Yo, I was just wondering how the years, grades, forms, exams etc. go in other countries. In New Zealand:

Age ; School Year (form) ; Exams (if any)

pre-school (if you want to)
1-4

Primary school
5; 1
6; 2
7; 3
8; 4
9; 5
10;6

Intermediate School
11; 7 (1)
12; 8 (2)

High (Secondary) School
13; 9 (3)
14; 10 (4)
15; 11 (5); NCEA Level 1
16; 12 (6); NCEA Level 2
17; 13 (7); NCEA Level 3 (and, for some people) Scholarship exams (which the NZQA compelety ****ed up last year)

Term 1; Jan/Feb - Apr
Term 2; Apr/May - Jun/Jul
Term 3; Jul - Aug/Sep
Term 4; Sep -Nov/ Dec
Depending on whether a public or private school, and whether Yr 11+ (Examinees finish earlier )

Please post the school stats thingys from your country, I get extremely confuzzled when people start talking about IGSCE, a levels and as levels. What are they?

GCSE's, A levels and AS levels.

Nursery school:
Optional, starting age differs. Some private nurseries take children from 1 month+, I think state nurseries take children from 2+.

Primary school:
Age; school year; exams
4/5; reception
5/6; 1
6/7; 2 (SATS) - Some debate regarding whether they should be done because they are only for government targets)
7/8; 3
8/9; 4
9/10; 5
10/11; 6 (SATS)

Secondary school:
11/12; 7
12/13; 8
13/14; 9 (SATS)
14/15; 10
15/16; 11; GCSE's (General Certificate of Secondary Education)

6th form or college:
16/17; 12 or Lower 6th; AS (Advanced Subsidary) levels (which make up half of an A level).
17/18; 13 or Upper 6th; A (Advanced) level.

University:
18+; degree.

Ok, in the UK we have:

Start school at 4 (There are nurseries you can go to before but they weren't compulosry when I was that age!)
4-11 Primary school

Reception 4-5
Year 1 5-6
Year 2 6-7 Take SATs here
Year 3 7-8
year 4 8-9
year 5 9-10
Year 6 10-11 Take some more SATs

11-16 Secondary school/High school

Year 7 11-12
Year 8 12 -13
Year 9 13-14 And some more SATs
Year 10 14-15 GCSE work starts here
Year 11 15-16 Take GCSEs in the Summer here

Some schools split it into lower, middle and high school, but I don't really know how it works

16-18 Optional 6th form education/college

16-17 Take AS exams
17-18 Take A-level exams

Winter Term-sept to Dec with a week holiday in october
Spring term- Jan to March/April with a weeke in February
Summer Term (after Easter holidays) April-July

hmm. our holiday's are all two weeks except for summer holiday's (Dec/Jan) which are 6-8 weeks + study leave for senior exams in Nov/Dec (Yay for study leave!!)

By the way, elmo, how many compulsory subjects do we have in the UK for say, Year 7, Year 9 or Year 10? In Malaysia, for example we used to have 5 compulsory O Levels plus 5 more "optionals" the ambitious school forces you to take!!! Does any parent know this? There must be a website somewhere for the curious parent.

And I think I read somewhere that AS is no longer compulsory in UK - is this true?

I would LOVE a Steiner school or system if I can afford it!

Tess

Scotlands actually different to the rest of the uk!

We have:

Nursery

Primary 1 4/5(depending when you are born)
Primary 2 5/6
Primary 3 6/7
Primary 4 7/8
Primary 5 8/9
Primary 6 9/10
Primary 7 10/11

Secondary school
1st year or s1 11/12
2nd year 12/13
3rd year 13/14
4th year 14/15
5th year 15/16
6th year 16/17

There are no exams in primary or 1st and 2nd year although national test are sat.
Standard grades are sat in third and fourth year.
and Intermediate courses, highers and advanced highers are sat in 5th and 6th year.
Fifth and sixth year are optional as these courses can also be sat at college or many people do not wish to sit them!

You can stop school after GCSEs if you want and go on to work straight away.
if you choose to stay after GCSEs, AS levels are the first half of A levels and a qualification by themself, you cannot take an A level without an AS. But you can take an AS and not take the A2 in the second year.

In the UK, compulsory subjects vary between schools. Everyone in year 7-11 does some kind of English, maths and science. A humanity (RS, history, geography, classical civilization etc) is usually included at GCSE, and more are studied before choosing GCSE options. A modern language is advised at GCSE but no longer compulsory in every school, this language is often started in year 7 or 8. Arts (music, dance, drama, art etc) tend to be optional earlier on, but all of them are taught up to year 6, at which point some schools choose to continue them all and some allow pupils to choose a set number of arts. The same is true with technologies (textiles, food technology, ICT, product design), which are often started in year 5 or 6, when all 4 are studied, and then pupils select a certain number to continue with to year 9.

Numbers of GCSEs taken vary. I am taking 9: maths, english, english literature, biology, chemistry and physics are compulsory at my school. We also have to take a language (French) and humanity (RS). I also selected music.
I don't know anyone taking more than 11, or less than 7. Some people take them early or late, and if a compulsory one is failed, often it is retaken in year 12. Likewise, some people take A levels early, I chose to take music technology 2 years early. Every full A level has 6 modules, 3 are taken in the first year to make the AS level, and if you do badly in any you can retake them in the second year. Most people take 3 A levels and 1 AS level.

Lower/middle/upper school is used in a few counties in state schools.
Lower school is reception -> year 4
Middle school is year 5 -> year 9
Upper school is year 10 -> year 13.

My school holidays are also different.
Autumn term is early September -> mid December with 2 weeks holiday in October.
Spring term is mid January -> end March with 1 week holiday in February.
Summer term is late April -> early July with 1 week in May.
Those in year 11+ get exam leave from May and only come to school for exams. There is a week when everyone has school exams in May, and year 10 have 2 weeks of this with study leave. Year 11 have mock exams for 2 weeks in December with study leave. Years 12+13 have study leave sometime in Winter for their first exam session which is a few weeks long.

See, I reckon home schooling would be much easier!!

My friends told me that home schooling is MUCH easier and their teenage kids told me it's MUCH MUCH more enjoyable than when they were at the local comprehensive schools. But the mums had to work their butts out - sorry, bohemian, I can't think of a better way to put it. In the end, they took the American exams and still got into the best UK universities!!! Unfair! I don't have the time to do it, for sure, but I heard from one mum that what her kids liked most in those days were having lots of field trips and also having a 4-day week. Every week, they worked 3 or 4 solid hours a day for 4 days and once a week, on a weekday, the whole family as PE in the outdoors, went sailing, all day short of a storm. How cool can you get! They had endless extra-curricular activities so the kids get to meet lots of other kids and this week, they even have a musical cum poetry Christmas concert for homeschoolers held in Hainault.

They never did exams other than let the kids choose at secondary age whether to prepare for the O and A levels OR the French B OR the American equivalent. Their first priority was a balanced education with the emphasis on "emotional intelligence" or emotional literacy and wide/general knowledge. Incidentally, this week, the BBC has aired not a few progs on EL like anger management, conflict resolution, teamwork, leadership, etc. Cool.

Tess

In case you were interested (which I don't think you are, but anyways), in Japan it's:

Kindergarden

Elementary school

1st Grade: 6-7
2nd Grade: 7-8
3rd Grade: 8-9
4th Grade: 9-10
5th Grade : 10-11
6th Grade: 11-12

Middle school

1st Grade: 12-13
2nd Grade: 13-14
3rd Grade: 14-15

Then that's the end of compulsory education, but about 99% go onto high school anyway (although quite a few drop out).

High school

1st Grade: 15-16
2nd Grade: 16-17
3rd Grade: 17-18

Then there's university, where you study for 4 years. However, if you opt to go to a short-uni (girls in particular), you go for 2 years.

There are no national exams. There are two internal examinations every term (mid-term and end-term exams), where you are given what is called a "difference value" (or similar). The value is from about 20 to 70, 70 being the top value in the country. Your value can change throughout your school life and that can be used to determine how well you are doing in comparison to the rest of the country. Each school is given a value as well.

You do not have national exams like A Levels to get into university; instead each university publishes their own examination paper. Depending on how many people applied, they determine a pass mark. If you're one mark short, you fail; if you're one mark above, you pass and gain entry. There are what is called a reference from your teachers, but they only play a small role: it's down to your performance on that key day. There is no such thing as an application/UCAS/interview/predicted grades etc. If you do not pass the first time, you can spend however many years you want studying for the entrance examinations - some people get in after 4 years.

The entrance exams examine all core subject areas: Japanese (modern and old), English, Science, Mathematics, World and Japanese History (and I think that's it...). You have no options, no choice for your subjects; throughout middle and high school you study all subjects (even Art, Music, Food Tech, Textiles, PE).

I don't know which system I prefer really, British or Japanese. You have to spend the whole of your 3rd year at high school studying up for those exams. The exam questions vary from uni to uni, but they can ask you some pretty nasty and trick questions. Whatever course you're applying for (Humanities or Sciences), you get examined in all of them. I suppose in that sense it makes everyone an all-rounder; but on the other hand there are lots of dropouts from high school because they can't keep up. It's all a very much dry and number-obsessed system, but it reflects the nature of Japanese people, I think.

Germany:

Pre-school (optional): 5/6
Primary School:
1:6/7
2:7/8
3:8/9 etc.
up until year 6

Secondary School:
7:12/13
etc. up until
13:18/19

-as yet no exams like GCSEs but the Abitur starting in year 12, you get it after year 13. For the Abitur you need to take (compulsory): maths, a science for two years and another science of one year, german, p.e. music/art, history or geography or pw (political science), and a foreign language. I think that's it. No focusing on strengths like with A-levels, unfortunately.

Queensland -Australia: Kindergarten -4
Preschool -5
PRIMARY SCHOOL: Grade 1 -6 (turning 6 in the year they enrol)
Grade 2 -7
Grade 3 -8
Grade 4 -9
Grade 5 -10
Grade 6 -11
Grade 7 -12
HIGH SCHOOL: Grade 8 -13
Grade 9 -14
Grade 10 -15
Grade 11 -16
Grade 12 -17

This is the current system in Queensland. Queensland has a different system to the rest of Australia, and it is bringing in a new system where they do a prep year and I think they have to be 6 when they enrol or something like that.

At the High School I went to we had a strange system. In Grade 8 you did 13 classes (Art, Business & Technology, English, Health and Physical Education, Home Economics, Industrial Technology, German, Mathematics, Music, Science, Study of Society and Environment, Life Skills, and Activities), but the only subjects you did all year were Mathematics and English 3 lessons each per week, and Life skills and Activities each 1 lesson a week).

In year 9 and 10 the system changes again. We changed subjects every semester and you only had to do the core subjects (English, Mathematics, Science, Study of Society and Environment and Health & Physical Education) for 3 semesters out of the 4, and the other subjects that you did each semester were chosen from the electives. The number of electives you did each semester varied. Some of the electives available were: Foundation Junior Art, Graphics/computer design, sculpture -3d studies, photography, advanced computing, computer fundamentals, computing multimedia, dance, design, drama, enterprising business, graphics, health and physical education -hockey, Home Economics 8 different units (Eating your way to good health, Exploring multicultural foods, focus on food, food preparation & service, food in the modernw orld, get groovy design it make it use it, introductory child care, don't buy it -make it), German, Metalshop, Music, Music Minor, Woodshop, Advanced Painting/Drawing, Fashion Studies, Cartooning, Introductory Marine Studies and Multimedia applications.

In Year 11 and 12 there were no compulsory subjects. However they recommended that you do at least one english and at least one maths but there were people who did alternate programs who did not have to do this. The subjects available in senior were: Accounting, Ancient History, art, arts in practise, biology, business communication & technologies, business office administration, chemistry, consumer mathematics, drama, early childhood practices, english, english communication, geography, graphics, health education, home economics, hospitality practices, I.P.T, Industrial Skills -CAD, Industrial Skills -Boat building, Industrial skills -engineering, Industrial skills -furnishing, information technology at work, legal studies, literacy and language, german, marine and aquatic practices, marine studies, mathematics a, mathematics b, mathematics c (B & C being the hardest), Modern history, Music, Music Industry skills, Physical Education, Physical Recreation, Physics, Trade and business mathematics, Extension English.

Instrumental Music was another subject which could be taken at all levels in addition to the 6 subjects you studied normally, and you could study more than one instrument in the instrumental music program and still do 6 school subjects.

The school year consists of 4 terms. -Late January-Late March/Early April (Term 1)
-Early April/Late April-Late June (Term 2)
-Early July-Mid September (Term 3)
Term 4 however has varied finish times according to Grades. For Grade 12 Term 4 is October-Mid November. For Grades 10 and 11 Term 4 is October-End November. For Grades 8 and 9 and the primary kids it is October-Mid December. For the private schools the Grades 8 and 9 and primary students finish a week before the public school students in the same grade but apart from that it is all fairly even.

Thats not fair! you guys get to chose lots of subjects to take! At my school, (NZ) you have to take up to Lv2 English and Lv1 Maths. And you can take up to 6 subjects, but not less than 5 (unless you're in 7th form and a prefect).
I take Lv2 Eng, Lv2/IGCSE Maths (the IGCSE marking system is so much better and simpler to understand!), also Physics, Chemistry, Japanese, and History (Ialso took 2 performance standards (papers) in Music). Next year I'm dropping History for Music YAY! (But I can't fit outdoor ed. into my timetable )
Nervously awaiting exam results for NCEA (Yay got 80 in IGSCE Maths in May )

What I did: Year 9 Semester 1: English, Science, Study of Society and environment, Health and Physical Education, German, Music
Year 9 Semester 2: English, Maths, Study of Society and Environment, Health and Physical Education, German, Desktop Processing
Year 10 Semester 1: English, Extension Maths, Science, Health and Physical Education, German, Foundation Art
Year 10 Semester 2: Extension English, Extension Maths, Science, Study of Society and Environment, Home Economics, Desktop Processing
Year 11: English, Mathematics B, Chemistry, Legal Studies, German, Business Communication & Technologies,
Year 12 (First time around): English, Mathematics B, Chemistry, Legal Studies, Ancient History, Business Communication & Technologies.
Year 12 (Second time around): Early Childhood Studies, Computer Studies and Home Economics. I also did part-time TAFE, and part-time uni (1 subject 1st semester, 2 subjects 2nd semester).