Question 1

What is the difference between an academy, a free school and a grammar school?

Accepted Answer

Three different things frequently confused, because two describe **governance** and one describes **selection**.

**The governance categories:**

**Maintained school.** Funded and overseen by the **local authority**, following the national curriculum and national pay and conditions.

**Academy.** Funded directly by central government through a funding agreement with a **trust**, which is a charitable company. Academies have more freedom over curriculum, staff pay and conditions, and term dates. Most are part of a **multi-academy trust** running several schools, and the trust — not the individual school — is the legal entity, employer and accountable body.

Schools become academies either by choice (**converter**) or by direction following poor performance (**sponsored**).

**Free school.** **An academy that was newly established** rather than converted — set up in response to a proposal from a group such as parents, teachers, a charity or an existing trust. Legally and operationally they are academies; the term describes their origin.

**The selection category:**

**Grammar school.** A state school that **selects by academic ability**, using the eleven-plus. A grammar school may be maintained **or** an academy — the two categories are independent, which is why the terms are not alternatives.

**No new grammar schools** may be established under current law, though existing ones may expand, and they remain concentrated in particular areas.

**Others you will encounter:** **voluntary aided** and **voluntary controlled** schools, usually with a religious character and differing in who employs staff and controls admissions; **studio schools** and **university technical colleges**, specialised academies; and **independent schools**, privately funded and outside all of this.

**What actually differs for parents:**

**Admissions authority** — who sets and applies the criteria, and therefore who you appeal to.

**Complaints route.** Maintained school complaints can reach the local authority; academy complaints go to the trust and then to the Education and Skills Funding Agency.

**Curriculum freedom**, in principle more than in practice.

**Term dates and school day**, which academies may set themselves.

Question 2

What is the national curriculum, and who has to follow it?

Accepted Answer

A statutory framework setting out the subjects and content that must be taught — and the crucial point is that a large proportion of English schools are not required to follow it, which surprises

Question 3

How are schools actually funded?

Accepted Answer

Through a formula rather than a negotiation — money follows pupils and their characteristics, distributed through national and local allocation rules that almost nobody outside school business

Question 4

What is the difference between SEN support and an EHCP?

Accepted Answer

They are two levels of support for children with special educational needs in England, differing in who decides, what is legally enforceable, and how it is funded. SEN support is the first level,

Question 5

What does a school governor actually do?

Accepted Answer

Provides strategic oversight of a school and holds its leadership to account — a voluntary, unpaid role with genuine legal responsibility that most people assume is largely ceremonial. The three core

Question 6

How do you become a teacher, and what routes exist?

Accepted Answer

Through one of several routes to qualified teacher status, which differ mainly in whether you train mostly at a university or mostly in a school, and in whether you are paid while training. The

Question 7

What is home education, and what are the rules in the UK?

Accepted Answer

Educating a child outside school, which is lawful in the UK — and the legal duty is frequently misunderstood, because it is not a duty to send a child to school. The actual legal duty. Parents must

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