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Yeah, the British education pipeline goes like this: Primary School: Ages 4-11. You sit SATs in the final year that determine your initial placement in secondary school attainment sets. Secondary School (also often called high school colloquially): Ages 11-16. You sit a series of major exams called the GCSEs in the final year, Year 11, which is where the original mystery kids are at right now. Until very recently, this was the extent of mandatory education, and you could go and get a job or an apprenticeship after graduating at 16. Further education starts with: College: Ages 16-18. This is a two year intensive study program where you pick up to five subjects of your choice, drop one in the second year if you choose, and graduate with specific advanced qualifications in, hopefully, fields you're interested in. College is a really wide open experience with almost no mandatory subjects (in the first year you do have to attend a mandatory class teaching general life skills and formal logic). For instance, my subjects were Law, English Literature, English Language, and Drama & Theatre Studies, no maths or sciences at all. If you want you can pick like, Music Technology, Urdu, Archaeology, and Computer Science. Colleges usually also offer many vocational courses as extracurriculars, so while you're studying for university admissions you can get an official qualification in health and safety or graphic design or similar. It's honestly a great system that really encourages young people to follow excellence in their interests, and prevents them from being dragged down by subjects they hate. It's also useful for universities, since the specificity of the courses helps them pick out talent for a given degree program more accurately. College recently became mandatory in the UK, so all 16-18 year olds are now expected to attend. Colleges that are attached to a secondary school and function as an adjunct/extension of it are called sixth forms. Old, fancy schools tend to have these. Most secondary school students who go to a school with a sixth form will just continue on in the same school for college education out of inertia and familiarity, although it isn't mandatory. Griswolds apparently had an adjunct sixth form which is now being closed, so Shauna, Lottie, Mildred et al will have to scramble round the local colleges going to open days and worrying about admissions. This is probably pretty stressful when they thought they had their next two years of schooling already sorted out. The college you go to really matters - it's kind of like "university lite", and the quality of the teaching and resources on offer can vary widely, so this is a significantly more stressful development than, say, having to go to a different secondary school would be. University: Either a three or a four year undergraduate course where you pick a subject and study towards a degree. Very similar to the American system, although there are no "majors" or "minors" - you study just one subject, or pick a degree which is specifically combined i.e., History and Classics or Literature and Philosophy. As a result the course load tends to be higher, but more focused, so it encourages getting really good at just one thing.
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Jun 26, 2018 13:22
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So what exactly are A-Levels, are they...tests? Advanced classes?
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Jun 26, 2018 13:32
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Also pretty much everything you could study at a degree level course is also available as a college level course, so at age 16 you can be studying things like law, psychology, philosophy, business, film studies, fine art, geology, etc. It's a fantastic kick-start for getting young people involved in the fields they're actually interested in.
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Jun 26, 2018 13:33
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Mors Rattus posted:So what exactly are A-Levels, are they...tests? Advanced classes? They're qualifications garnered by a combination of tests and coursework spread out over the two years you're in college. It varies by course, but generally you'll have two or three major coursework assignments (an essay for a "paper" subject, a performance piece or composition for subjects like theatre or music) along with two or three written exams for each year. Your marks for both years are averaged to give you a letter grade for your A level qualifications, with the first year being weighted more lightly than the second in the averaging, to give students who were still getting to grips with the system a break. The best universities uniformly require at least three As at A-level to even consider you for admission to a degree course, so it's pretty high stakes.
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Jun 26, 2018 13:39
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(The mildly confusing part is that they're called "A levels" when that has nothing to do with the letter grade you receive. It just stands for "advanced level".)
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Jun 26, 2018 13:43
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Android Blues posted:(The mildly confusing part is that they're called "A levels" when that has nothing to do with the letter grade you receive. It just stands for "advanced level".) Dang, I thought it stood for A'S ARE THE ONLY THING THAT MATTER YOUR ENTIRE FUTURE IS DEPENDING ON THIS ONE MOMENT ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHHHH.
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Jun 26, 2018 13:46
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Literally the extent of my knowledge about British schools comes from Harry Potter, and a brief skim of Wikipedia, so that was informative
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Jun 26, 2018 13:53
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Yvonmukluk posted:Hey now, it's not Mildred's fault. The real villain is austerity. Post and user name does... not check out.
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Jun 26, 2018 18:11
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Android Blues posted:(The mildly confusing part is that they're called "A levels" when that has nothing to do with the letter grade you receive. It just stands for "advanced level".) They made more sense in contrast to O Levels ("ordinary level") which later became the GCSE.
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Jun 26, 2018 18:22
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But why is it the sixth form. What are the previous five forms.
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Jun 26, 2018 18:27
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Ditocoaf posted:But why is it the sixth form. What are the previous five forms. quote:The term survives from an earlier system when the first five years of English secondary schooling were known as forms (which would originally have been long backless benches on which rows of pupils sat in the classroom). Pupils started their first year of secondary school in the first form or first year, and this was the academic year in which pupils would normally become 12 years of age. Pupils would move up a form each year before entering the fifth form in the academic year in which they would have their sixteenth birthday. Those who stayed on at school to study for A-levels moved up into the sixth form, which was divided into the Lower Sixth and the Upper Sixth. In some private schools, the term Middle Sixth was used in place of Upper Sixth, with the latter being used for those who stayed on for an extra term to take the entrance examinations that were previously set for candidates to Oxford or Cambridge universities. Other schools described these Oxbridge examination students as being in the Seventh Form or Third Year Sixth. Simple, really.
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Jun 26, 2018 18:34
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Ditocoaf posted:But why is it the sixth form. What are the previous five forms. Secondary school has five "forms" (an antiquated term for pupils divided by year group), so if it's a college attached to a secondary school and you continue directly from one to the other, it's sort of like the "sixth form". This is confusing to non-posh British people too, because no-one has called them forms in decades. Instead, you would say an 11-12 year old is in Year 7, a 12-13 year old is in Year 8, etc. This follows on directly from the primary school year groups, which start with Reception, a preparatory year for kids to get used to school, and then progress from Year 1 (5-6 year olds) through to Year 6 (10-11 year olds).
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Jun 26, 2018 18:37
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Jun 26, 2018 18:42
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Sometimes Scary Go Round is just to British for me. This is one of those times. Is this system what that incomprehensible OWL NEWT test stuff in Harry Potter was spoofing?
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Jun 26, 2018 18:51
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Standardized tests with abreviated names are hardly unique to the British system but yes of course they're based off GCSEs SATs etc. The house system is the thing most non-Brits think is made up for Harry Potter.
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Jun 26, 2018 19:13
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Mr Phillby posted:
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Jun 26, 2018 19:22
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No I mean, they took the tests, but then just stayed on for another year. That was what I thought was weird. And that there were two. I got that one was for graduating and the other was for higher education enrollment, but they just stayed at Hogwarts for another year, so why have the test. Like, wouldn't the school they were already in know if they had the academic ability to take advanced divinitation? It's been a long time since I've read those books and didn't understand that stuff at the time, so I could have it all mixed up. But the testing and class naming stuff was what confused me most. Aside from how anyone could ever enjoy watching quidditch. Galvanik fucked around with this message at 19:31 on Jun 26, 2018 |
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Jun 26, 2018 19:28
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It probably would make more sense if the entire British Isles had more than one school.
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Jun 26, 2018 19:29
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PMush Perfect posted:Wait, what?
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Jun 26, 2018 19:36
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For the most part British stuff is intelligible what with being in the same language as American stuff, but every so often there's something weird and alien and it's like it's from Mars. Which happens a lot when I read Bad Machinery, come to think of it.
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Jun 26, 2018 20:13
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PMush Perfect posted:Wait, what?  Tom Siddell posted:The school I used to go to used the same class structure, as do most schools in the UK. I used the same names of the houses (they are different now, I gather) and I was even in Queslett North myself. This page was my "wait, the Harry Potter house system is real?" moment.
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Jun 26, 2018 20:20
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PMush Perfect posted:Wait, what? Houses were a convenient way to divide up students beyond or within their year group, especially for boarding schools. Not exclusive to those, though. My dad went to a regular comprehensive and was in, if I recall correctly, "Damien" house. They're a bit antiquated now in most places, though - they'd dropped the system by the time I went to the same school. In real life they are not usually based on any personal attributes like the Hogwarts or Gunnerkrigg ones.
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Jun 26, 2018 20:33
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The "most schools have them" thing is absolutely not true, and I have no idea where Tom Siddell got that. Some do, but it's definitely not the norm. He probably just grew up in a part of the country (or an era?) where it was common.
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Jun 26, 2018 20:34
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Kind of like how Japanese students use their homeroom to provide a small sense of informal pride and identity?
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Jun 26, 2018 20:36
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Both my secondary and primary schools had them. I guess newer schools probably don't.
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Jun 26, 2018 22:13
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Ditocoaf posted:But why is it the sixth form. What are the previous five forms. Who cares, anime has taught me anything that only the final form matters.
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Jun 26, 2018 22:42
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Pistol_Pete posted:Post and user name does... not check out. I'm...not sure what you mean? Anyway, I saw this comment on the SGR facebook page that might provide a little more clarity on the situation: HERO posted:A catchment area is essentially the district in which, if you live there, a given state school has to take you. Funding is linked to catchment demographics, and previously Griswalds has served a population of 6th form students - grades 11 to 12 if I've got my conversions right - who have no other, accessible alternative, so the local government will have been obliged by its duty of care to continue to fund the Griswalds' integrated 6th form. The HERO designation comes direct from Allison himself, so presumably this is what happened.
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Jun 26, 2018 23:07
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SlothfulCobra posted:For the most part British stuff is intelligible what with being in the same language as American stuff, but every so often there's something weird and alien and it's like it's from Mars. Which happens a lot when I read Bad Machinery, come to think of it.
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Jun 26, 2018 23:34
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john allison exists in a superposition of having originated from all weird non-earth places in scarygoround simultaneously
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Jun 27, 2018 00:22
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Australian schools often have houses but they're usually only for school sports and other school competitions. Since I left, though, my secondary school has reorganised and gone Full Hogwarts and now all the upper school home groups are divvied up by house and put into seperate corners of the building that are covered in colors. It was wierd to see, since when I was there nobody gave a poo poo about houses at all. MikeJF fucked around with this message at 01:37 on Jun 27, 2018 |
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Jun 27, 2018 01:34
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Yvonmukluk posted:I'm...not sure what you mean? I should really have said post and avatar but eh,  Houses are a posh school thing in the Uk, part of the school's marketing to big up their ancient and exclusive traditions. Normal schools sometimes set up their own House system as a sort of cargo cult imitation: they imagine that posh kids are successful because of poo poo like that rather than because they're rich and well-connected.
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Jun 27, 2018 06:08
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They're very common in Australia across all kinds of schools, except particularly small ones. Like I said before, if nothing else they make school sports and stuff like that easier to organise. At my state primary school we had Blue, Red, Green and Yellow House. I was in Blue House. 
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Jun 27, 2018 10:33
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i was in blue house and would go in exactly one race in every sporting event to get a participation point. in year 11 i even didn't come last in the 100m sprint because one of the other contestants had an asthma attack and collapsed on the track (i still only just beat her)
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Jun 27, 2018 10:41
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Previously, on Marvel's Agents of S.H.E.L.L....
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Jun 28, 2018 04:27
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It would be perfect irony if John puts Scarygoround on temporary hiatus then never comes back to it, given how his previous attempts at wrapping it up have gone.
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Jun 28, 2018 11:58
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Blossom is wiser than she appears. http://www.scarygoround.com/index.php?date=20180627
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Jun 28, 2018 12:21
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If Griswald's is so terrible and cash-strapped and the Wendleford college is excellent wouldn't this be kinda a good thing?
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Jun 28, 2018 12:28
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MikeJF posted:If Griswald's is so terrible and cash-strapped and the Wendleford college is excellent wouldn't this be kinda a good thing? They've had the rug pulled out from under them and they're going to have to commute into strange and hated Wendlefield, I imagine would be the key problems. Then again maybe this will go further towards building some bridges between these towns divided. Maybe the Wendlefield mystery kids (or what's left of them) will even be attending the same college!
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Jun 28, 2018 13:10
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MikeJF posted:If Griswald's is so terrible and cash-strapped and the Wendleford college is excellent wouldn't this be kinda a good thing? nothing in Wendlefield is excellent
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Jun 28, 2018 15:49
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Except the roads out of it! 
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Jun 28, 2018 15:51
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