Britcent english transcription note

I'm well thank you.

I've looked outside and it's raining.

It's been quite humid the last couple of days.

So I guess it's maybe a tiny bit similar to what the weather is like in Korea during the summer where it gets very humid.

The temperature, apart from that I'm okay.

Despite the grey weather, it's very muggy and humid.

I'm at home at the moment with my parents.

We've had some lightning in London at least.

There was a massive bang.

We didn't see a flash of light but a huge bang.

We think it was maybe some loose slate on the roof.

Down into next to the kitchen outside.

We're pretty sure that the house was hit by lightning, which was quite exciting.

It doesn't seem to be any serious damage.

I think it was sort of loose, sort of almost lie spare.

It made you jump, right.

The rumble of thunder.

So that was frightening.

But it breaks up the monotony of lockdown, but, I'm still acting as if we are in lockdown.

Anyway, slightly changing the subject to the topic of today's podcast, which is British schools and paying particular attention to the different kinds of British schools in the education system.

This could be a tricky question, but I am confident that you have the answer.

Can you summarise the different kinds of schools we have in the British education system?

Similar to in other countries.

There are many nuances.

Before we talk about that, though, I should say that ..

Unless you go to a kind of reception.

I know that two and three-year-olds get put in nurseries, basically.

We must undergo when we were about five years old, but some people do go to nursery, which is kind of like preschool.

We are there for a few years until we get to the age of 11, more or less.

That is called primary school.

There are also middle schools in some parts of the country where people go for a few years before they go to secondary school.

It's kind of preparation for university or for more academic work.

They go into an apprenticeship, which is a kind of training for a job, or another type of college where they train for work in a different way.

You can study carpentry at a college instead of going to sixth form college.

So that's the overall system that we have in terms of the ages and the different stages of school.

Public school has a different meaning.

It's very confusing.

So you have to pay a fee.

So obviously that's paid for by parents who normally have a public school.

The reason why it's called public is because it's open to students regardless of where they come from, where they are located, the profession of their parents,

that's the kind of original idea for public school.

in actual fact, we could argue they're not really open to everyone, because you have to be able to afford to pay a fee.

I suppose you could think of them as well.

What would you say are the general perceptions or general stereotypes about the different kinds of schools in Britain.

We have quite a strong perception of the different kinds of schools that we have.

Famous people who went to public school have a posher accent when they speak English, have a more upper-class accent.

Benedict Cumberbatch, who went to Harrow, and so I think this there is this idea of public schools being connected to being the upper class and being part of the elite in the British class system.

What would you think the overall perception of comprehensive schools is?

I think it depends on the point of view we're talking about.

So as someone who went to private school or public school you can call it the perception of state schools was biassed in a negative way.

Because, as you said, there is a kind of elitist culture that is very common at public schools, that sees or tries to imbue in its students a sense of superiority.

Among state schools, there is also prejudice and inequality in terms of quality.

So people are still keen to send.

They have beliefs about which state school is better than which other state school and it can be competittive to try to get your student into a state school though it's free.

It's chosen by a kind of lottery.

The different kinds of education are influenced by the government of the time.

There's a tendency for them to not properly fund state schools or certainly not offer the same kind of support that they offer to private schools.