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 61–70 (page 7 of 50).

C

Child protection plan

Also called CP plan, Section 47, Child protection conference

A plan where a child is judged at risk of significant harm. Serious, and the family is entitled to take part.

Children missing education

Also called CME

A child of compulsory school age not on any school roll and not otherwise educated. Councils must find them.

Choosing a school for a child with SEND

What to look at on a visit, and what the council must do with your preference.

Chords and keys

How notes group into harmony, and how a piece establishes its home note.

Chronology

Knowing the order things happened in. Unglamorous, and it underpins everything.

Circle geometry: arcs and sectors

Parts of a circle, and the fractions that give their size.

Circle theorems

A set of rules about angles in circles. Higher tier, and questions expect the rule named.

Circuit symbols and diagrams

Drawing circuits so anybody can build them.

Climate change

Long-term change in global climate, its causes, effects and the two responses.

Close reading

Reading a short passage in detail, word by word. The core literary skill.

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