Countries of the World
Great Britain
Hello and welcome to the page all about modern Great British culture. This page will, hopefully, give you a better understanding of modern Great British culture.
This is something lots of people get confused about, even British people!
Great Britain includes Wales, Scotland, England, but not Northern Ireland and some other small islands around the country, which there are over a thousand of (+ overseas British territory). The United Kingdom includes Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland. In 1922 the Republic of Ireland separated from Great Britain, from then on the long name for our country was 'The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'. There are many recognised languages that you can speak in Great Britain including: Scottish, Gaelic, Scots, Ulster-Scots, Welsh and Cornish but English is spoken by 99% of the population and is the most recognised language. Our country is a Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy with devolved governments.
Our country is small but it is the 3rd most populated island in the world, with 63,200,000 people. There are 86 counties in Great Britain (like states in the USA)they each have one MP (Member of Parliament)that represents the whole county in the House of commons. Until the last election for prime minister (2010) the government decided when the next election would be (but they couldn't go over a certain amount of time)but now an election is held every 5 years, so the next election will be in 2015. We have 3 main political parties Labour, Liberal-Democrats and Conservative, these are the three biggest parties that are most likely to attain government although there are 14 other parties with people in seats of power, these are smaller and not all of them have an MP in the house of commons. There are 89 other parties but they hold no seats of power anywhere.
The picture below is the symbol for each of the major 3 parties. The Rose is labour, the dove is Liberal-Democrat and the tree is Conservative
This section is about the education system in Great Britain. Education in Great Britain is free (paid for through taxes)and is mandatory the attend from 4-16. School runs from Early September until late July. Because of that the aging is as follows: e.g. A yr 10 student now would be anyone born from September the 1st 1998 until August the 31st 1999. The first section of education in England starts at 3 and finishes at 5. 3-4 year old's go to nursery school and learn basics like how to write, read and have 'people' skills. At 4 children start primary school and are in Reception they carry on the basics like proper pronunciation. Year 1 and year 2 students (5-7 y.o) start KS1 where the things they start to do are more advanced, they start subjects like science and do higher level maths like division and multiplication of three/four digit numbers. After that there is year's 3-6 (7-11 y.o) this is KS2 where you start to learn other languages (e.g. I started French at 7)and in English you learn how to analyse texts and write essays on them. After KS2 is KS3, most people start secondary school then (Preparatory schools go up to 13 y.o)this includes years 7-9 where you start more advanced subjects such as Latin and you start another language (I started Spanish in yr 8). The next stage, KS4, is very important because it includes your GCSE's. These are crucial becuase without at least a C in the basic subjects you will struggle to get a job. After GCSE's there is 6th form or collage (17-18) where most people do their A-levels, you must get a C in each of these to go to a decent University. University is where you can get your Degree in almost any subject this is 18+ and you have to have good A-levels to go to University. University is not free, you must get a student loan when you go to university, once you have completed the course and are in a well-paid job for 12 months, you start paying the loan back. The education system is the same Wales, but different in Scotland. Children in Scotland start school 1 year later and the examinations and schooling system is a different layout .


Make penpal friends from all over the World !
Blogs, Penpals...
Find Penpals (for kids)
Great Britain (Countries of the World)    -    Author : Grace - Great Britain


7950 visitors since 2013-11-03
last update : 2013-11-03

Blogs  @  Etudiants du Monde / Students of the World
Students of the World >> Blogs >> Countries of the World >> Blog #48594
 Create your own blog (free)
Author area
Password :
Forgot password? - unpublish