Children start the primary school at the age of five and attend there till they reach the age of eleven. When they graduate they are sent to a secondary school. They also have to take a special exam. If they succeed to do this, they start a grammar school. If they fail, they go to a secondary modern school and if they pas the exam, but don't achieve very good notes, they choose a technical school. There is also a kind of secondary comprehensive school - for these who don't achieve a very high level of education. The school year is divided on three terms and the autumn term is begun in the first week of September and it is ended before the Christmas. Then the spring term starts at the beginning of January and it finishes in the middle of April. Summer term, on the other hand, lasts until the middle of July. There are also some half term holidays: a week in October, in February and in June. Summer holiday lasts 6 or 7 weeks. At the age of 17 pupils are supposed to take a public exam. There are two types of exams: the easier one called CSE (Certificate of Secondary Education) or the more difficult one called GSE. The GSE exam is divided into two parts: the first one called "O" level which means ordinary. Between 5 and 9 subjects are taken by pupils at "O" level. Some of them want to take second part of the GSE exam called "A" level (A-advanced), which means that they have to stay at school for 2 more years. Pupils usually decide to take two or three subjects at this exam. The notes resulted during "A" level are very important and on them depends whether they will study at a university. "A" level exam takes place in July.
