Education A to Z

Education and Curriculum Terms: A Guide for Students and Teachers

Please note: This page explains a word or a process in education. It is general information about the system, the law and the guidance in England — not advice about your child, your school or your exam. If a decision is going against you, get advice from one of the free services we link to before you agree to anything or miss a deadline. If you are revising, check your own exam board's specification: boards word things differently and yours is the one that marks you.

Revising? We write GCSE revision songs — a playlist covering most subjects and the English set texts. Listen to the revision playlist.

16 terms filed under I, showing 1–10 (page 1 of 2).

I

Iambic pentameter

Also called Blank verse, Metre, Trochee

Ten syllables a line, alternating unstressed and stressed. Shakespeare's default, and it means something when he breaks it.

IEP

Also called Individual Education Plan, Pupil passport, One-page profile, Support plan

A school's own record of a child's targets and support. Useful, common, and not legally required.

Imagery

Also called Sensory imagery, Semantic field

Language that makes a reader see, hear, feel, taste or smell something.

In-year admission

Also called Mid-year transfer, In-year application

Applying for a school place outside the normal round — after a move, or when a placement has broken down.

Index laws in algebra

Powers with letters, and the fractional and negative cases.

Indices

Powers. The small raised number, and the rules for combining them.

Individual healthcare plan

A written plan for a pupil with a medical condition. Schools have a legal duty to support them.

Inequalities

Statements about ranges of values rather than a single answer.

Infection and immunity

Pathogens, how the body fights them, and how vaccines work.

Internal exclusion

Also called Isolation, Removal room, Seclusion, Reflection room

Removing a pupil from class to a supervised space within school. Permitted, and it should be limited and recorded.

Something missing?

If there is a word or a process you have been nodding along to, tell us and we will write it up. This library exists because of the questions people were too polite, or too tired, to ask.

Ask us to add a term