Education (ages 5-16)

Education in England is divided into: primary, secondary, further and higher education. Children are required to attend school for 11 years from the ages of 5-16.

Should you decide to bring your family and your children are between 5 and 16 years old, the Local Education Authority (LEA) has a duty to provide a place for them in a local school. It is therefore imperative that you advise the International Student Support Office (isa@exeter.ac.uk) at least three months in advance if you will be bringing your child/children and will need school places and also what level of English, if any, your child speaks. If you do not do this it may be difficult to place your child in a suitable school.

Where your child goes to school depends on where you live and therefore you cannot finalise arrangements for schooling until you know exactly where you will be living. However, advising us that you will need a school place will assist us in helping you. Some schools may have a school uniform; others have a liberal dress code. Discipline is maintained through an agreed behaviour code within the individual school and there is no corporal punishment in state schools.

To help your child settle into school, it would be helpful if you brought a recent teacher's report and some samples of work. To make your child's stay in Exeter as useful and enjoyable as possible, local schools would appreciate it if you could bring some reading books in your language and a dual dictionary (eg. Korean/English), suitable for your child to use in school. Please be aware that schools in Exeter and Cornwall have few specially trained Language Assistants.

Further information