The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private schools in Scotland may choose to use an alternative qualification.
The Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) is a non-ministerial department of the UK government, reporting to Parliament. Ofsted is responsible for inspecting a range of educational institutions, including state schools and some independent schools, in England. It also inspects childcare, adoption and fostering agencies and initial teacher training, and regulates a range of early years and children's social care services.
Education in England is overseen by the United Kingdom's Department for Education. Local government authorities are responsible for implementing policy for public education and state-funded schools at a local level.
Education in the United Kingdom is a devolved matter with each of the countries of the United Kingdom having separate systems under separate governments: the UK Government is responsible for England; whilst the Scottish Government, the Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive are responsible for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, respectively.
This article provides an overview Education in Wales from Early childhood to University and adult skills. Largely state funded and free-at-the-point-of-use at a primary and secondary level, education is compulsory for children in Wales aged five to sixteen years old. It differs to some extent in structure and content to other parts of the United Kingdom, in the later case particularly in relation to the teaching of the Welsh Language.
Education in Northern Ireland differs from education systems elsewhere in the United Kingdom, although it is relatively similar to Wales, and the Republic of Ireland in sharing in the development of the national school system and serving a similar society with a relatively rural population. A child's age on 1 July determines the point of entry into the relevant stage of education in the region, compared to 1 September in England and Wales. Northern Ireland's results at GCSE and A-Level are consistently higher than those in England and Wales; Scotland uses a different examination system.
The levels of Ireland's education are primary, secondary and higher education. In recent years further education has grown immensely with 51% of working age adults having completed higher education by 2020. Growth in the economy since the 1960s has driven much of the change in the education system. For universities there are student service fees, which students are required to pay on registration, to cover examinations, insurance and registration costs.
The De La Salle Brothers, formally known as the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, is a Catholic religious teaching congregation, founded in France by Jean-Baptiste de La Salle (1651–1719), and now based in Rome, Italy. The De La Salle Brothers are also known as the Christian Brothers, French Christian Brothers, or Lasallian Brothers. The Lasallian Christian Brothers are distinct from the Congregation of Christian Brothers, often also referred to as simply the Christian Brothers, or Irish Christian Brothers. The Lasallian Brothers use the post-nominal abbreviation FSC to denote their membership of the order, and the honorific title Brother, abbreviated "Br."
In the United Kingdom, there are many 'local authority maintained' Roman Catholic schools. These are theoretically open to pupils of all faiths or none, although if the school is over-subscribed priority will be given to Roman Catholic children.
Catholic schools are pre-primary, primary and secondary educational institutions administered under the aegis or in association with the Catholic Church. As of 2011, the Catholic Church operates the world's largest religious, non-governmental school system. In 2016, the church supported 43,800 secondary schools and 95,200 primary schools. The schools include religious education alongside secular subjects in their curriculum.
Integrated education in Northern Ireland refers to the bringing together of children, parents and teachers from both Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions in childhood education: the aim being to provide a balanced education, while allowing the opportunity to understand and respect all cultural and religious backgrounds.
Lagan College is an integrated secondary school in Belfast, Northern Ireland. It holds a total of around 1500-1600 students. It was formed in 1981 as the first integrated school in Northern Ireland and contains students of mainly Roman Catholic and Protestant faiths, however students from other faiths also attend the school.
A faith school is a school in the United Kingdom that teaches a general curriculum but which has a particular religious character or formal links with a religious or faith-based organisation. The term is most commonly applied to state-funded faith schools, although many independent schools also have religious characteristics.
St. Paul's High School, Bessbrook is an all-ability, co-educational secondary school located on the outskirts of Bessbrook near Newry, County Armagh. It is a Catholic-maintained day school for boys and girls aged 11 to 19, with a pupil population of over 1550 and is one of Irelands largest post-primary schools. The school is managed by the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) and the Education Authority (EA). St Paul's High School is a heavily over-subscribed school with an annual admissions number of under 300 pupils.
St Martin's Ampleforth (SMA) was an independent school and the preparatory school for Ampleforth College, which closed in July 2020. Until 2018 it was at Gilling Castle, North Yorkshire, England, on the southern side of a valley opposite the College on the northern side, in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Middlesbrough.
Catholic University School(C.U.S.) is a voluntary secondary school for boys in Dublin, Ireland. The school was founded in 1867 by Bartholomew Woodlock as a preparatory school for the Catholic University of Ireland, the predecessor to University College Dublin, that was founded by St. John Henry Newman in 1854.
The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry was established in October 2015 to inquire into cases of abuse of children in care in Scotland. It was to report and make recommendations within four years by 2019. But this deadline was later changed to "as soon as reasonably practicable". Concerns have been raised about mounting costs and delays in the Inquiry. Ironically, six years after the start of the on-going Inquiry and long after the original deadline, Lady Smith released a report which was critical of the previous Scottish Government for the 'woeful and avoidable' delay in setting up the Inquiry.
In March 2020, schools, nurseries and colleges in the United Kingdom were shut down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. By 20 March, all schools in the UK had closed for all in-person teaching, except for children of key workers and children considered vulnerable. With children at home, teaching took place online. The emergence of a new variant of COVID-19 in December 2020 led to cancellation of face-to-face teaching across England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales the following month.
Strangford College, also known as Strangford Integrated College, is a school in Carrowdore, Newtownards, County Down, Northern Ireland. It is an integrated co-educational secondary school with a grammar stream for 800 pupils. Clare Foster is the school's current principal.
North Coast Integrated College, Cloyfin Road, Coleraine, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland is an integrated co-educational non-selective secondary school. Angela Passmore is the school's current principal.
