An American mum who’s recently moved to England has shared the three things that has shocked her the most about the British school system and how it differs to the US
The UK is often described as having a good education system, often ranking among the top countries in the world for education across numerous different categories.
Every country has its different rules and customs when it come to school, and the UK is no exception – meaning our education system can be confusing to people who went to school elsewhere. One of these people is mum Molly, who recently moved over to Birmingham from the US with her family and is now sharing the culture shocks she’s noticed since arriving – such as having to navigate the education system for her son.
Taking to TikTok, Molly went on to share the biggest surprises that have caught her off guard since she moved across the pond.
“So, I’m navigating the British school system for the very first time and here’s three things that I just find wild as an American,” she said at the start of her video. She then went on to share her list.
Religious state schools
The first thing on her list was that state schools in the UK can be religious. To this, she clarified through her shock: “What? A school that is designated for the public, not a private school, can give priority to students based on religion.
“Now, I understand the history of it, that like the idea that the public could have an education, you know, hundreds and hundreds of years ago,” she said.
“But the idea that if you want to go to school in your neighbourhood, […] but you can’t get in because kids from further away will have priority because they belong to the faith of the school.
“Blows my American mind,” she said. “Public schools in America, you just can’t discriminate on the basis of religion. Fascinating.”
School uniforms
“Second for me is uniforms,” she said. “I know that statistics are like overwhelming, like 95% or something of schools in the UK wear school uniforms and it’s so embedded in the culture to wear school uniform.
“I didn’t growing up, you know it’s way less normalised in the US,” she continued, giving ‘smart shoes’ as an example of the ‘formal nature’ of going to school in the UK and adding that it’s all very new to her.
Walking to school
“And lastly, this is something I’m really excited about, is the number of children in the UK that can walk to school is just like so much higher than in the US,” she said.
She went on to say that there are multiple reasons why her child and most kids in general in the US were unable to walk to their schools. This included issues with infrastructure and the ways neighbourhoods and roads are laid out, making it more difficult – especially for younger kids – to walk to their schools and back home.
“The idea that you can walk to school is just like so exciting to me. I’m really thrilled about it for my kid,” she said.
Several Brits soon took to the comment section to share their thoughts and experiences about the school system, with one viewer sharing: “I was always told that one of the reasons we had to wear uniforms was to stop discrimination against people who are poorer based on their clothes.”
Another person said: “Most of the country went to a CofE school and we’re still on the road to atheist! They’re not religious schools in the standard sense that people might think. Singing some hymns is basically it.”
“I work in Catholic school in Bham. Our demographic more non-Catholic than Catholic. it’s really not what you think,” a third person wrote.
