Jargon Buster
Below is a list of words and phrases commonly used in education. Selecting them will reveal their definitions:
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- AS and A levels are the next step up from GCSEs if your child stays on in academic education after the age of 16 (as opposed to getting a job or doing a vocational qualification).
Further information is available on our A-levels page.
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- Blending is combining individual sounds together to pronounce a word, e.g. t-r-a-p when blended reads trap.
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A common entrance exam is taken by some children as part of the admissions process for academically selective independent schools, following on from primary education (whether state or independent). There are two versions, catering for school admissions starting at 11 and 13 years old.
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- Digraphs are letters that represent a single sound. For example, 'sh'.
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- Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) is the regulatory and quality framework for the provision of learning, development and care for children between birth and the academic year in which they turn five (0–5).
Further information is available on our Reception Class page.
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- Eleven plus is mainly used as admissions test in areas that still have state grammar schools, the Eleven Plus is taken in the final year of primary education.
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- There are only a few geographical areas in the UK that still use this system, which was most popular in the early 1980s (there were just 171 middle schools remaining in the UK at the end of 2013). The First School takes children from Reception to Year 4, the Middle School from Years 5 – 8, with the Upper school catering for Years 9 – 13.
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- A free School is a school that is funded directly by the Department for Education and run by a non-profit-making charitable trust.
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- GCSEs are the General Certificate of Secondary Education is a national qualification that pupils work for during Key Stage 4. Pupils often take a number of GCSEs, graded by a mixture of coursework and exams.
Further information is available on our GCSEs page.
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- A grapheme is the written representation of a sound. For example, the shape you make when you write a letter 'e'.
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- Guided reading is a method of teaching that involves reading with children in small groups so that their individual needs can be met.
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- The high frequency words are the words that occur most often in written texts. They include "the" and "and".
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- These are schools that are independent in funding (relying on tuition fees, endowments and so on) and independent in governance. Independent, public and private schools are fundamentally the same.
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- LEA is the Local Education Authority, the local council responsible for education in an area.Learning Objective (LO): A description of the skills, knowledge and attitudes you can expect your child to acquire.
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- A learning objective (LO) is a description of the skills, knowledge and attitudes you can expect your child to acquire.
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- Number bonds are simple addition sums that your child will (eventually) memorise.
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- A number line is a line with numbers on it. Used to teach maths by providing a visual representation of numbers.
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- A number sentence is an arrangement of numbers and symbols e.g. 6 + 5 = 11 or 6 ÷ 2 = 3 (used to be referred to as a sum, but this is misleading, as it doesn’t always mean adding up.)
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- Ofsted is the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills. It brings together the regulation and inspection of day care and children’s social care and the inspection of LA children’s services, schools, colleges, initial teacher training, work-based learning, adult education and more.
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- A parent council is a body of parents which represents parents and provides a forum for them to put forward their views to the headteacher and the governing body of their children’s school.
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- Partitioning is method of working out maths problems by splitting the numbers into simpler units.
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- A phoneme is a unit of sound – examples would be the noises you make when you say 't' or 'k'.
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- Phonics are a method for teaching reading and writing by developing the ability to hear, identify and manipulate units of sound.
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- This is a formal test in June of Year 1 (age 6), when your child reads out a list of words to a teacher. It tests their knowledge of phonics (the sounds that letters and groups of letters make) rather than their reading or comprehension skills.
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- Prep schools prepare children for senior school and typically take children from the age of 7 up to either 11 or 13 depending on the school. Pre-Prep schools take children as young as 2 up to 7. So Prep and Pre-Prep together are the equivalent of nursery, primary and junior school in the state sector.
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- This is the most common type of early school in England and Wales. Children enter the Reception Year when they’re 4 (turning 5 during the school year). Primary schools are often divided internally into Infants and Juniors.
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- SATs are Standard Assessment Tests taken in Years 2 and 6.
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- Segment means to split up a word into its individual phonemes to spell it. E.g, the word 'bat' has three phonemes: b – a – t.
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- Special Educational Needs Coordinator.
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- Special Educational Needs and Disability.
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- State schools are government-funded schools that provide education free of charge. The majority of state schools are under the control of local councils – these are known as Maintained schools. There are some other types of state schools, including Academies and Free Schools which draw their funding directly from the government.
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- A TA or EA is a Teaching Assistant or Education Assistant, also known as a Classroom Assistant. The TA/EA Helps the qualified teacher in the classroom on a permanent or occasional basis.
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- These qualifications are all about the world of work, across the full range industries and professions. BTEC and City & Guilds courses are the most common, taking in everything from Apprenticeships and NVQs (more hands-on), to certificates and diplomas (more classroom based).
Further information is available on our Vocational Qualifications page.