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.

500 terms, showing 291–300 (page 30 of 50).

P

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.

Persistent absence

Also called PA, Severe absence

Missing 10% or more of sessions. It triggers school and council processes whether the absence was authorised or not.

Person-centred care

Care organised around the individual's own needs, wishes and choices.

Personal budget

Also called SEN personal budget, Direct payments

Money identified in an EHCP that a family can have some control over. Available on request, with limits.

Personal education plan

Also called PEP

The education section of a looked-after child's care plan. Reviewed termly, and it controls pupil premium plus spending.

Personal statement

The written part of a university application. Evidence, not adjectives.

Personification

Also called Anthropomorphism

Giving human qualities to something that is not human.

Phonics screening check

A short year 1 check of a child's phonic decoding. Forty words, half of them made up.

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