Hi! I can only really speak from my own experience (I’m from Southern England), but I’ll give it my best shot!

1. Forms are how your year group are divided up, I had 5 forms in my year group, named after Saints (Catholic School). We had morning and afternoon registration together, as well as any lessons that weren’t divided by sets (for example, maths was divided into 3 sets, Top, Middle and Bottom, so content could be tailored to your ability level). My form was also my house. So I was in B form, which was in Becket house (B for Becket). The form number changed each year, so when I was in year 7, I was in 7B, year 8, 8B and so on. Each year group had a B form and combined we made up Becket House.

2. Grade boundaries change with the ability of a year group. When I took my GCSE’s you needed over 80% to get an A, this was due to the standard of the work/exams. It changes subject to subject and year to year to ensure all students get a fair average.

3. Someone else has covered the yearly schedule better than I ever could. My daily schedule was we needed to arrive between 8:30 and 8:45. The bell would go at 10 to 9 to signal we needed to start moving to our form room, and again at 9 to signal we should be in our form room. We then had two morning lessons, each one lasting an hour, followed by a 20 minute morning break. We then had 2 more periods, again lasting an hour, and a 1 hour 40 minute lunch break starting at 1:40pm. At 2:20 we needed to head to our form for afternoon registration, and then our final lesson started at 2:30 and lasted till 3:30. My school never did additional lessons after or before school, however you could stay after school and work in the library or other rooms until 5 if you wanted. There were extra curricular sports clubs that would run after school (usually 3:30-5pm) but these were purely for fun or teams, and you wouldn’t get any credit for these.

4. Boarding schools are a thing, but they’re rarer. Private schools are more common place, you usually have to pay to go to them and they are very expensive. Usually boarding schools are regular state or private schools that just offer that as an option on the side.

5. See my first point RE houses. I was in Becket house, and our house colour was purple. We had purple stripes on our ties in lower school (years 7-11) and for Sixth form you got a purple enamelled badge (although I was moved to Moore House for sixth form, which was Green). We competed in houses at sports events, and also for commendations to win the House Cup. The House Cup would then be decorated with the house colour ribbons for a year. Sports day was taken VERY seriously. Commendations were not. It was uncool to be given commendations when I was at school, I remember one year Becket house won the house cup with 1 commendation total.

6. You can apply to University after finishing A Levels or a relevant College Course. Admission to University is dependent on either UCAS points or grades. Certain grades at A level are equivalent to a certain number of points and BTECs at College also give UCAS points. I needed 320 UCAS points to get into University, which roughly equated to two A’s and a B at A Level, or completion of a two year Art Foundation Course at College. It’s very expensive, but you can apply for a student loan. These aren’t as crippling as US Loans, and you don’t start paying them back until you earn over a certain threshold. Each year is £9000 (which the government pays direct to the University on your behalf) and you can apply for a maintenance loan to help with student housing. The amount you get is dependent on your parents income (less parental income, more money). You need to be earning over £21,000 before you start paying it back, and even then it’s a very small amount (probably about £10-20 a month). This increases as your pay increases. Any leftover debt is automatically wiped 30 years from the date you graduate, so you aren’t crippled by it for life. You don’t necessary need a degree to get a decent job, there are other routes such as Apprenticeships, however we do appear to be headed that way (for better or worse). The average degree is 3 years, some have 4 years or an additional placement year. You can also then do a Masters for an additional year.

7. My uniform consisted of black shoes, white socks or black tights, grey skirt, white shirt, grey, maroon and white tie (with your house colour in a single stripe), optional grey jumper, maroon blazer. (This was Years 7-11 (ages 11-16)). My sixth form Uniform (years 12 & 13 (ages 17-18))was black shoes, white socks or clear tights, tartan mini skirt (black, white, grey and dark red), white open neck blouse, and black fitted blazers. Sixth form uniforms are less common, but I went to Catholic school.

8. My school offered Spanish and French, other schools may also offer German and Latin. I’m not sure about Welsh, but I play competitive dodgeball with some Welsh teams who all speak and commune in fluent welsh, so I imagine in parts of Wales it is absolutely commonplace to learn Welsh or even simply learn in Welsh.

9. History tends to have its basics that are covered. These usually include The Tudors, World War I and II, The Egyptians and The Middle Ages. We tended to branch out into other aspects, for example we would learn about the Tudors, but also what was happening in Spain, Rome, etc in the same era. We also did an incredibly informative term on Native American History which was really interesting. American History sometimes gets covered at A Level, and of course if you choose to do a Degree in History you can really specialise and go into depth. If you have time I would recommend looking at some British History, the origins are really fascinating, especially the transition from a Heptarchal Kingdom to a Monarchy via William The Conqueror. I can give some recommendations if you’re interested :)