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.

80 terms filed under S, showing 1–10 (page 1 of 8).

S

Safeguarding in health and social care

Protecting adults and children from abuse and neglect, and what to do about a concern.

Safeguarding in schools

Also called KCSIE, Keeping Children Safe in Education, Child protection

Schools' legal duty to protect children from harm, and the framework everyone in a school works to.

Sampling

Studying part of a population to say something about all of it.

SATs

Also called National curriculum tests, Key Stage 2 tests

National tests at the end of Key Stage 2. They measure the school more than they measure your child.

Scale drawings and bearings

Direction measured from north, always three figures, always clockwise.

School admissions timeline

The dates for the normal admissions round. Missing them costs choices, not places.

School complaint

The formal route for raising something with a school. Following the stages in order is what makes it work.

School governance meetings

How to raise something with governors, and what they will and will not do.

School nursing

The NHS service for school-age children's health. Free, and under-used.

School report

The written summary of progress. Read the comments, not just the grades.

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