school/education types

• Comprehensive Schools: schools that anyone, regardless of ability or background, can attend. Government funded, follows a national curriculum.
• • Academies & Free Schools: greater freedom about the curriculum and what to focus on or add. Must accept all students if there is space. Government funded. Academies are converted from comprehensive schools, whilst free schools are entirely new schools.
• • Special Schools: for students with learning difficulties or who just struggle in mainstream education. Can choose students. Can be either state or private, and funding and curriculum changes depending on which it is.
• • Grammar Schools: more academic, focuses on preparing students for university. Requires an exam (11+) to get in, but follows national curriculum due to having government funding.
•  Independent Schools: controls their own curriculum and qualifications, funded by parents of students. Registered as charities due to scholarship students. Also known as private or fee-paying schools.
• • Vocational Education: workplace specific education to learn skills that directly help in that workplace. Government funded, but doesn’t follow the national curriculum and chooses students based on entry requirements.
• • Deschooling: teachers and students hold equal importance and can change how the school is run. Focuses on children’s natural curiosity rather than schedules and strict rules. Allows students to decide what GCSEs (if any) to take, and when to go to lessons.Funded by parents. An example includes Summer Hill School.
• Homeschooling: being taught at home by parents or tutors. Pays for exam entry.
• • Religious schools: education features a specific religion prominently within the curriculum.