Education Here

Welcome to a Guide to Help You with Your Child’s Education

Welcome to education in England. This is not an official website. I am a retired teacher who has taught for many years and wants to give you as much useful information as possible about developing your child’s education in the early years

I originally created this website with people new to this country in mind. I now feel that the website may give any parent, or anyone who cares for and works with children, helpful information about preparation for school and for later success in education in the UK.

In England schools are organised into nurseries attached to schools (these deal very thoroughly with preparation for school and are for those between 3 and 4 years old); these are followed by school at age 4 to 5 in ‘Reception’ Year. This is followed by Year One (at age 5 to 6) and so on through to Year 6. (See the table in Additional Information). There is also other provision for those below 4 years old offering longer hours than school nurseries. Many schools provide after-school care for parents who are working, and many provide clubs which last for about 45 minutes after school ends.

Our State Education has evolved over the last two hundred years or so. Education in this country has improved greatly over the last 30 years.

• We have a National Curriculum.
• We take the teaching of reading, writing and maths very seriously.
• While there is variation in our system, we try to make children feel happy, comfortable, confident and, with effort and work, able to fulfil their potential.
• There are usually 30 pupils in a class

Over the last twenty years or so, differences have evolved between the various parts of the UK i.e. between education in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, although the Northern Ireland has always varied to a larger degree. These differences apply to such matters as the age of starting school, testing and the general thrust of education. However, the matters I write of – early learning, early communication skills, preparation for school, the importance of reading – are skills applicable to any area of the UK.

The whole site can be translated into two other languages - Standard Modern Arabic and Portuguese. Click on the link in Additional Resources to view or download either of these