In the UK we have two systems upto the age of 16, the three tier system and the two tier system. The education you receive in each system is the same, with the ultimate gola to pass your GCSE's (of which you take around 10 different subjects).
Two Tier System:
Primary School, aged 5 - 11
Secondary School, aged 11 - 16
Three Tier System:
Primary School, aged 5 - 10
Middle School, aged 10 -13
Upper School, aged 13 - 16
You can legally leave school at 16. If you wish, and have achieved appropriate grades in GCSE's you can move on to take A-Levels (typically 3-4 subjects). Some Upper/Secondary schools provide this education, others go to college (more on this later). If you acheive good A-Levels, you get to go to University, where, upon completion, you graduate with a degree in your chosen subject.
Colleges in the UK offer other qualifications aside from A-Levels. We have vocational based qualifications (car mechanic, plumber etc) as well as other more general qualifications. You generally attend them aged 16-18 but they are open to all (at a cost). We refer to A-levels and the qualifications offered by colleges as further education and university as higher education.
Anyway, I was a mixture of all the above at school. I was captain of the basketball team, had good grades, got on well with most people, but didn't socialise with them much outside school (was busy doing other things).
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