State-funded schools (England)

State schools may request payment from parents for extracurricular activities such as swimming lessons and field trips, provided these charges are voluntary.

c. 75) permitted local governments to complement the existing elementary schools, to fill up any gaps.

Since 1998, there have been six main types of maintained school in England:[5][6][7] In addition, 3 of the 15 City Technology Colleges established in the 1980s still remain, the rest having converted to academies.

These are state-funded all-ability secondary schools which charge no fees but which are independent of local authority control.

Ofsted publish reports on the quality of education, learning outcomes, management, and safety and behaviour of young people at a particular school on a regular basis.

Repetition may be due to a lack of attendance, for example from a long illness, and especially in Years requiring standard tests.

If registered with a state school, attendance is compulsory beginning with the term following the child's fifth birthday.

Historically, this arose from the system in public schools, where all forms were divided into Lower, Upper, and sometimes Middle sections.

All maintained schools in England are required to follow the National Curriculum, which is made up of thirteen subjects.

A range of other subjects, known as foundation subjects, are compulsory in each Key Stage: In addition to the compulsory subjects, students at Key Stage 4 have a statutory entitlement to be able to study at least one subject from the arts (comprising art and design, music, photography, dance, media studies, film studies, drama and media arts), design and technology (comprising design and technology, electronics, engineering, food preparation and nutrition), the humanities (comprising geography and history), business and enterprise (comprising business studies and economics) and one modern language.

Similarly, parents of children in schools may choose to opt their child out of some or all sex education lessons.

Schools judged by Ofsted to be providing an inadequate standard of education may be subject to special measures, which could include replacing the governing body and senior staff.

Indeed, the variation in the social groupings in school intake, and the differences in academic performance, are enormous, and there are wider variations between supposedly mixed-ability comprehensive schools at the higher and lower end of this scale, than between some grammars and secondary moderns.