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.

45 terms filed under P, showing 1–10 (page 1 of 5).

P

Parental responsibility

The legal rights and duties of a parent. It decides who the school must deal with.

Parents' evening

A short scheduled conversation about your child. Preparation makes the difference.

Particle model and density

Solids, liquids and gases as arrangements of particles, and what density measures.

Past paper

Also called Practice paper, Specimen paper

A real exam from a previous year. The closest thing to the actual test, and free.

Pathetic fallacy

Weather or landscape that mirrors the mood of a scene or a character.

PEEL paragraph

Also called PEE, PETAL, What-How-Why

A paragraph structure: point, evidence, explanation, link. Useful scaffolding, and something to grow out of.

Peer assessment

Marking each other's work against the criteria. Useful for the marker most of all.

Penalty notice

Also called Fine for school absence, Fixed penalty notice, FPN

A fine for unauthorised absence, issued per parent per child. Since 2024 the rules are national rather than local.

Percentages

Parts per hundred: increases, decreases, reverse percentages and compound change.

Permanent exclusion

Also called Expulsion, PEX

Removing a pupil from the school roll permanently. The most serious sanction, with the tightest deadlines.

Ready when you are

Have a look round the demo, start a free trial with your own service in it, or ask us the awkward question first. Whichever you pick, the people who answer are the people who built it.