Education is compulsory for all children aged 5 (4 in Northern Ireland) to 18. Children start school (Reception or Foundation year) in September of the year they are age 4. Until they are 16 years old, children must attend a traditional school. After this age, they can stay in school or follow education via vocational, academic, and recreational options.

Across the UK, there are five stages of education: early years, primary, secondary, Further Education (FE) and Higher Education (HE).

Types of Schools

In the UK, there are generally two types of schools:

State-funded schools: these schools receive funding through their local authority or directly from the government.

Private schools: charge fees and are not funded by the government.
Both private and state schools must be registered with the government and are regularly inspected by Ofsted. 93% of schoolchildren in England attend state schools, and 7% attend private ​​​​​​.

Primary Education

Primary Education is divided into two stages:
Key Stage 1: from age 4/5 to age 7
Key Stage 2: up to age 11

Most state primary schools take boys and girls in mixed, co-ed classes. There were 20.772 primary schools with 5.480.508 pupils in the United Kingdom in the 2022/2023 school year.

It is usual to transfer straight to secondary school at age 11 or 12, but some children transition via schools catering for ages 8 to 14.

Secondary Education

Secondary Education is divided into two stages:
Key stage 3: from age 11 to age 14
Key stage 4: from age 14 to age 16

Secondary Education offers mixed classes as well as single-sex classes. There were 4,172 secondary schools with 3.199.125 pupils in England in the 2022/2023 school year.

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​​​​​​​The National Curriculum

The major goals of Primary and Secondary Education are achieving basic literacy and numeracy amongst all pupils, and establishing foundations in science, mathematics, and other subjects. State-funded schools in England are obliged to teach thirteen subjects.

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Secondary schools are also required to provide sex and relationship education. In addition to the compulsory subjects, KS4 students must be able to study at least one subject from the arts, design and technology, business and enterprise, and a modern language.

Private Schools are not required to follow the national curriculum.

 

Testing

Children in England and Northern Ireland are assessed at the end of Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 through teacher assessments. These assessments do not determine admission to secondary school but inform parents about pupils’ progress and give a picture of school performance. At the end of primary school, pupils do not receive a diploma.

Private secondary schools do their own assessments for admission to the school.

At the end of Key Stage 4, pupils sit for external examinations. Most frequently, these are GCSE in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and Standard Grades in Scotland, although other qualifications are available.

Funding

The national budget in England for State-funded schools is almost £60 billion for the 2024/2025 school year. Schools will receive their highest-ever funding in real terms. These increases form part of the additional £9.8 billion investment in the school's core budget by 2024/2025, compared to 2021/2022.

This means that for 2024/2025, every state-funded school will attract at least
£4,655 per pupil for primary schools and at least £6,050 per pupil for secondary schools. Local authorities distribute the budget to schools, and only a small portion of the budget can be spent freely.

Private or independent schools do not receive any public funding. In 2022–23, average private school fees across the UK were £15,200 per pupil.​​​​​​​

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