Education in England

Schools and stages
Below is a table summarising the most common names of the various schools and stages. Grammar schools are normally state-funded but selective schools, admitting children from 11 years old onward, but there are exceptions.

Key stage	Year	Final exam	Age	State funded schools						Fee paying independent schools
Early Years	Nursery (or Pre-School)	None, though individual schools may set end of year tests.	3-4	Primary			Lower	Infant	Pre-preparatory
	Reception (or Foundation)		4-5
KS1	Year 1		5-6
	Year 2		6-7
KS2	Year 3		7-8					Junior
	Year 4		8-9						Preparatory or Junior
	Year 5		9-10				Middle
	Year 6	SATS A grammar school entrance exam, often the 11-plus	10-11
				comprehensive schools				selective schools
KS3	Year 7	None, though individual schools may set end of year tests, or mock GCSE exams.	11-12	Secondary	Lower school	High school		Grammar school
	Year 8		12-13
	Year 9		13-14				Upper		Senior (Public)
KS4	Year 10		14-15		Upper school
	Year 11	GCSE	15-16
KS5	Year 12	Advanced subsidiary level or school-set end of year tests.	16-17	College		Sixth form
	Year 13	A-Levels	17-18

The government has been unable to recruit sufficient teachers and lecturers. There are 1,000 too few computing teachers, 1,200 too few physics teachers and 1,850 too few maths teachers. Lecturers in further education colleges fell by just under 20,000 from 2010 to 2017. The public sector pay cap is blamed.^[29] English secondary schools have 15,000 fewer teachers and teaching assistants than they had two years ago. This leads to larger classes as well as pupils getting less individual attention.^[30] Many teachers leave within four years of starting work as teachers. The problem is most acute in inner London with only 57% of teachers who qualified in 2012 still working as teachers in 2017. The Department for Education predicts secondary school pupil numbers will rise by 19.4% from 2017 to 2025.^[31]
Thousands of children with special education needs (SEND) are at home without a school place because funding for places was not provided. The number rose from 1710 in 2016 to 4050 in 2017.^[32] SEND funding, provides for children with conditions like autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and physical disabilities. Some local authorities are raiding other budgets to provide for SEND children or getting into debt to fund SEND. Others are cutting help for SEND pupils. There is legal action against many local authorities over failure or possible failure to meet the needs of SEND children. There is also legal action planned against the central government for not funding the system.^[33]