Comparison between the public school in US and London

[Anonymous]

OP, you also need to be aware: Not only does full-time schooling start younger in Britain, but kids are tracked much earlier into those who are "more academic" versus those who are "vocationally bound" or however you want to put it. In short, the British system means that kids taking "A levels" in the last couple of years of school are taking a very limited number of subjects. So a kid in an American high school might still be exposed to maths and sciences and language arts and history until high school is over, but a kid the same age in a high school in England would be taking only a handful of related subjects.

This is great if a kid knows at age 16 or 17 exactly what he or she wants to do for the rest of his or her life, but it does mean teens are less exposed to chances to try new things except as extracurriculars or by taking on extra classes. My husband went through the British system and felt that if he had not been "tracked" by the schools from age 11 onward as a math-and-science kid, and had been encouraged to do more arts and been exposed to more arts and history, he might have realized much sooner his very real interest in those areas.

Same with our friends' kids who are currently in British high schools -- after about age 16, they take only classes related to the same, single topic they think they'll pursue in college, and while that's more focused than over here, the down side is that if a kid realizes by college time that he or she is not really happy with that topic -- they're kind of screwed. The British undergraduate university system focuses on your major from day one, so if you decide you don't want to pursue the same single subject at university that you did in the last two years of what we call high school, you may be in trouble.

I know Brits who say we coddle teens and college kids too much, allow too many changes of majors, etc. I get that perspective. But I also have known kids in the British system who felt locked into A level subjects and college majors that they were basically told were the right ones for them -- when they were 11 and again when they were 16.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, you also need to be aware: Not only does full-time schooling start younger in Britain, but kids are tracked much earlier into those who are "more academic" versus those who are "vocationally bound" or however you want to put it. In short, the British system means that kids taking "A levels" in the last couple of years of school are taking a very limited number of subjects. So a kid in an American high school might still be exposed to maths and sciences and language arts and history until high school is over, but a kid the same age in a high school in England would be taking only a handful of related subjects.

This is great if a kid knows at age 16 or 17 exactly what he or she wants to do for the rest of his or her life, but it does mean teens are less exposed to chances to try new things except as extracurriculars or by taking on extra classes. My husband went through the British system and felt that if he had not been "tracked" by the schools from age 11 onward as a math-and-science kid, and had been encouraged to do more arts and been exposed to more arts and history, he might have realized much sooner his very real interest in those areas.

Same with our friends' kids who are currently in British high schools -- after about age 16, they take only classes related to the same, single topic they think they'll pursue in college, and while that's more focused than over here, the down side is that if a kid realizes by college time that he or she is not really happy with that topic -- they're kind of screwed. The British undergraduate university system focuses on your major from day one, so if you decide you don't want to pursue the same single subject at university that you did in the last two years of what we call high school, you may be in trouble.

I know Brits who say we coddle teens and college kids too much, allow too many changes of majors, etc. I get that perspective. But I also have known kids in the British system who felt locked into A level subjects and college majors that they were basically told were the right ones for them -- when they were 11 and again when they were 16.

However, its common to take up to 4 or 5 A levels in some areas now - which does broaden your scope in terms of university degrees, unless of course you want to study something traditional like Medicine and you need your Biology, Chemisty, Physics combination.

Also don't forget there are "combined" degrees - History & English, PPE (Politics, Philospophy and Economics) - which does broaden your job perspectives too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:[quote]Interesting because our German au pairs were shocked at how much more rigorous public school was for our early elementary school kids here. I think it gets harder in the older grades there (after gymnasium splits off from realschule, etc.) but then only the "smarter" kids are in the hard classes anyway as the other kids are in the equivalent of trade school.

And I'll bet they don't have nearly as many kids on ADHD medication. It's nice to be able to wait for some kids to grow up. Here it's a "race to the top".

No. They just track the ADHD kids out of the academic track in about 6th grade.

[Anonymous]

I also know several people who say the special needs programs are horrible in the UK so they've moved over here. Does the UK have any inclusion?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I also know several people who say the special needs programs are horrible in the UK so they've moved over here. Does the UK have any inclusion?

They simply don't get so many people qualifying as "special needs" - here it seems to be a wide net.
There are genuine special schools for children who need them, but they are all lumped into the same category, so you might have a child who is highly verbal but emotionally distressed in a class with a child with severe learning difficulties.

So there are separate issues.