Many parents who choose a school come to find a teacher, and various professional vocabulary will be in your ears, such as Year 9, Year 13+, Year 12, Alevel, GCSE and so on. Due to the information gap between 🇬🇧 and China, many parents don’t understand it very well, so what do these mean? Please see the second table above.
Entering grade 9 (Year9) at the age of 13, entering grade 10 (Year10) at the age of 14, entering grade 11 (Year11) at the age of 15, entering grade 12 (Year12) at the age of 16, and entering grade 13 (Year13) at the age of 17. It can be met on the day of admission or before admission. If it is met after admission, you need to go back one year.
In Year 9 or below, British private schools (Public School/Independent School) will not follow the British Education Curriculum. Year 10 and Year 11 are the well-known GCSE stage (British General Secondary School Diploma), which can be understood as Junior high school in the UK. Year12 and Year13 are the well-known Alevel stage (British Senior Secondary School Diploma), which can be understood as the British high school stage. GCSE and Alevel follow the British teaching system.
👩🏻 : My child is already 15 years old before entering school this year. Can he study the first year of GCSE?
🧑🏫 : Yes.
👩🏻 /My child is already 17 years old before entering school this year. Can he study for the first year of Alevel?
🧑🏫 : Yes.
👩🏻 : My child will turn 14 in a few days after entering school this year. Can he study the first year of GCSE?
🧑🏫 : No.
👩🏻 : What should I do if my child is not 14 years old when he enters school this year but wants to come to the UK to study?
🧑🏫 : Studying in Year 9 or taking preparatory courses in Year 10. Preparatory courses are composed of approximately 70% English courses and approximately 30% academic courses. It is intended to allow students to adapt to the British teaching environment early and improve their English proficiency
👩🏻 : What should I do if my child is not 16 years old when he enters school this year but wants to come to the UK to study?
🧑🏫 : Study Year 11 or Year 12 preparatory courses. Year 11 is known as the one-year GCSE, or IGCSE. The Year 12 Advanced Placement class is known as PreA. IGCSE is suitable for students who graduated from international schools, and PreA is suitable for students who graduated from internal physical schools.
👩🏻 : What is the difference between IGCSE and PreA?
🧑🏫 : IGCSE is a one-year GCSE course. The school will require students to take 5-6 courses, such as mathematics, English, biology, economics, chemistry, etc. There are certain requirements for students’ English proficiency and academic knowledge. The curriculum for PreA is a large number of English classes and 3-4 academic courses.
👩🏻 : My child is currently studying in the first year of Alevel. Can he transfer to a second school to study in the second year?
🧑🏫 : Yes, but not many choices.
👩🏻 : How many GCSE courses should you take? How many subjects should I study for Alevel?
🧑🏫 : Two-year GCSE generally takes 7-9 courses. One-year GCSE generally takes 5-6 courses. A two-year Alevel usually takes 3-4 courses.
👩🏻 : What is the IELTS score required for GCSE admission? What about Alevels?
🧑🏫 : GCSE admission generally requires IELTS 5.5 or equivalent, and Alevel generally requires IELTS 6.0-6.5 or equivalent.
If you have any questions about British secondary schools, please feel free to contact us.