More Notes About School

Just a few random notes about school here:

At the secondary level, teachers are referred to as Sir or Miss, not their full name (Mr. Smith, Mrs. Jones, etc.). I thought Camille was being a bit slow about learning her teachers' names, until I realized this difference.

It is a new law here in the UK that parents are to be fined for their children's unexcused absences. The fine is 60 pounds per student, per day. So a news story noted that one family was fined over 1000 pounds for taking their three children out of school for a week's holiday trip. It has been a much talked about rule this past year among parents. My kids have actually had a day or two here and there of unexcused absences and have not been fined, so maybe in practice the schools can use their own discretion.

Impressions of Americans by UK students: The number one thing my kids were asked about when they first started school here was guns. Anya particularly got really tired of it. The UK kids' impression of America seemed to be that everyone in America has lots of guns and that America is a violent place, full of gun violence. It would be a huge discussion to go into how true that is, but it was hard for their peers to comprehend that my kids don't own guns, don't know anyone who owns guns and have never lived anywhere where gun violence has had any impact on their lives. On a lighter note, the other thing Anya was asked about a lot was her teeth. She was wearing a retainer when she started school here. Here in the UK orthodontics, if done at all, is done at a later age, so she was the first child most of the kids had seen with a retainer. The kids kept asking her why she needed to wear that when her teeth were so straight and white!

Just as America is implementing Core Curriculum, UK is busy reforming it's curriculum and assessment system also. I spent all year last year trying to figure out the grading system here (They did continuous levels across grades instead of number or letter grades. Like you might be level 4 reading for 2 years and then suddenly jump to level 6, instead of getting an A or B in reading), just in time to have a new system to learn this year. I probably won't take the time to figure it out as we're leaving so soon. I have noticed that they've started implementing the new requirement of every child learning computer programming and the requirement of every child studying at least two Shakespeare plays (Camille is on her second).

Both my girls had more challenging reading assignments here than in the US. Anya went from studying a Dr. Seuss poem in the US to "The Highwayman," Camille went from textbook excerpts to Macbeth.

Both of my girls' schools have much worse libraries here than they did in the US.

Both of my girls' schools have more specialist teachers and field trips. They have special teachers who come in for foreign language, drama, art, music and dance.

Both of my girls say the teachers yell more here. I'm not one hundred percent sure if the teachers really yell at their classes because my girls are very sensitive. What I might call angry, stern talking, they might call yelling.

Another big difference is there isn't a firm separation between church and state like in America. Anya goes to a publicly funded Church of England school. They have prayers, religious music, assemblies at local cathedrals and occasional visits from local pasters, which is all a bit strange to me. Technically, you could always choose a non-religious school. In Anya's case though, the only well-rated schools within a two-mile radius are religious schools. It wasn't really a choice.

In history and social studies my girls' classes in the US went for breadth, while in the UK they go for depth. For instance, Camille had a unit where they studied all of ancient Egyptian history over a couple of months. Here, they are studying the expansion of the British Empire, but actually only looking at two significant battles to do that.

Camille reports that if she could have her American friends here and not have to take dance, she would prefer school here. Anya says she likes school better in America. When I ask her why, she says it's sunnier and warmer there :)