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 301–310 (page 31 of 50).

P

Photosynthesis and respiration

How plants make glucose and how all living things release energy from it. Not opposites, and not the same as breathing.

Physics equations

The formulae you are given and the ones you must learn. Knowing which is which is worth marks.

Plagiarism

Also called Malpractice, Collusion, AI misuse

Passing off someone else's work as your own. In assessed work it is malpractice, with real consequences.

Plant transport and transpiration

How water and food move through a plant, in two separate systems.

Play and learning

How children learn through play, and the recognised types of play.

Population and migration

How populations grow, age and move, and what follows.

Post-16 duty to participate

Also called Raising the participation age, RPA, Staying in education

Young people in England must stay in education or training until 18. It does not have to be school.

Practical skills: apparatus

Choosing and using the right equipment, and knowing its resolution.

Practitioners

Named theatre-makers whose methods you are expected to know and use.

Preparing for adulthood

Also called PfA, Transition to adulthood

The planning that must start at year 9 for young people with an EHCP. Four outcomes, and it is a legal requirement.

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