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 41–45 (page 5 of 5).

P

Pseudocode and flowcharts

Two ways of writing an algorithm down without committing to a language.

Psychology approaches

The main explanations psychology uses, and what each says behaviour comes from.

Pupil premium

Also called Pupil premium plus, PP, PP+

Extra funding for disadvantaged pupils. Schools must publish how they spend it.

Pupil voice

The child's own views. Required in SEND decisions, and often collected as a formality.

Pythagoras' theorem

In a right-angled triangle, the square on the hypotenuse equals the sum of the squares on the other two sides.

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