In England about 93 per cent of children attend state schools The other 7 per cent attend private schools. A minority of these private schools are boarding schools where children live as well as study. Private schools are very expensive In Britain it is compulsory between the ages of 5 and 16 years to receive some officially recognised form of schooling. For younger children, there are a few state kindergartens, some private kindergartens and a few nursery classes in ordinary schools They are optional. Primary school consists of a reception class, infant school and junior school. A reception class and infant school take a year. In junior school, pupils spend 5 years. At the age of five they go to infant schools where they learn first steps in reading, writing and using numbers. children leave infant school, at the age of seven, they go junior schools until they are about eleven years of age. Their school subjects include English, arithmetic, history, geography nature study, swimming, music, art and organized games At about 11 or 12 children move to a new school, usually a comprehensive" that accepts all the children from three or four neighbouring junior schools. Changing to the"big"school is: great moment in life for them. Au secondary school pupils study for 5 years. Comprehensive schools want to develop the talents of each individual child. So they offer a wide choice subjects, from art and craft, woodwork and domestic science to modern languages, computer studies. There are no entrance examinations all pupils move automatically lo the next form at the end of the year. There are some grammar schools in which children have to pass a selection test to get in. The grammar school is a secondary school taking about 3 per cent of children offering a full theoretical secondary education and sludents can choose which subjects and languages they wish to study. Pupils leave school at 16 and there are several opportunities lo continue their studies elsewhere.
Ex14
Choose sentences from the text that you agree or disagree with and write comments/thoughts about them. Draw a table of this kind in your notebook.