ENGLISH SCHOOL SYSTEM

-How long is a school day?

A normal school day is 8 hours. We usually start at 8:45 and finish at 15:30.

-Do you do sports during school hours?

During the school hours we have a class called P.E which is twice per week where we play field hockey and netball and do dance and gym. Each term we do a different sport.

-Can you pick the subjects?

We do every subject until year 9, in that year you choose 4 subjects that you are most interested in. English, maths,science and religious studies are compulsory. You start studying the subjects that you have chosen in year 10 until year 11 which is when you do your GCSE's which are the exams you need to get before going to college.

-Are you assigned homework? How are the assessments carried out?

We always get written homework that isn't really hard because we stay in school for many hours so we basically do what could be homework at school during the day. We don't have oral homework as everything is written. We do little assessments after every topic that we study, and as I said before we have the most important exams in year 11.

-Do you change classes based on the subjects or do you have a permanent class and the teacher comes to you?

Every teacher has their own classroom so students have to change classes between lessons and we get 5 minutes extra to get to every class.

-How many breaks do you take and how long do they last?

We have two breaks,one is a short break to grab a snack which is about 20 minutes, we then get a longer break of about 40 minutes which is our lunch time where we eat and if there is a nice day out we go to our school field to hang out with our

friends. We have a canteen which is open for every break, it's also open for breakfast if you get to school early. When the weather isn't nice most people sitat the canteen tables; in the canteen we have hot food such as pasta, tacos with chicken … we also have cold food such as sandwiches and baguettes.

-Do you have to wear a uniform?

We all have to wear the school uniform and you get sent home if youdon't wear it. Our uniform is a black skirt or trousers, a polo shirt and smart shoes. We are not to allowed to wear jewellery and piercing; we can only have one earring in each ear lobe and we are also not allowed to wear heavy makeup.

-How are holidays planned during the school year?

The holidays are different from Italy as we get holidays more often but we finish school later, around 16th July. So we get half terms which are a one week holiday in the middle of a term, the first half term is in October, the second one is for Christmas when we get two weeks, the third is in February, the fourth is for Easter when we get two weeks and the last one is in May.

-What impact did the pandemic have on the students?

The pandemic has had a big impact in our life as for the past two years we haven't been able to do our GCSE's so all the grades that we went to college with were predicted grades. We hadn't been able to do our exams because we start studying for them in year 10 and 11. Since we missed most of those two years we didn't have enough material to pass our GCSE's so they were annulled. We did do some online lessons but it wasn't every day and it was only for some subjects.