The Education System in England

Hello and welcome. Welcome back to my simple English podcast. The podcast in which I speak about different topics. in slow and understandable English to help you to learn the English language. How are you doing? I hope you're well. This is now episode six.

of my podcast um i nearly forgot which which number it is but episode six already well and this is my last day in isolation um for those do not know already i caught coronavirus about 10 days ago roughly 10 days ago and so today is my last day where i have to isolate because At the moment in England, the rule is that if you catch coronavirus, even if you are vaccinated like me, you have to stay at home and isolate.

for 10 days so that you don't spread the virus to anyone else but it's my last day today which is nice before I actually have to go back to work tomorrow. You might be thinking, work? You don't sound old enough to be at work. And you are kind of right. I'm 19 years old. I've just turned 19 years old, only in September. But I am working because I am actually doing what we call a gap year in England. So I finished.

college or six four last year i have my a levels and now i am going to go to university next year but for this year for one year i am a gap from education and working. In this episode, I would like to explain why I am having a gap year. we call it, why I am not in education at the moment, and I would like to talk a little bit more about the education system in England, a bit about university and a bit about school.

and college because it's a topic that could be a little bit controversial, but it should be quite interesting, I hope. So, without further ado, let's get into the episode.

So, why am I on a gap year? Why did I decide to take a gap year this year? Why am I not at university already? Because... Most of my friends and most of the people who were in my class at college at sixth form last year, most of my friends who have also just finished their A-level course,

They are at university. So why am I not at university? Well, there are a few reasons why people decide to take a gap year. Sometimes they... just need a break from education they maybe are a little bit stressed because of exams

just are a bit tired from exams and they want a year with no education and no exams. That is actually not me. I actually... like like exams i am quite weird um in in that aspect that most people hate exams i actually quite like exams but so you you you really might be wondering well why are you Taking a gap year then. Another reason that some people take a gap year is because they want to work. They want to gain some money. I think...

It is a bit complicated, but in England, university is very expensive. I know in some countries... university is free i know in germany and i think some countries in scandinavia it is free and a lot of other countries france maybe italy a few others it is You have to pay, but you don't have to pay much. It is cheap, you can say, or at least relatively cheap, compared to the UK, compared to England, or compared to America.

united states um i know it is very expensive in america as well but university is very expensive so some students um take a gap year they have a year to earn some money before they go to university um that makes makes sense um it is nine thousand pounds per year um at university which is quite a lot um so if your degree lasts three years that is 27.

thousand pounds now you can get um student loans which are a loan um it's quite a maybe a word you have not heard before in english um is where the government give you money um but you have to pay it back later and students loans are loans especially for students um and they It's quite nice because you don't have to pay it back for a long time. You don't pay it back until you have a good job and you are already earning a certain amount of money, a certain threshold.

Earning before you start paying the government back the money for your your student loan But nonetheless it can be expensive. So that is one sort of reason why I am

Taking a gap year is to work and to make some money. Also to start my podcast and to start my English teaching business. My sort of dream is to... to teach English online and I'm doing some teaching on italki at the moment and so that is that is good but actually I must be honest with with you all the main reason why I am taking a gap year and why I am not at university at the moment is because when I applied for university last year when I put in my application

when I said that I want to go to university, I applied to do the wrong course. I won't say... what I applied for before, because I think I will dedicate a future episode, I will create a future episode of the podcast talking about that more and talking about why I... changed my idea but the main reason is because i fell in love with languages and language learning

So instead of studying something else, I have decided I would like to study foreign languages. And so you can't change your mind. You can't make one decision. and then say, oh no, actually, I want to do this. That doesn't work. When you apply to go to university in England, instead you have to wait a whole year, and you have to wait an entire year, and then... apply again for something different. So that's what I've had to do. And there are some benefits. Like I say, I can make some money.

And I can start this podcast and I can do some online English tutoring. But it is quite hard because I am actually jealous of... Some of my friends who are at university. You know that word, jealous. It means I wish I was in their position. I wish I was at university like they are. I watch them go to university, I speak to my friends, and I sort of think, wow, that sounds very good, I wish that was me. But it's okay, I'm at home for another year, and it's not so bad.

So yeah, that is sort of my situation at the moment. But now you're probably wondering, what is the English school system like? I will explain now. Now, I realise that speaking a lot about how the English education system works, how the English schools work, is probably not very interesting. So if you are listening to this podcast to learn your English, to improve your English, to learn the English language...

As I always say, it is important that you are listening to something that you enjoy, something that you like, something that is interesting, that you find interesting. So I won't spend too long, I won't talk too much about...

the school system but just briefly to give you an idea the the first level of school when you when you start you are age four so only four years old very little children they go into primary school we call it primary school and that lasts up until the age of 11 i believe um yes So, seven years of primary school. You finish that in what we call year six. You have to do a little test at the end called your year six SATs.

which I remember. People used to get really worried about the year six SATs when we were little children at 11 years old. I think it is quite mean that they make children sit exams.

especially since they don't seem to count for very much they don't seem to mean very much but anyway that is primary school um and i think most people love primary school because it is fun and you get to play and do lots of fun things next you have secondary school now secondary school um is again five years so it is quite long i know that is a bit longer than i know some some

countries they have like a middle school which is maybe not as long um i want to say but yeah secondary school is like middle school it is um you start at age 11 and you finish at age 16. And for the final two years of that, we call it year 10 and year 11, so when you are age 14, 15 and 16, you study for exams. and these exams don't worry about the name but they are called GCSEs so all English children at the age of 16

at the end of secondary school, they have to do their GCSEs, their GCSE exams. And these exams are... I want to say they are quite hard because you have to do a lot of different subjects. So for me, I had to do English, Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, History. PE, so like sport, computer science, French, what else? I can't remember. Lots of subjects anyway. I think it was 10 or 11 different subjects.

And so I found those a little bit stressful at age 16. I think everyone does. And it is a bit unusual because in the past, English children were able... to finish school at 16 and go get a job they could leave education age 16 and they didn't have to go to college or anything afterwards they didn't have to go to like a high school But that has actually changed. So now the English government say everybody has to stay in education, has to study more.

up until the age of 18 so two extra years so you cannot leave school at 16 and that is it so it sort of makes you think well if everybody is in education for two years afterwards and they will do some sort of exam at the age of 18 and get some qualification then Then why is it so important that everyone has to do GCSEs at age 16? It seems a little bit odd.

I know maybe in some other countries they still have an exam at the end of middle school, but it is not as important. I know really in England they... The teachers put a lot of focus. They say this is very important, these exams, these GCSEs, which seems odd when everybody now has to be in education until 18. That is my opinion anyway. So.

Then what happens? After you finish secondary school, after you do your GCSEs, what happens next? Well, like I say, by law, it is a legal... requirement from the government that you stay in education until the age of 18 so what can you do for those two years basically you have two choices you can either or three choices you can either get an apprenticeship which is a job where you work and learn at the same time you work and study at the same time

Though those are not so common. Or you can go to college. And college is sort of quite a broad term. And I know this is where it... confuses some people. It can be a bit difficult for some people to understand because in America, they call university college. Yeah, man, I'm in college. That means sort of above the age of 18 after high school. Here in England, college is more like high school. College is from the age of 16, 17, and 18.

that is what college is and there are two two types of college really there is one that is just normally called college and there is one that is called sixth form at the normal college you might do a sort of more practical courses. So I know some friends did bricklaying, learning how to build things, build walls. They might do... carpentry learning how to work with wood you know wood the material that comes from trees you might learn how to

I don't know. Do something with sport. You might learn how to be a football coach or something like that. Lots of different things you can do at college. And then at sixth form... it is the more academic side more more for people who like to study and it is less less practical they say that more intelligent people go to sixth form, smarter, smarter people go to sixth form. I don't think that is really true.

um not necessarily i know there are lots of people at my sixth form who were not very intelligent um and maybe maybe they shouldn't have gone there maybe they should have gone somewhere else i don't know but But anyway, it is for people who like to study, really. And at sixth form, you normally study something called A-levels. A-levels, I don't know if they are famous in other countries, but it is sort of like...

a baccalaureate or something like that um and they are quite interesting because a levels you you do an a level in one subject so for example um you could do an a level in biology or an A-level in maths or an A-level in English and you get to pick three subjects or some people actually do four and so you you pick three or four different a levels and it is quite nice because you can choose any combination you want you can mix different subjects you can combine

any subjects you want. You can make any combination of different A-levels, which was good for me. I chose biology, chemistry, so those two are sort of science. And then French. And that was really good because I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I know in a lot of high schools you choose sort of a path. So I would have had to choose... either to follow the science path or to follow the language path. I would not have been able to do both. I know normally

That can be a hard decision, especially for me, because I liked sciences and I liked languages. I liked French. So it was really nice to be able to do both together like that.

I think... Also, I have to say that A levels are easy. Now, people from England might disagree, but I think... I have spoken to a lot of people from France and from Italy and from Greece and it seems to me like the English sixth form and A-level exams are actually easier, quite a bit easier, than the end of high school exams for those other countries. Why do I say that? Well, I think it is because...

We only do three or four subjects. For me, I only did three subjects. I actually did something else called an EPQ as well. And I'm also a qualified personal trainer for sport. But that is a different topic for a different episode of the podcast. But I only did three subjects, three A-levels. And so... It was not very much work. I didn't have to do a lot of studying, to be honest with you. It was... I had normally five hours per week.

lessons for each subject so five hours times three subjects is only 15 hours per week which is really not very much I know a lot of other high schools in other countries Students are there for 30 hours a week or more, whereas for me it is only 15 hours. Of course I had to do some studying at home, studying in my own time, I had to study, but... Not very much. I think the courses are good, the A-levels are very good, and the exams are quite hard, but there are only three of them.

whereas i know in a lot of other countries students have to do they have to do they are forced to do um maybe their own language so like if in england they would have to do english and maths maybe they everyone has to do maths and on top of their sort of pathway so on top of their lion language pathway or science pathway whatever it may be and it ends up that They seem to do many more subjects, many more different exams than we do. There is a larger variety.

We can say And so it is good for them because it means they they get a nice variety

and they become very intelligent people. But I know that really in a lot of high schools in different countries, the students are very stressed. These teenagers feel a lot of stress. They feel it is very difficult. Whereas... i am very lucky my experience in england was actually quite easy with high school and in fact i was able to work i was able to have a part-time job um different a couple of different jobs actually two jobs

one in a restaurant and one in a shop. I will talk about that in a future episode as well. Whereas I know in a lot of other countries in France, say high school students... It is very rare that a high school student will have a job as well. They do not normally work and study at the same time because the study is very hard, very difficult.

So, yeah. Well, thank you for listening. That has been my... opinion of the education system in England and my experience with school in England. I hope... You found it interesting. You might not agree with everything I say. Maybe you don't think everything I said was correct. In which case, that is fine. It is just my opinion. But yes, it is an interesting topic. I look forward to hearing maybe a comment. If you would like, you can leave a comment or a review on Apple.

podcast or spotify and tell me what you you thought of the episode um tell me what do you think about education in your country as well and and university as well i i cannot wait to go to university. I'm really looking forward to going to university. I really want to go to university.

um and i will go next year and maybe then i can tell you a little bit about my experience in in university as as well um nonetheless i would like to say that Education in England is very good and wherever you are, maybe in Europe, I want to say that I am very lucky. to have access, to be able to have free education. Okay, not free university, but free primary and secondary.

education um i know a lot of countries in the world education is only for the privileged only for rich people and normal people do not get the chance to have an education so i am very very lucky and i'm very very grateful i really appreciate i'm very thankful that i have access to that education still i would like to thank you once again for listening to this uh this podcast listening to this episode right until the end please do leave a review on

podcast if you have enjoyed it or on spotify and you will hear from me in the next episode have an excellent day have an excellent evening wherever you whenever you are listening and goodbye