Comments on: Differences between British vs American Schools

By: Secondary British Schools vs American Schools - Sunny in London

Secondary British Schools vs American Schools - Sunny in London — Sun, 24 Aug 2025 18:15:41 +0000

[…] the new ideas, you might want to know that the topics below are covered in a different blog post on Differences between British and American Schools […]

By: Michelle

Michelle — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 11:56:36 +0000

In my children’s high school, the girls have to wear a crested blazer, white shirt, tie and tartan skirts with a red dragon on the waist band so that they can’t roll the skirts up to make them shorter! Only black ankle socks are allowed, only plain black or navy coats, only plain black or navy bags, they have a crested school PE kit with matching socks and jacket, and separate kits for rugby and cricket. No jewellery is allowed, no makeup (although the girls try bend this rule a bit but sometimes have to go wash their faces), and no unusual hair dye colours! They have houses, and award points, and go on school trips to the alps skiing and to lake garda with the choir. They also have punishments called consequences of different levels including detention, isolation, suspension and eventually expulsion for poor behaviour. Everyone has to take one language and everyone has to take at least 2 science subjects! There are school busses although they’re usually rammed!! The rules make it easier for children from disadvantaged backgrounds to feel comfortable, as there are grants that families can apply for to help with uniform costs, and the no short skirts and makeup is aimed at keeping children looking like children to keep them safe and also as an equaliser! This school is a public not private school and the children love it! Xx

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 06:41:57 +0000

I thank you for the info. even if some of the commenters say your info is faulty. (I have to say not all your American school info matched “exactly” with my experience but the overall info was almost perfect.) Any way, the reason I was looking for the differences was I have been reading some stories from British Authors recently and some of the terms have been bugging me. So I decided to see if I could find the differences to better understand the stories. The information in the Blog and the Video have answered MOST of those questions, The only one I have at the moment is there seems to be a difference between college and university in England that is not in America. To me in America College is where you go after senior year of high school (if you decide to) and MOST of the college’s are called university Ex. Ohio State University ( GO!!! Buckeyes!!!!) even Boston College is a university. It seems College in Brittan is more a trade school, or community college (pre-university for a specific study) type of thing but I’m not for sure. Any way if you Find out its another difference you can add here. I’m off to see if I can find out myself. Thanks

By: Michael Savege

Michael Savege — Sat, 10 Oct 2020 15:46:18 +0000

Hello there, at the moment I am in year 9 in London. I just wanted to say you got pretty much everything correct however you were wrong on the average meal. In England primary schools do have slightly worse meals than secondary schools but that is not to say they are good. From what I can see a lot of the material you are getting is from boarding schools like eton or Harrow. I regret to say they are not normally very nice texture wise or taste wise. Food almost always ends up being a soggy type of stew given a fancy name like lasagna or boulet. Although still a lot of the food section was specific to boarding schools which the vast majority of us do not attend. Thank you.

By: Angus

Angus — Thu, 21 May 2020 15:04:47 +0000

In reply to Suze The Luxury Columnist. Sorry to say but in terms of school buses, I know that not one school in my town has one, nor have I seen one other than coaches to get the village kids in due to 'special catchment areas'. Again, every secondary school in the area has a blaser and tie. The food? Again, most school have the same. We can get some sandwiches, a light meal or a cooked meal. Not sure for other schools, but my school had drama, band, choir and some DT things.

By: Ash

Ash — Wed, 01 Jan 2020 14:59:49 +0000

In reply to Me.

Having been a student in British schools, I can say that most children hate their uniforms or at least one aspect of it. In my time it was the awful blazers that you had to ask to take off. But generally – in a girls school – we would roll up our skirts and our trouser legs and pray the headteacher would not yell at us for skinny trousers. I remember getting severely told off for wearing a coat indoors, and in P.E you got a detention if you didn’t have white socks! Rolling up blazer sleeves also seemed to be a crime!

By: Mum

Mum — Sun, 06 Oct 2019 16:03:37 +0000

I would like to know what they learn. Could we take a sample age such as 12 and compare the curriculum? I imagine that in american schools there is more project learning and writing,is it true? I found that in British schools there is more spelling, foreign languages and history. What about maths?

By: R.E

R.E — Tue, 10 Sep 2019 17:19:24 +0000

In reply to Gingle. I also have been to both since I am british, i think british schools are better

By: steven green

steven green — Sat, 31 Aug 2019 04:26:05 +0000

In reply to Sunny London. I would like to point out some mistakes: Students only attend secondary school until they are 16 (GCSE - general certificate of secondary education.) Students then decide to go to a technical college or to an academic college. Students who finish academic college (referred to as A levels) after 2 years go on to study at university for a varying amount of time depending on the degree being pursued. English schools vary greatly in choices/subjects/academic clubs/sports club depending on the funding made available to them by their local council.

By: Sunny London

Sunny London — Sat, 24 Aug 2019 07:13:33 +0000

In reply to daniella. Thank you for such a thorough comment! It's really great to hear from people who have had experiences in both systems. While I wrote that several years ago, I have certainly gained more information about the UK educational system. But, in fairness, having been out of the US for 7 years, I probably know much less about it because so much has changed.