Speak the culture britain be fluent in b 359

How the schooling system breaks down Nursery Freely available, non-compulsory pre-school education for three and four-year-olds Primary School The most common path through the state school system starts here, which takes pupils from four to 11 Secondary School Secondary schools all teach children up to age 16 Some also provide further education Sixth Form College Teaching pupils between the ages of 16 and 18, but not found in Scotland Which school did you go to? Education in Britain has an enduring duality The gulf between the state and private sectors in terms of academic achievement (the latter routinely attains better grades), social makeup and cultural identity is wide Chris Parry, chief executive of the Independent Schools Council, spoke recently in terms of a “sectarian divide” If you’re British, the type of school you attended can carry a relevance throughout adulthood; prepare to be prejudged based on whether you attended the local comprehensive or boarded at Eton The seven per cent of children attending an independent school are far more likely to attend university than their state school counterparts – Oxbridge still derives 40 per cent of its intake from private schools Similarly, they’ll find better paid jobs and achieve a higher standard of living Although the ‘old boys network’ isn’t as dominant in the upper echelons of British industry as it once was, there is still a sense that attending the right school can be very beneficial On the downside, a certain cultural stigma – an inverted snobbery perhaps – can await the private school pupil out in the wider world The school inspectors State schools have experienced an unprecedented level of Government intervention over the last 30 years The initiative which has had the greatest impact is probably the Ofsted visit Every school in England receives a periodic Ofsted (The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills) inspection The resultant report helps determine a school’s popularity, offering parents a measure of standards A failing school can end up in ‘special measures’, whereby the local authority focuses resources on improvement If that doesn’t work, the school may close Wales (Estyn), Scotland (HMIe) and Northern Ireland (ETI) have their own inspection bodies carrying out similar work 349 Identity: the foundations of British culture Literature and philosophy Art, architecture and design Performing arts Cinema, photography and fashion Media and communications Food and drink Living culture: the state of modern Britain