about? Could someone please please draw or link to a diagram?

OP posts:

potoftea · 10/05/2008 18:57

Ok so while we are on the subject can someone explain to me about A levels. Do you do a more difficult exam in the same subject in the second year or is it a totally different subject from the As level exam you did the previous year?

Also how many subject is normally studied for A level?

I'm Irish and have relations in England, and never can understand what level of school they're at, so am just being nosy really.

Blandmum · 10/05/2008 19:06

OK, many kids will do 4 A levels for the first year at AS level (this is done in year 12, or the lower sixth)

They do exams at the end of the year and will have and AS level in whatever they have studied.

Most will then take 3 of them at the higher A2 leve. the work is harder in this year (done in year 13, Upper sixth). THe scores are added up and at the end they have a 'Full' A level in a subject

evenhope · 10/05/2008 19:07

You normally take 4 subjects for AS, then drop one to study the remaining 3 subjects to A2. A2 is a continuation of the AS course.

My DS2 is doing the IB instead of A levels..

ScienceTeacher · 10/05/2008 19:07

potoftea,

A-levels are changing this year, so what happens now may not be relevent for the future starting in September.

For my subject (Physics), we work in modules, and each module is supposed to be equally demanding. The A2 modules are harder, but they assume that the student has moved ahead during their AS year. Each modules also assume knowledge from previous modules.

It is pretty common to do 4 or 5 AS-levels and 3 or 4 A2s.

potoftea · 10/05/2008 19:09

Thanks all.

mankyscotslass · 11/05/2008 06:42

Tissy, you can (or could in my time) also do a CSYS after your Highers in Scotland, and stay on for S6. That might be me showing my age though .

ScienceTeacher · 11/05/2008 15:45

I think you are showing your age

I did Highers and then went to Uni after Fifth Year, but that was 26 years ago.

At my school, if you stayed for 6th year, you either did more Highers or A-levels. SYS was for students who were leavign the education system.

I think nowadays there are things called Advanced Highers, and differnt types of 'Standard' Grade (O-grade to you and me).

mankyscotslass · 11/05/2008 15:47

I sat Certificates of Sixth Year studies in 1988, the year after I sat my Highers, so maybe it changed again?

ScienceTeacher · 11/05/2008 15:52

That would have been the system that was in place when I left school in 1982. But it has all changed now, and I haven't really got my mind wrapped around it.

It was very easy when I was at school. Everyone had the same exams (there was no situation of multiple boards as you get in England - it was just SCEEB), and very few subjects had different specifications (I recall there was Geography A and B, and we did B).

The system really suited me, but I can see, as a teacher, that it would really suit only a narrow band of students.

mankyscotslass · 11/05/2008 16:01

I agree, it was straightforward, although we were starting the processes of moving to Standard/Foundation grades just when I sat my O grades.
We did the O Grades at either Standard or Foundation level, then could stay on and do Highers, then either leave, go to Uni or stay on and do Certificates of Sixth Year Studies, which involved a dissertation and exams. It was all laid out so not that complicated at all! Down here my head is spinning with all the options, lets hope it's simplified before I have to worry about it for eldest manky!

nlondondad · 11/05/2008 16:24

Just to complicate things further the American university system is different again...

Degrees are usually four years in length, which was their length here many years ago, and undergarduate study less specialised than here but with very specialised Graduate school. As an example Law and Medicine are both undergraduate subjects here while while in Ameroca they are postgrad only.

Original poster

tharsheblows · 11/05/2008 19:51

Oh no, the American university is easy peasy. The British system is the one that's incomprehensible. And mankyscotslass, you have a very strange idea of "not that complicated".

I have put my fingers in my ears and sung lalala about all the A-level stuff (didn't help for some reason).

Thinking about it, I took a year off in high school and was an exchange student in Australia in year, erm, 10, I think. The one before it all got serious. It was good fun but completely different than the US. Not sure how it compared to the British system .

My sons are going to have to go from the UK to the US system most likely - we're planning on moving back in a few years. I will be a wreck then, I think.

Thanks for all the explanations, including the A level bits. It's really helped a lot. I was feeling rather panicked about it all.

OP posts:

milliec · 07/06/2008 20:55

Message withdrawn

kris007 · 10/06/2008 04:00

If you are American and your kid is going into 6th form, don't under any circumstances send her to a 6th form at a secondary school - look instead for a 6th form college. An American kid, aged 17, will never be willing to tolerate the British "uniform fetish" and the various other humiliations and degradations that form part of a good old British education. At almost all 6th form colleges, the kids are treated as human beings, and the atmosphere will be far more accommodating to an American kid.

SueW · 10/06/2008 07:10

Going somewhat OffT: I've never found it necessary to memorise the names of all the counties!! I just know vaguely where a fair few of them are. Only lived here about 40 years.....

Back OnT: I am gobsmacked at how students take A-levels: resits to improve grades, sometimes several times during their sixth form years; completely aware of the marking scheme; mentally working out how many marks they need in the next paper given that this one went badly etc.

No wonder so many of them go into shock when they hit uni and find they can't re-sit every paper/module they don't get perfect first time.

FluffyMummy123 · 10/06/2008 07:24

Message withdrawn

gagarin · 10/06/2008 07:34

tharsheblows - can you explain the US system in a timeline?

I have watched so many teen movies I don't understand!

I mean they say "which school as you choosing" - but they are at school! And they seem to change school so frequently - (thinking of Malcolm in the MIddle here).

There High school. And Junior high.

I would LOVE to see a timeline (age/name of ed establishment/external exams taken)

SpacePuppy · 10/06/2008 07:49

and the million dollar question...who fucked up the school system?

ScienceTeacher · 10/06/2008 18:52

Gagarin,

In the place we were in in the US, they had Preschool (always private), and then Elementary School and High School.

The Elementary years were divided into Primary Division and Middle School.

Primary, in that School District, was K, 1, 2, 3, 4. Middle School grades 5 - 8, and High School grades 9 - 12 (Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior).

Not sure what happens at the end of High School, but in the Elementary School, there were big State proficiency tests, similar to SATS, every few years. You'd have to go to Summer School or repeat the year if you didn't pass.

gagarin · 10/06/2008 19:54

A little clearer - how old is kindergarten? 4-5 or 5-6?

ScienceTeacher · 10/06/2008 20:13

5-6, but it is common to hold some children back a year.

Heifer · 10/06/2008 20:26

the kindergarten at DDs school is the same as the normal reception class.

She will be 4.8 when she starts so I would have said 4-5.

Flip

1 2