While the pursuit of education is universal, schooling is quite different across the pond. British schools don't have the same rituals that American schools do, but they have their own special sauce!
Keep reading to learn the eight things that Americans won't believe about British schools.
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Students relax in a park during a British European Centre language trip to London.
Students choose majors at 16
In the U.S., students don't pick their majors until college – I didn't declare my major until my sophomore year of college. But in the British school system, students choose specific subjects to focus on when they are just 16.
British students pick a few subjects they are interested in at an earlier age and then go on to develop a deep knowledge base in those areas.
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A copy of Pearson's Grade Boundaries for Edexcel GCSE (9-1), June 2026, seen on results day.
GCSE Exams
In both the U.S. and the U.K., students have to take a range of standardized tests. For American students, the PSATs, SATs, and ACTs are a major cause of stress. From prep courses to taking the exams several times, these standardized tests are the make or break of getting into college.
British students take their own standardized tests, the GCSEs, at 16. GCSE stands for "General Certificate of Secondary Education" and is a requirement for all students in the U.K. Graded on a scale of 9 to 1, a student's score impacts what future subjects they can study.
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Second graders Jaylon Holbrook and Kimberly Perez tuck into breakfast with classmates in their homeroom at Bancroft Elementary School.
Students have houses, not homerooms
British students live a version of Harry Potter, in real life! While students in America start their school days in homeroom, a short morning period often based on alphabetical order with other students in their grade, British students are organized into houses.
Unfortunately, they aren't magical houses named Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Instead, students in the U.K. are sorted into mixed-age groups named after influential historical figures or important school members.
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Lahainaluna High School football practises ahead of their first home game since the devastating Lahaina fires.
School sports aren't as important
In the U.S., school sports are incredibly important. Texas high school football is a billion-dollar business and players compete in stadiums that rival professional teams. But, nationally, sports do not play as big of a role in school culture in the UK largely because funding for high school sports is significantly less than their counterparts in the U.S.
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A yellow school bus pictured in Chicago, Illinois, parked under a clear blue sky.
Walking to school instead of taking a bus
There is something iconic about the American yellow school bus. Most towns in the U.S. are much less dense than in Britain. So while American students often hop onto the bus to head to school, most British students opt to walk, ride bikes, or take their city's public transit.
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Students react as they receive their A-level results at City of London Academy Highgate Hill
Heading to college is different
The American college pipeline is an industry all on its own. I started looking at colleges when I was just 16 – touring schools in Washington D.C. and Philadelphia. While I had an idea of what I wanted to study, my future was wide open.
Students in the U.K. often follow a much narrower path. After taking the GCSEs, British pupils spend two years focusing on just a handful of subjects during their A-levels, and begin to look at colleges – or what they call universities – at 17 or 18. But, while colleges in America cost a pretty penny, the cost of university in Britain is is £9.7k a year.
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Homecoming court members Tanlee Gaspar and Jake Carter ride through San Clemente's annual Homecoming Parade.
Homecoming doesn't exist
American students have multiple big dances to look forward to throughout the school year. While prom is the dance covered most in pop culture, homecoming often rivals it in excitement. Homecoming is a multi-day fall celebration for high schools to welcome back alumni for a football game, which often includes a dance.
But in the U.K., students don't have a homecoming. Many schools have adopted prom as an end-of-year milestone. Maybe one day, homecoming will take over in Britain too.
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Queen Camilla meets pupils at Christ Church Primary School as she helps mark the National Year of Reading.
Campuses are small
British campuses are much smaller than American ones. High schools in the U.S. can have as many as 6,000 students, meaning the campuses have to be big enough to fit all the population. But in Britain, schools are smaller and campuses usually have many multi-use spaces throughout the buildings.