The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a range of subjects taken in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, having been introduced in September 1986 and its first exams taken in 1988. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. However, private schools in Scotland often choose to follow the English GCSE system.
The General Certificate of Education (GCE) is a subject-specific family of academic qualifications used in awarding bodies in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Crown dependencies and a few Commonwealth countries. For some time, the Scottish education system has been different from those in the other countries of the United Kingdom.
A sixth form college is an educational institution, where students aged 16 to 19 study typically for advanced post-school level qualifications such as A Levels, Business and Technology Education Council level 3 (BTEC), and the International Baccalaureate Diploma, or school-level qualifications such as General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) examinations and BTEC level 2 qualifications. In many countries this type of educational institute is known as a junior college. The municipal government of the city of Paris uses the phrase 'sixth form college' as the English name for a lycée.
The International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) is an English language based secondary qualification similar to the GCSE and is recognised in the United Kingdom as being equivalent to the GCSE for the purposes of recognising prior attainment. It was developed by Cambridge Assessment International Education. The examination boards Edexcel, Learning Resource Network (LRN), and Oxford AQA also offer their own versions of International GCSEs. Students normally begin studying the syllabus at the beginning of Year 10 and take the test at the end of Year 11. However, in some international schools, students can begin studying the syllabus at the beginning of Year 9 and take the test at the end of Year 10.
King Edward VI Five Ways (KEFW) is a selective co-educational state grammar school for ages 11–18 in Bartley Green, Birmingham, United Kingdom. One of the seven establishments of the Foundation of the Schools of King Edward VI, it is a voluntary aided school, with admission by highly selective examination. It was founded in Five Ways, Birmingham in 1883 and retained its name when it moved to Bartley Green in 1958.
The Sixth Form College, Colchester is a sixth form college in Colchester, England. Established in 1987, it provides further education in the north Essex area.
Harris City Academy Crystal Palace is a mixed-sex secondary school in Croydon, south London, England. It was established in 1990 to replace Sylvan High School, a newly built mixed comprehensive school which had opened in 1974. Sylvan, judged to be under-performing, re-opened as a City Technology College (CTC) sponsored by Lord Harris of Peckham. In September 2007, Harris CTC became Harris City Academy Crystal Palace.
The Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM), or the Malaysian Certificate of Education, is a national examination sat for by all fifth-form secondary school students in Malaysia. It is the equivalent of the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) of England, Wales and Northern Ireland; the Nationals 4/5 of Scotland; and the GCE Ordinary Level of the Commonwealth of Nations. It is the leaving examination of the eleventh grade of schooling.
The A-level is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education, as well as a school leaving qualification offered by the educational bodies in the United Kingdom and the educational authorities of British Crown dependencies to students completing secondary or pre-university education. They were introduced in England and Wales in 1951 to replace the Higher School Certificate. The A-level permits students to have potential access to a chosen university they applied to with UCAS points. They could be accepted into it should they meet the requirements of the university.
Rochester Independent College (RIC) is an Independent Schools Council accredited co-educational, private day and boarding school, in Rochester, United Kingdom. It was established in 1984.
Collingham College is a private, co-educational school, founded as Collingham Tutors in 1975, by Old Etonian John Marsden and Nicholas Browne. Collingham is situated in London's Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. It is directly between Earl's Court and Gloucester Road stations, both served by the District and the Piccadilly lines. Collingham's campus includes the sixth form building at 23 Collingham Gardens, and the GCSE school occupying a Georgian townhouse on Young Street by Kensington Palace.
The Midland Examining Group (MEG) was an examination board, operating in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It offered a range of GCSE and Certificate of Achievement qualifications. It became part of OCR in 1998.
Chestnut Grove Academy is an 11–19 mixed partially selective secondary school with academy and Visual Arts College status in Balham, London, England. In January 2019, Chestnut Grove was assessed in an OFSTED inspection report as good.
The A level, is a main school leaving qualification of the General Certificate of Education in England, Wales, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. It is available as an alternative qualification in other countries, where it is similarly known as an A-Level.
Cambridge Tutors College is a private school and sixth form situated in South Croydon, outer London. It was founded in 1958 as a tutorial centre to help boys prepare for their Common Entrance Examination. Students come from over twenty countries, including China, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Myanmar, the Baltics, Balkans, Nigeria, Russia, Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
Ashbourne College is a private school and sixth form located in Kensington, London, England.
The Abbey DLD Colleges Group is a group of independent sixth form colleges in the United Kingdom, in London, Manchester, and Cambridge. These colleges are operated by the Alpha Plus Group and have campuses in both London and Cambridge.
CIFE is a professional association of English independent sixth-form colleges. It provides support to its member institutions and advice about GCE Advanced Level and university entrance to anyone who asks for it. CIFE's President is Alistair Cooke, Baron Lexden
David Game College is a private school and sixth form based in Tower Hill, London. The college is coeducational and admits students between the ages of 13 and 22. Up to 400 students take full-time courses each year.
In March 2020, nurseries, schools, 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.
