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- It is a dual system consisting of state and private schools.
- English schools are all-day schools (lessons from 9-12 and 2-4 from Monday to Friday)
with school meals provided at lunch time.
- The school-year is divided up into three terms (autumn, spring, summer).
- The school day begins at 9 o'clock with a 15-minute Assembly with pupils and staff
present. It usually consists of a religious part (prayer, hymn) followed by the
Headmaster`s announcements for the day. State schools must provide religious education.
The syllabuses must reflect Christianity whilst taking account of other main religions
practised in Britain (Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism). However, parents have
the right to withdraw their children from religious edueation classes and collective
worship.
- School Uniforms are worn by many younger Comprehensive School children (up to 5th Form)
and Public School boys.They are supposed to remove social differences, preventing
competition in dress, and to promote equality among pupils.
- The prefect system was introduced to give specially selected senior boys and girls
responsible tasks to assist the staff, Thus prefects help the teacher to organize trips,
run school facilities or supervise younger children in the teacher`s absence. The prefect
system has been abandoned in many Comprehensive Schools.
- Extra-curricular activities (e.g. drama, school magazine, photography, music) play an
important part in English school life. The most traditionally English of these clubs is
the debating society in which students learn to develop their oral skills and to speak
according to democratic rules. The meetings imitate the debates held in the Westminster
Parliament. Today "drama" has taken over from "debating" in many
Comprehensive Schools.
- The English concept of the school as a community combines formal learning with the
acquisition of social values such as co-operation, loyalty, team spirit, readiness to
help. This educational principle is exemplified with the help of e.g. the prefect system,
out-of-class activities and community schemes. These aims were developed originally by the
private schools and later adopted by state schools, too.
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