The topic of studying the subject “Religion“ in Bulgarian schools has sparked a strong public discussion. How is this decided in the UK and how is the education system organized there in general. Stacy King - a learning expert and psychologist with two master's degrees - spoke to FACTI.
- Ms. King, you live in the UK and know the education system there well. How do they view school in the UK? What is expected of education there…
- At the beginning, I want to clarify - I am not a teacher in the UK, but a learning expert and psychologist, as well as a parent whose two children have gone through the system. To give you the context in which school operates here would take me a week, and about 100 pages if I started writing. First, I'll start with some statistics.
There are about 69 million people living in the United Kingdom. Of these, 14.5 million are children under the age of 18. Education is compulsory and free up to the age of 16. Of the children subject to compulsory education, nearly 8 million attended school in 2024. The goals of public education are for every child to receive a modern, high-quality, accessible education, regardless of their social background and class affiliation. School - not only on the Island - is an institution in which society prepares its future and transmits the values of previous generations to the next. The school as an institution is a projection of the social systems, value/cultural attitudes of the leaders in a community, province, region, country. People, citizens, look at school each in their own way, usually and by habit, each transfers their experience of their own experiences in this institution to their children. And because the British value their traditions very much, there are some basic principles on which the entire system is built, which do not change easily. However, for the last 30 years, all schools have been obliged to meet certain quality standards, having a special body that classifies and evaluates them once a year. The body that makes these assessments is called OFSTED, (Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills.) This is an independent service for standards in education, children's services and skills. They inspect the skills of teachers, the standards of school organization, the work of administration and directors. They also inspect and regulate additional services, described as care for children and young people. They currently employ around 2,000 inspectors, whose public profiles and biographies are publicly available and on the list of His Majesty King Charles III of the United Kingdom. On its website, OFSTED says that their core values are “… we put children and learners first and our reports are independent, evidence-based, accountable and transparent“.
This, I would say, over-regulation of education services in the United Kingdom brings many positive aspects among the multi-million population, but, of course, as in many cases, there is no perfect system that everyone is happy with all the time. Let us not forget, however, the art that quite accurately represents the reality of education in the United Kingdom in the 1950s – from the album “The Wall“ by Pink Floyd and the song “Another Brick in the Wall“.
According to a 2020 article on Medium, the author says that “… school is still the same in 2020, with no signs of changing, because the purpose of school is not to really learn. The purpose is to get excellent grades and to appear successful to others. It is not so much whether you really learn or not as it is to get perfect grades.“
But I will try to summarize: Britain has a 900-year tradition of education and schools, and its world-famous universities prove this. The diversity of schools - state or private, is organized and structured to a large extent by the state, and legality, order and democratic values are at the heart of everything that is set out in terms of vision, goals, strategies and practices. Of course, children from the upper or upper middle class have a greater choice of private schools, where more attention is paid to their individual needs. Children attending state schools are allocated according to their place of residence (i.e. their parents do not have much choice about which school their child will study at). These are some of the characteristics of the system in the United Kingdom.
But it is characteristic:
1. Each school has mandatory school uniforms and stands out with its own school motto, written on its own coat of arms. Thus, each school has an individuality.
2. The system has three types of schools: boys', girls' and co-educational. Many schools specialise in teaching boys or girls. In some sports, different subjects are still traditionally offered. For example, girls are involved in netball, hockey and swimming, while boys are traditionally offered cricket, rugby and football. Schools for boys and girls are usually found in the independent (private) system, but there are exceptions. Interestingly, private schools are called Public, which is a bit confusing.
3. The school day starts between 8.30 and 9.00 and ends between 15.15 - 15.30. Outside this time, children are involved in extracurricular activities organised by the school or other organisations. For working families this also means that they have to find suitable after-school care for their children, as well as pay for them.
4. A wide variety of extracurricular activities. Every school, whether state or independent, offers a wide range of extracurricular activities from 3.30pm to 6.30pm. Chess, flamenco, Spanish language courses, football, meditation/mindfulness, cinema/filmmaking, dance, martial arts, yoga for children, etc.
5. All stationery, textbooks and books that children have to work with during the year are provided by the school. They are distributed to the children for the day and then put away for safekeeping. After the school day is over, children do not take textbooks or notebooks home. Their homework does not involve reading from the textbook, but rather focuses on tasks and materials that children have access to on the internet or the school's intranet system, or on Google Classroom.
6. Students in the United Kingdom do not repeat a year. Even if their grades are low and their success is critical, this is perceived as a mistake by the school, and it takes steps to deal with the student's success, but he/she continues to move forward with his/her peers. In the state system, each class of about 25-35 children is organized into several levels according to the student's success and his/her achievements. The requirements for the skills of children at these levels are different and are according to the competencies they have proven so far. It is different in selective schools, where admission will be refused if your child does not have the required entry level.
7. Children officially start school at the age of 4-5. The first year of school is called Reception and the child joins in the year in which he/she turns 5 between September 1 and August 31. This means that children can start school as early as 4 years old. (if they were born in the summer of the following calendar year, for example)
8. Students are usually encouraged to speak up and share their opinions. One of the good things about the British system is that children are encouraged from an early age to come out in front of their peers to tell stories and express their ideas. In primary school this can be done through weekly assemblies where children recite poems and stories. The “Star of the Week“ will stand in front of the whole school to receive congratulations. Another popular activity is “Show and Tell“ - a child will bring an item and have to explain to the class why it is special to them.
- You are a psychologist and mental health advocate on the board of a democratic school in Cambridge. Tell us more. What is the purpose of what you do…
- I am a psychologist with two master's degrees, as well as a teacher with one master's degree. The school, whose team I participate in as a counselor, is called “The Blue Squid“. Its mission is to be different from other schools and to create a school environment where kindness, respect and preparation for real life are a priority, an environment that creates a broad, inclusive educational experience - promotes holistic learning, global awareness and allows young people to breathe.
This, in itself, is changing the system from within.
I would say that our school aims to support children from 4 to 18 years old who no longer attend a boarding school because it traumatizes them and they have the so-called emotional incompatibility with the school environment. Usually, schools themselves, with their inability to pay individual attention to the needs of each child, impose requirements and rules of behavior, models of success that are beyond the children's capabilities. Even "excellent students" sometimes only manage on the surface, receive the necessary grades, but leave the school year sometimes crushed and with several chronic illnesses. "Blue Octopus" provides children, and their parents, with experience and learning through practices that combine academic progress with emotional well-being. A special environment is created in which students can rediscover their confidence, re-engage in learning and begin to imagine a positive future.
- What level are ordinary state high schools at. How do they prepare children for life…
- I couldn't say about all high schools. There is an incredible diversity throughout the United Kingdom. I will give an example of this diversity from my two children. One of my daughters was in an ordinary mixed school - with boys and girls, which is in the city where we live, and is not the most prestigious high school. (b.a. - the more prestigious ones here are the Girls' High School and the Boys' High School). Although my daughter's school, by all expectations and standards, as well as among the population of our city of Priory, was the less prestigious, it managed to develop in her all those skills, attitudes, ways of communicating that she now uses every day in her student years and her independent life as a young person. In this school she found the interest of her life - music, under the leadership of a team of teachers she enrolled to specialize in the subjects that interested her. The same teachers helped her apply to the university of her choice, and she has now successfully completed her first year as a student. During some of her exams during her six years at this high school, she did not achieve the maximum success, but no one made her feel bad or rejected because she made mistakes or did not achieve the highest possible achievement.
Children cannot be “the best“ in all subjects.
Either the concept of “full A” indicates that the child is a genius (if he is one in a million children with such achievements), or that the system by which he is evaluated does not work and does not evaluate skill, talent, but only rewards the ability to learn and quickly reproduce information.
My other daughter went to the “prestigious“ school for girls and there she experienced three very difficult years for her. There she found herself in an environment where pretentious and insincere manners were respected, which was not supportive, but rather punishing of sensitive children. An environment where no one was heard (unless they were the child of a person with power or money in the community). My daughter felt cut off from the world (she is a child of the so-called Third Culture - she has lived in many places and is used to global cultures and relationships between people). Communicating with local children from the city, for whom even London is far away, with very regional customs and behavior, was like daily bullying for her and had a bad effect on her mental health. Not to mention that most of her classmates felt uncomfortable with her, avoided her, or even bullied her. At 16, she “ran away” from this school and enrolled in a college in London, where he successfully studied film art for two years.
- It is clear that there are also very expensive private schools in the United Kingdom. But how big is the difference in the level of knowledge that private and public schools provide?
- There is no difference in knowledge. The differences are rather in the attention paid to children in private schools - small groups and timid teachers, for whom the child is a client, and state high schools, where there are sometimes 30 or more children in one class. There have been cases in which teachers cannot establish order or silence even for a few minutes in the class, because the young people talk loudly, play music from phones that are prohibited from use in the school building, chew food defiantly at their desks… My daughter mentioned similar pictures to me – really approaching that famous scene from the Netflix movie “Adolescence”.
The differences are also in the “open“ doors and future career prospects for both children. Education in the UK has a rather dark side - no matter how legitimate and democratic it is, it also exists to preserve the class status quo and low inter-class/social mobility.
- Knowledge or skills… Which is more important for children to acquire in school?
- There can be no distinction between knowledge and skills, because people learn something new in order to be able to cope more successfully with the rapidly changing life. Learning happens through experience. When we have the right experience, we have already changed our ability to deal with the world, as well as we have come to know ourselves and the world within this experience. How do we understand which foods are useful and which are harmful? By observing ourselves, taking in useful foods for a week or a month, and about the harmful ones - by deduction we understand from books or scientific articles how they would affect our health.
Every person, every child, needs to constantly develop their abilities - to be flexible, resistant to stress, to cooperate with other people, to know how to be safe, to learn a wide range of different reactions, to master a repertoire of behaviors appropriate for different situations.
- Tell us more about the system “School - a place for children”?
- “School – A Place for Children“ is a book written by Henry Pluckrose in the 80s (“School – A Place for Children?”, LIBER, Malmö, Sweden, ALMQUIST & WISKELL). Translated and published in Bulgaria in 1992. (International Center for Training and Research). The title of the book is, in itself, a message – school as a place for children, not as a place where adults decide what children need.
The first and most important principle with which Henry began his seminars for our team of teachers from the 98th Primary School in Iliyantsi was: Give children space to move and explore – don't lock them in a chair in a room all day.
His other principles (also described in the book), which we have learned to practically build the school environment every day, sound like this:
Let's look at and listen to the specific needs of children, because:
1. Children move
2. Children are curious
3. Children love to communicate
4. Children are responsible and caring
5. Children need a routine
6. Children need safety – including psychological
7. Children are naturally engaged
8. Children have a rich imagination
If all schools built their learning process in a way that meets these children's specific needs, it would be a far better learning environment than if they first took into account the needs of the budget, with methods for limiting movement, stories, research and imaginary play.
- Democracy, the transition that we continue to experience in Bulgaria, brought parents into the school very strongly. It's just that parents interfere a lot in the work of teachers. How do you look at this…
- There is always a benefit to democracy. However, when it is misunderstood or practiced incorrectly, it leads to not very pleasant results. It's quite simple. The school should exist for the sake of the children and so that they can successfully acquire for themselves the skills and knowledge that they (will) need to take on the responsibility of being responsible adults, each contributing to the other and to society and human civilization in 50 years. In order for human civilization to flourish, this process must be successful. Our children do not belong to us as their parents - they belong to the future. Just like us - their parents live here and now, so that we can support them. A good modern school needs a community - unity of the parents of the children who study there, and who cooperate with the teachers. It is true that raising a child requires a lot of work, and without the support and commitment of parents in cooperation with other adults, and with the children themselves, we would not have a balanced education, nor would children experience the peace that a united community of adults provides.
- In the 90s, you worked as a teacher in Bulgaria in mathematics, English and pantomime, and also as a school psychologist. Looking back, what do you see? A systematic curriculum or one that develops on the principle of – “trial“ and “error“?
- Oh, our team had a goal – to change the processes for the better and to create wonderful experiences for the children during the school day. We adhered to the basic requirements of the ministry, but we had also reorganized our work with the children so that we had time to work with them according to the different and new methodology that Henry preached so well. When I once asked him what the methodology itself was called, he said: This is Open Plan Learning - learning based on an open plan. It is open like the space in the school. Children are not locked in separate classrooms, but have corners in one rather large and cozy room. Children do not have separate specific subjects, but work on a project principle, so several subjects (mathematics, music, history) are mastered within the framework of one project. Children have specific goals and tasks, and they work on them within the framework of the project in mixed small groups of different ages - we can have a 7-8 and 10-year-old child in one team. Then they learn from each other. The older child teaches the younger ones new knowledge and skills that they have achieved, and the younger one teaches the older one patience and kindness. There was no trial and error. We thought of every innovation with the children as a team of teachers and psychologists, and Henry was our mentor. We felt free to be creative and mistakes were not punished, but accepted. We worked with the same principles that we taught the children.
- Now in Bulgaria there is a lot of discussion about how and whether to introduce the subject of religion. How was this decided in England. Is there a place for religion in school…
- In all state schools in England, children have a subject called “Religious Education“ (RE), but it is not compulsory. Parents have the full right to choose whether their child participates in these classes, in whole or in part. After the age of 18, the decision is already up to the student. But it is important to make a distinction here - this subject is not a faith class. It is a space for reflection, for understanding, for encountering differences. Students study the major world religions – Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. As well as philosophical and ethical questions that are part of every person's life, namely: What is good? What is fair? Is there only one answer?
This subject talks about life topics such as choice, responsibility, respect, morality. Topics such as abortion, euthanasia, social justice are discussed – with respect for different points of view. No religion is presented as “more correct“ or “closer“ to the state. The goal is not for children to believe in something specific, but for them to begin to understand – themselves, others, the world.
A report by OFSTED (England's education inspectorate) clearly states that the subject “Religious Education“ is vital for preparing children to live in a “complex and diverse multi-religious and multi-secular society“. Because the world is not uniform, and children must learn to navigate this complexity – with respect, with thinking, with understanding. And here comes the context with Bulgaria.
Often, conversations in Bulgaria about introducing religion in schools are tied to the idea that the Church should “educate“ the children. But, as Prof. Kalin Yanakiev in a recent television interview: “I am not against young people getting to know the basics of religions. But I have always believed that the Church should stay out of public education.“
He warned clearly - if the Church starts to play a political role, as we see in Russia, where it blesses war, this is no longer spirituality, this is instrumentalization. And we must not allow this to happen in our country.
True religious education - such as we see in Britain - does not divide. It educates in respect for diversity, in dialogue, in compassion. It teaches children to think critically and to understand that their values are not all the values of the world, but only one part of the cultural puzzle. And that the other pieces also have a place. And this is a lesson from which everyone - children, teachers, parents, churches and politicians - can learn. we need.
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Stacy King is a teacher, organizational psychologist, organizational mental health coach and mindfulness teacher.
In the UK, she practices with clients from international companies, helping Britons, expats and migrants successfully adapt to life in a new culture. In Bulgaria, she is the founder of the Mindfulness Academy Bulgaria - www. mindfulness Bulgaria.com. An organization for the promotion of secular and scientifically based mindfulness programs as a means of reducing stress, preventing burnout, developing attention, increasing creativity, well-being and joy of life.