English secondary schools- what ages?

Question

What age does secondary school end in England?

I've been having a bit of a battle with someone... and I'd like your point of view!

Preferably, English people who actually know the education system, and not just anybody who can search the internet! I can do that myself- I'd like to know real people's opinions

Answer 1

In East Anglia, we have two parallel systems:

New system:

- Primary School 5yrs - 12yrs (yrs1-6)

- High/Secondary School 12yrs - 16yrs (yrs7-11)

Middle school (old) system:

- Primary School 5yrs - 10yrs (yrs1-4)

- Middle School 10yrs - 14yrs (yrs5-8)

- High School 14yrs - 16yrs (yrs9-11)

At this point, the legal requirement for every child to be schooled ends (i.e. you can legally leave school).

The two systems then come together:

- Sixth Form (part of a high school or a seperate college) 16yrs - 18yrs (LVI-UVI AKA yrs12-13)

At this point, schooling stops being entirely funded by the taxpayer.

University is available to everyone with the relevant entry qualifications.

We also have four types of high school in england:

- Comprehensive - Free (funded by the taxpayer) for all children in the catchment area. Every child in the country is within the catchment area of a comprehensive school.

- Grammar - Free for all children who pass the entrance test.

- Public - Any child may study there so long as they can stump up the fees.

- Private - There are fees to be paid and an entrance exam to be passed. These are the elite schools in the UK.

The words "School" and "College" are interchangable in the UK and can refer to any teaching organisation of any kind.

Answer 2

It depends on the part of the country. Some areas have schools..

Primary  4-11 (Grades 1-6)

Secondary  11-14 (Grades 7-9)

High School 14-16  (Grades 10-11)  (with a "6th Form" attached) 16-18 (Grades 12-13) or 16-19, where the students can take an extra year, that's with choosing a different style of courses.

Once you reach the end of year 11 (you'd be 16), you can choose to either leave school entirely (preferably to start work, or just to drop out), stay on at the 6th form college (to study what we call A-Levels, you take 3-5 subjects), or leave the school to go to a seperate college where they can study a specific subject for 1-3years for a diploma.

or

Primary  4-11 (Grades 1-6)

Secondary 11-18 (Grades 7-13)

The place where I live (county of Leicestershire) it's the first option, but a lot of places tend to have the second.

Answer 3

I'd like to think of myself as an expert on this matter haha, as i leave school on tuesday and i live in England. We leave primary school age 11, secondary school age 16 and college age 18.