UK education glossary

11 Plus

The 11 Plus is the selective entrance examination used by grammar schools and some independent schools in England and Northern Ireland. Children sit it at the start of Year 6, usually in September, for entry the following year. Papers typically cover English, maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning, though the exact mix varies by area. Most regions use tests written by GL Assessment; formats, pass marks and registration deadlines are set locally by the council or school consortium, so two neighbouring counties can run quite different exams.

Adjustment (UCAS)

Adjustment was a UCAS process that allowed students who met and exceeded the conditions of their firm offer to look for a place at a different university without giving up their confirmed place. UCAS discontinued Adjustment from the 2022 application cycle onwards because very few students used it. Students who exceed their offer today and want to move instead use self-release into Clearing: they release themselves from their confirmed place in the UCAS Hub and contact their preferred university directly. You may still see Adjustment mentioned in older guides.

Admission appeals

If your child is refused a place at a school you applied for, you have a legal right to appeal to an independent appeal panel. The panel first checks whether the admission arrangements were correctly and lawfully applied, then weighs the prejudice to the school of admitting another child against the prejudice to your child of being refused. Its decision is binding on the admissions authority. Appeals for infant classes (Reception to Year 2) are harder to win because class sizes are legally capped at 30. Deadlines are short, typically about 20 school days from the refusal.

Attainment 8

Attainment 8 measures a school's average GCSE achievement across eight qualifying subject slots: English, maths, three EBacc subjects and three further approved qualifications. English and maths are double weighted, so they contribute two slots each of the ten points-bearing slots. Each grade converts to points (broadly, a grade 9 is worth 9 points) and the school's score is the average per pupil. Unlike Progress 8 it does not account for pupils' starting points, so selective schools tend to post higher Attainment 8 scores.

BTEC

BTECs (originally Business and Technology Education Council qualifications, now awarded by Pearson) are vocational qualifications built around coursework, practical assignments and some externally assessed units rather than final exams alone. They run from Level 1 up to Level 3 BTEC Nationals, which are the common sixth-form option: a National Extended Diploma is equivalent in size to three A-Levels, and grades (Pass, Merit, Distinction, Distinction*) carry UCAS tariff points. Many students combine a smaller BTEC with A-Levels, and most universities accept BTECs for relevant courses.

CAT4

CAT4 is the fourth edition of the Cognitive Abilities Test, published by GL Assessment and widely used by UK secondary schools, usually in Year 7. It measures reasoning ability rather than taught knowledge across four batteries: verbal, non-verbal, quantitative and spatial. Results are age-standardised with an average of 100, and schools use them to set target grades, group pupils and identify children whose classroom performance does not match their underlying ability. Because it tests reasoning rather than curriculum content, schools generally advise against heavy coaching for it.

Catchment area

A catchment area is the geographic zone from which a school gives admissions priority, defined by the admissions authority (the council or the school itself, depending on school type). Some schools draw a fixed map; others effectively create one each year through a distance-based tiebreak, in which case the 'catchment' is simply the furthest distance offered a place, and it moves annually with demand. Living in catchment usually raises your chance of a place but guarantees nothing, because oversubscription criteria such as siblings and looked-after children rank higher.

Clearing

Clearing is the UCAS process that matches applicants who do not hold a confirmed place to university courses that still have vacancies. It runs from early July to October, with the busiest period around A-Level results day in August. Students can use Clearing if they missed their offer conditions, declined their offers, applied late, or released themselves from a confirmed place (self-release) to go elsewhere. Students contact universities directly, receive informal offers, and then add the course they accept in the UCAS Hub.

DBS check

A DBS check is a criminal record check issued by the Disclosure and Barring Service in England and Wales. There are three levels: basic (unspent convictions only), standard, and enhanced, which includes police intelligence and can include a check of the children's barred list. Tutors working regularly with children typically hold an enhanced check obtained through an agency, school or umbrella body; a self-employed tutor cannot apply for an enhanced check on themselves directly, though they can obtain a basic check. Checks show a snapshot in time, so many tutors join the DBS Update Service to keep theirs current.

EBacc (English Baccalaureate)

The English Baccalaureate (EBacc) is a school performance measure in England, not a qualification in its own right. A pupil is counted as entering the EBacc if they take GCSEs in English language and literature, maths, at least two sciences (computer science counts), a language, and history or geography. The government uses EBacc entry and achievement rates to compare schools, and many schools shape their GCSE options process around it. Pupils receive no separate EBacc certificate; their GCSE grades stand alone.

EHCP (Education, Health and Care Plan)

An Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) is a legal document in England for children and young people aged 0 to 25 whose special educational needs require more support than a school can normally provide. It is issued by the local authority after an EHC needs assessment and sets out the child's needs, the outcomes being worked towards, and the specific educational, health and social care provision that must be delivered. Because it is statutory, the support in an EHCP is enforceable, and parents can appeal decisions to the SEND Tribunal.

Examiner report

An examiner report is a document published by an exam board after each exam series, written by the senior examiners who oversaw marking. It walks through the paper question by question, describing what strong answers did, the errors and misconceptions that cost candidates marks, and how well each question discriminated. Reports are free on the board websites alongside the past paper and mark scheme, and they are among the most underused revision resources: they tell students precisely how marks were actually lost by real candidates on the exact specification they are sitting.

Foundation vs higher tier

Some GCSEs, including maths, the sciences and modern languages, are tiered: pupils sit either the foundation paper, which awards grades 1 to 5, or the higher paper, which awards grades 4 to 9 (with a narrow grade 3 safety net just below the 4 boundary). Schools decide tier entry, usually in Year 10 or 11, based on mock performance. Foundation offers more accessible questions and a securer route to a grade 4 or 5; higher is the only route to grades 6 and above. English GCSEs are not tiered.

Functional Skills

Functional Skills are applied qualifications in English, maths and ICT, available from Entry Level up to Level 2, designed around practical, real-life use rather than academic study. Level 2 is broadly accepted by employers and apprenticeship providers as equivalent to a GCSE grade 4, and Functional Skills are a common route for post-16 students who need an English or maths qualification after not achieving a grade 4 at GCSE. Exams are offered year-round by several awarding bodies, with on-demand sittings at colleges and training providers.

GCSE 9-1 grading

GCSEs in England are graded on a 9 to 1 scale, with 9 the highest; it replaced the old A* to G scale between 2017 and 2019. Grade 4 is the standard pass (broadly the old grade C) and grade 5 is the strong pass the government uses in school league tables. Grade 7 broadly corresponds to the old grade A, while grade 9 sits above the old A*, deliberately harder to achieve and awarded to a small proportion of top papers. Pupils who miss a grade 4 in English or maths must continue studying those subjects post-16.

GL vs CEM

GL Assessment and CEM are the two test providers most associated with the 11 Plus. GL papers draw on question banks in English, maths, verbal reasoning and non-verbal reasoning, with familiar question types that respond well to format practice. CEM (originally Durham University's Centre for Evaluation and Monitoring, now owned by Cambridge) designed mixed-format papers intended to be harder to coach. CEM has withdrawn from traditional paper-based 11 Plus testing, and most areas that used it have since moved to GL or to computer-based assessments, so always check which test your target area sets.

Grade boundaries

Grade boundaries are the minimum raw marks needed to achieve each grade in an exam. Exam boards (AQA, Edexcel, OCR, WJEC and CCEA) set them after marking each series, using statistics and senior examiner judgement so that standards stay consistent even when one year's paper proves harder than another's. This is why boundaries move from year to year and differ between boards, and why they are published only on results day. A harder paper generally means lower boundaries, so pupils are not disadvantaged by a tough exam.

International Baccalaureate (IB)

The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme is a two-year qualification for 16 to 19 year olds offered by some UK schools as an alternative to A-Levels. Students study six subjects spanning their own language, a second language, sciences, maths, humanities and usually an arts option, three at higher level and three at standard level. They also complete the core: theory of knowledge, a 4,000-word extended essay, and creativity, activity, service (CAS). Each subject is graded 1 to 7 and the core adds up to 3 points, giving a maximum score of 45.

Intervention

In UK schools, intervention means targeted additional support for pupils who are working below their target grade or the expected standard: small-group sessions, one-to-one help, breakfast or after-school classes, and holiday revision sessions. Schools identify pupils for intervention using assessment data, most heavily in Years 6, 11 and 13 before national exams. Intervention is the school-provided cousin of private tutoring, and the National Tutoring Programme brought external tutors into schools for the same purpose. Effective intervention is specific: it names the topics and skills being fixed, not just extra time.

Key stages (KS1 to KS5)

Key stages divide schooling in England into blocks with set curriculum expectations. Key Stage 1 covers Years 1 and 2 (ages 5 to 7) and Key Stage 2 covers Years 3 to 6 (ages 7 to 11), together making up primary school. Key Stage 3 covers Years 7 to 9 (ages 11 to 14), Key Stage 4 covers Years 10 and 11 (ages 14 to 16) when pupils study for GCSEs, and Key Stage 5 (also called sixth form) covers Years 12 and 13, when students take A-Levels, T Levels or other post-16 qualifications.

Metacognition

Metacognition is thinking about your own thinking and learning: planning how to approach a task, monitoring how well the approach is working, and evaluating what to do differently next time. A student using metacognition notices when they have not understood a paragraph and rereads it differently, or checks an answer against the question before moving on. The Education Endowment Foundation rates metacognition and self-regulation among the highest-impact, lowest-cost teaching approaches in its toolkit. Tutors develop it by asking students to explain their reasoning and predict where marks will be lost.

Mock exams

Mock exams are full practice examinations sat under real exam conditions, usually taken in Year 11 and Year 13 between November and March, using past papers or board-style papers marked against official mark schemes. Schools use mocks to inform predicted grades, decide tier entry, target intervention and give pupils a genuine rehearsal of timing and exam pressure. Since 2020, mock evidence has also mattered as contingency evidence should exams ever be disrupted. Some schools call them PPEs (pre-public examinations); the two terms mean the same thing.

Multiplication tables check (MTC)

The multiplication tables check (MTC) is a statutory on-screen assessment for Year 4 pupils in England, taken in June. Children answer 25 times-table questions covering the 2 to 12 tables, with six seconds to type each answer, so it tests instant recall rather than working out. Questions from the 6, 7, 8, 9 and 12 tables appear most often. There is no pass mark; schools receive each child's score out of 25 and use it to identify who needs more times-table practice before the demands of Key Stage 2 maths.

NEA and controlled assessment

Non-exam assessment (NEA) is the coursework element of reformed GCSEs and A-Levels: work completed outside the final exams, marked by teachers and moderated by the exam board. It replaced controlled assessment, the older system of coursework done under supervised classroom conditions, when qualifications were reformed from 2015. NEA now exists only where a written exam cannot assess the skill, for example art and design portfolios, design and technology projects, drama performances, language speaking tests and the A-Level history investigation. Strict rules limit how much help teachers, parents and tutors may give.

Oversubscription criteria

Oversubscription criteria are the published rules a school uses to rank applicants when it receives more applications than it has places. Every admissions authority must publish them, and looked-after and previously looked-after children come first by law. After that, common criteria include siblings already at the school, children of staff, faith criteria for religious schools, feeder primaries, and distance from home to school, with distance usually the final tiebreak. Grammar schools add the 11 Plus result, either as a qualifying bar or as a rank order.

Past papers

Past papers are genuine exam papers from previous years, published by the exam boards (AQA, Edexcel, OCR, WJEC and CCEA) together with their mark schemes and, usually, examiner reports. They are the most exam-specific practice available: the same style of questions, command words, mark allocations and time pressure the student will face. Recent papers are freely downloadable from board websites, with the newest series sometimes locked for school use first. Working a paper under timed conditions and then marking it against the official scheme is the core revision cycle for GCSEs and A-Levels.

Phonics screening check

The phonics screening check is a statutory assessment taken by Year 1 children in England, usually in June. A teacher listens one-to-one as the child reads 40 words aloud: a mix of real words and made-up 'alien' words (like 'vap' or 'jound') that test pure decoding, since they cannot be recognised from memory. The expected standard threshold has historically been 32 out of 40. Children who do not meet it receive extra phonics support and retake the check in Year 2. Results go to parents but not into league tables.

PPE (pre-public examination)

PPE stands for pre-public examination, the formal name many secondary schools now use for mock exams. The renaming signals that the papers are sat under the same conditions as the real (public) GCSE or A-Level exams: formal invigilation, exam regulations, access arrangements in place, and marking against official mark schemes. Schools typically run one or two PPE series, commonly November or December and again in February or March of the exam year. In content and purpose a PPE is identical to a mock.

Progress 8

Progress 8 is the headline accountability measure for secondary schools in England. It compares each pupil's GCSE results across eight qualifying subjects with the results of pupils nationally who had similar Key Stage 2 scores, then averages those comparisons across the school. English and maths are double weighted. A school score of 0 means pupils progressed in line with similar pupils nationally; positive scores mean more progress, negative scores less. It measures the school, not the individual child.

Pupil premium

The pupil premium is additional government funding paid to state schools in England for disadvantaged pupils: those eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years, children looked after by the local authority or previously in care, and (through a parallel service premium) children of serving armed forces personnel. Schools decide how to spend it, commonly on tutoring, small-group teaching, learning resources and enrichment, and must publish a strategy explaining the impact. The aim is to close the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers.

Retrieval practice

Retrieval practice is the act of deliberately recalling information from memory, through self-quizzing, flashcards, brain dumps or past paper questions, rather than re-reading or highlighting notes. Decades of cognitive science research (often called the testing effect) show that the effort of retrieval strengthens memory far more than passive review, even when the retrieval attempt fails and is then corrected. It is one of the most consistently supported study techniques in education research, and good tutors build it into every session, starting with recall of the previous week's content.

Safeguarding

Safeguarding means protecting children and young people from abuse, neglect and harm, and promoting their welfare. Schools and colleges in England must follow the statutory guidance Keeping Children Safe in Education, employ a designated safeguarding lead and vet all staff. Private tutoring sits outside that regulated framework, so safeguarding rests on sensible practice: an enhanced DBS check where obtainable, lessons in a shared or observable space (or recorded online sessions), a parent present in the home, and clear communication that goes through parents rather than privately to the child.

SATs scaled score

Key Stage 2 SATs results in England are reported as scaled scores rather than raw marks. Each raw mark total converts onto a scale from 80 to 120, where 100 is the expected standard for the end of Year 6 and 110 or above counts as working at the higher standard (sometimes called greater depth in teacher assessment). The conversion changes slightly each year to keep the standard constant across different papers. Children take SATs in reading, maths, and grammar, punctuation and spelling; writing is teacher assessed.

SEN vs SEND

SEN (special educational needs) and SEND (special educational needs and disabilities) are often used interchangeably, but there is a distinction. SEN describes learning needs that require extra or different provision. SEND explicitly also covers disabilities as defined by the Equality Act 2010, which may or may not affect learning: a child can have a disability without special educational needs, and vice versa. Since the 2015 SEND Code of Practice, SEND has been the standard term in English schools, and the school's SENCO coordinates provision for both.

SEND

SEND stands for special educational needs and disabilities. A child has special educational needs if they have a learning difficulty or disability that calls for provision different from or additional to what is normally available to pupils of the same age. The SEND Code of Practice (2015) organises needs into four broad areas: communication and interaction; cognition and learning; social, emotional and mental health; and sensory and/or physical needs. Support ranges from in-class adjustments (SEN support) up to a statutory EHCP.

Spaced repetition

Spaced repetition means revisiting the same material over spread-out, gradually lengthening intervals: perhaps a day after first learning it, then three days, then a week, then a month. It exploits the spacing effect, one of the most reliable findings in memory research: information reviewed across spaced sessions is retained far longer than information crammed in one block, even when total study time is identical. Flashcard systems such as Anki automate the scheduling, but a simple revision timetable that cycles topics achieves the same effect for exam preparation.

Standardised score

A standardised score converts a child's raw test mark onto a common scale so it can be compared fairly with other children, usually adjusting for age within the year group. The average is set at 100, and most standardised tests place roughly two thirds of children between 85 and 115. Age standardisation means a summer-born child answering the same questions correctly as an autumn-born classmate can receive a slightly higher standardised score. The 11 Plus, CAT4 and many school baseline tests report results this way.

T Levels

T Levels are two-year technical qualifications for 16 to 19 year olds in England, introduced from 2020 as an alternative to A-Levels and apprenticeships. Each T Level is equivalent in size to three A-Levels and combines roughly 80 per cent classroom study with a substantial industry placement of at least 315 hours (around 45 days) with an employer. Subjects are occupational, such as digital, construction, education and childcare, health and engineering. T Levels carry UCAS tariff points, and a distinction* is worth the same as three A-Levels at A*.

Tuition vs tutoring

In everyday UK usage, tuition and tutoring mean the same thing: paid teaching outside normal school lessons, usually one-to-one or in small groups. 'Tuition' is the slightly more formal word and also refers to teaching provision generally, which is why university 'tuition fees' has nothing to do with private tutors. 'Tutoring' emphasises the activity and the person doing it, and phrases like 'private tutoring' and 'private tuition' are interchangeable in adverts and directories. Searches for both terms return the same tutors, so use whichever comes naturally.

UCAS tariff points

UCAS tariff points translate post-16 qualification grades into a single points scale that some universities use in offers. At A-Level, an A* is worth 56 points, A is 48, B is 40, C is 32, D is 24 and E is 16, so an offer of 112 points might be met with BBC. BTEC Nationals, the IB and many other regulated qualifications also carry tariff values. Not every university uses the tariff: many, including most selective ones, make offers in specific grades instead, and GCSEs carry no tariff points at all.