British education permits to develop fully the abilities of individuals, for their own benefit and of society as a whole. Compulsory schooling takes place between the ages of 5 and 16, but some pupils remain at school for 2 years more, to prepare for further higher education. Post school education is organized flexibly, to provide a wide range of opportunities for academic and vocational education and to continue studying through out life.
The department of education and science is responsible for national education policy, but it doesn't run any schools, if doesn't employ teachers, or prescribe curricular or textbooks. All schools are given a considerable amount of freedom. According to the law only one subject is compulsory. That is religious instruction.
Children receive preschool education under the age of 5 in nursery schools or in infant's classes in primary schools.
Most pupils receive free education finance from public funds and the small proportions attend schools wholly independent. Most independent schools are single-sex, but the number of mixing schools is growing.
Education within the maintained schools system usually comprises two stages: primary and secondary education. Primary schools are subdivided into infant schools (ages 5 - 7), and junior schools (ages 7 - 11). Infant schools are informal and children are encouraged to read, write and make use of numbers and develop the creative abilities. Primary children do all their work with the same class teacher except for PT and music. The work is based upon the pupil's interests as far as possible.
The junior stage extends over four years. Children are learning arithmetic, reading, composition, history, geography nature study and others. At this stage of schooling pupils were often placed in A, B, C and D streams according their abilities. The most able children were put in the A stream, the list able in the D stream. Till recently most junior school children had to seat for the eleven-plus examination. It usually consisted of an arithmetic paper and an intelligent test. According to the results of the exam children are sent to Grammar, Technical or Secondary modern schools.
So called comprehensive schools began to appear after World War II. They are much mixed schools which can provide education for over 1000 pupils. Ideally they provide all the courses given in Grammar, Technical and Secondary modern schools.
By the law all children must receive full-time education between the ages of 5 and 16. Formally each child can remain a school for a further 2 or 3 years and continue his studies in the sixth form up to the age of 18 or 19. The course is usually subdivided into the lower 6 and the upper 6. The curricular is narrowed to 5 subjects of which a pupil can choose 2 or 3.
The main examinations for secondary school pupils are general certificate of education (the GCE) exam and certificate of secondary education (the CSE) exam. The GSE exam is held at two levels: ordinary level (0 level) and advanced level (A level).
4. Share your ideas about how your parents and you can support the school:
In some poor schools, teachers and principals are so overworked that parent conferences are nearly impossible to arrange and the teachers are unable to give more than slight individual attention to a child.
In this case a parent may be a supplementary teacher for the child. Parents should le the child understand that during the teaching period they are going to be objective, unemotional, strict, friendly, like a good teacher. The child is to enter willingly into the plan for supplementary teaching. If it is done against his will, results will be poor.
Parents must show that they themselves have a zest for learning: read, talk about books, keep pen the new ideas, provide trips to museums, theaters, have as many interesting visitors as they can in their home.
The family must keep complaints about school in proper prospective. Occasionally, reports from school come home in a form contrary to the fact. If a serious injustice have been done parents have to suspend judgment until they’ve had a chance to check the facts.
5. Complete the sentences with words from the brackets:
(Teachers, life, problems, homework, view, facts, lesson, question, people)
1. Teachers sometimes act as if they never went to school and had ___________.
2. He doesn’t see our point of _________ and after demands too much of us.
3. Teachers try to scare the ____________ into us and not teach.
4. When you ask a ________ they ignore it or say, ‘I’ll pick that up later’ and never do.
5. _____________seem to get the third or fourth person who has done something wrong, and not the first.
6. They accuse a person too quickly without finding out all the _______.
7. They don’t punish people who don’t do their __________ but complain to people who work hours that it isn’t good enough.
8. They are too fussy, everything has to be strictly right, and they ask you about your private _____ on questionnaires.
9. Most of them will not be criticized, although they love to criticize other________.
6. Complete the dialogue with the correct form of the verbs in the brackets:
(fail, pass, revise, re-sit)
1. Hi, Dale, I’m so happy. I ___________- all my exams. I even got a great A in maths.
2. I didn’t too badly, but I ___________ chemistry. I’ll have to _________ it next term.
3. You spent ages on chemistry. What happened? I just didn’t ________ hard enough.
7. Use the following verbs and words to complete the text:
(applied, university, passed, degree, got, secondary, sat, college, doing, primary, graduated, nursery)
1. When I was very young I went t a play group and then a ___________ school.
2. When I was 5, I started at the local ____________________ school.
3. My primary school was mixed, but when I was 11, I went to all-boys ________ school.
4. After five years at secondary school, I decided to go to six form_____________.
5. In my last year in the six form I _______ exams in 4 subjects- physics, maths, geography and chemistry.
6. I_________ them all and _______ A grades in physics and maths.
7. I ___________ for a place at ___________ to study astronomy.
8. It was a three-year __________ course.
9. I _____________ with first class honors.
10. I thought about ___________________ a postgraduate degree, but decided to earn some money.
8. Match the school places with their definitions:
Staff room where do you PE
Hall where you play football and other sports
Gym the teacher’s room
Classroom a big room where the whole school can meet for assembly
Chemistry/physics lab a quiet place to read or look things up
Playground where students go during breaks
Library where you have most of your lessons
Playing fields a special room where you can do expeiments
LESSON 7
Education in the USA
1. Schools. Complete the sentences with the words from the brackets:
(colleges, pupil, education, goal, magnet, private, teacher, alternative, graduates, high, schools)
1. Americans have shown a great concern for __________- since colonial times.
2. Some _________ of Cambridge founded Harvard College in 1636.
3. Today 35% of Americans aged 3-4 attend nursery ______. 95% of 5-years old attend kindergarten
4. 88% of American children attend public schools and 12 % go to ________ schools.
5. About 60% of school graduates enter ______ and universities. There are 300 of them in the USA.
6. Average expenditure per ______ in the US is $4000. Alaska, NY, NJ and Wyoming spend $5000.
7. Average public school ___ earns %22000, in Alaska -$41000.
8. The American _________ school is a combination of all types of schools.
9. ______________children attend the same schools that anyone else does.
10. There are also ________schools which help students who did not do well in traditional schools.
11. Among the most popular are the _________ schools which stress the field of study: maths, arts, etc.
12. Education in America serves the traditional _________ of ‘Americanization’.
System of education
(English, students, tests, literate, fields, free, applicants, system, education, universities)
1. The US doesn’t have a national _________________________of education.
2. __________is ‘a national concern, a state responsibility, and a local function’.
3. In 60% of the states, local schools are _________ to choose any teaching materials.
4. There are two ________ for high school students who wish to attend a college or university.
5. The SAT/ Scholastic Aptitude Test/ measures aptitudes in verbal and mathematical ______________.
6. The ACT /American College Testing/ -in_________, maths, social and natural sciences.
7. Each year the SAT is taken by two million _________, and the ACT is taken by one million students.
8. The tests are used by ___________ as standards for comparison, but are not official.
9. Some universities are very selective, Stanford admitted 16 % of _______ and Harvard 17 %.
10. 99% of Americans are ________ but 1/10 of all Americans are functionally illiterate in English.
3. In the US Classroom:
(Teachers, jeans, gum, period, legs, interrupting, classroom, tops, stylish, clothing):
1. Europeans are surprised by the informal atmosphere of U.S._____________.
2. They may eat, drink or chew ____________ in the classroom.
3. Students also dress rather informally. Students often wear _______- and tennis shoes to class.
4. Jeans are often purposely ripped for a ‘____________’effect.
5. Some students wear revealing clothing- short skirt, tank _______, and sheer _________.
6. Students also sit rather informally, sometimes on their own _________ or cross-legged.
7. Students often rush to and from classes without saying hello or good-bye to ________.
8. Sometimes students come into classrooms after the _______ has begun, or leave before it ends.
9. They say nothing to the teacher, since they may consider that ______ would be rude.
4. Read and translate the text, define the differences between Ukrainian and American systems of education:
