I've come to realize that over the last month of being at an international private school many interesting differences and similarities between this type of school in the UK and public schools in the US. While I can talk about it in general, I'm not going to specify anyone person or use any names for the privacy of the people involved.
The similarities are all about humanistic approaches to life. There are characteristics of the different age brackets of students that you can see are just like the youngsters in the US. Groups of girls or groups of boys hang out together, and when a girl or a boy enters the opposite, I can see a wave of change in everyone's demeanor. Then there are mixed groups of older ages between 15-16 years old, who get along really well as a result of knowing each other for 2-4 years. Which can be long enough to get to be comfortable with one another & after the original awkward stages that we all go through.
A bit of information about the ages and grade levels for the UK: Children begin school younger - at age 4. By the time they reach the age of 11, they are in secondary school at Year 7 (we would call it Grade 6), and so that means I have been teaching classes of kids at a younger age here than I would be in the US in a Junior High School the youngest would be 13 years old in 7th grade. Also, students have the option of continuing school after Year 10 (age 14-15). If they choose to continue, then that means that they intend to go to college/university after another 2 years of secondary school.
Of course, there are differences. I really do enjoy seeing them for what they are & learning more about how people interact in a different culture. While the UK does speak proper English, this is still a different country, society, culture, government, etc.
Onto my next chapter in my travels...
The similarities are all about humanistic approaches to life. There are characteristics of the different age brackets of students that you can see are just like the youngsters in the US. Groups of girls or groups of boys hang out together, and when a girl or a boy enters the opposite, I can see a wave of change in everyone's demeanor. Then there are mixed groups of older ages between 15-16 years old, who get along really well as a result of knowing each other for 2-4 years. Which can be long enough to get to be comfortable with one another & after the original awkward stages that we all go through.
A bit of information about the ages and grade levels for the UK: Children begin school younger - at age 4. By the time they reach the age of 11, they are in secondary school at Year 7 (we would call it Grade 6), and so that means I have been teaching classes of kids at a younger age here than I would be in the US in a Junior High School the youngest would be 13 years old in 7th grade. Also, students have the option of continuing school after Year 10 (age 14-15). If they choose to continue, then that means that they intend to go to college/university after another 2 years of secondary school.
Of course, there are differences. I really do enjoy seeing them for what they are & learning more about how people interact in a different culture. While the UK does speak proper English, this is still a different country, society, culture, government, etc.
Onto my next chapter in my travels...
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