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Hello DW Tumblr, I didn't know where else to ask this question so I'm asking here: how does the UK school system work? I'm writing a fanfic and I did do my research, but I'm still iffy on some things like how many periods a day would a year 11 have? Five or eight? I'm getting different answers everywhere I look. Also timetables, it's my understanding that they alternate between Week A and Week B, is this right? Also, also year 11 is when students take their GCSE exams, no? So like what's the deal with Combined Science and Triple Science, are they taught by the same teacher?

OK so it's been a hot minute since I was in highschool I'll just explain how it worked for me. Also yes you will get different answers because different schools work differently (Wales, England, Scotland, all have differences as well)

how many periods? we had 6. form, 2 morning, break, 2 after break, lunch, 2 afternoon.

Sometimes study sessions before/after school because year 11

Week A week B??? Not at my school no. Maybe at some but no we didn't do that

COMBINED AND TRIPLE!!!!!!!!!!!

Not every school offers triple science (mine didn't) it's more about how much depth you go into the sciences, and with triple you get 3 separate qualifications at gcse level but combined gives you 2. But even in the combined course you do still study the same subjects (slightly misleading name)

They are not all taught by the same teacher, unless your school is VERY underfunded. Which is more likely than you'd think :))) but no, you usually have different chemistry, biology + physics teachers even with combined.

If you have any other questions please feel free to ask, I didn't go through british highschool to not get SOMETHING out of it

Yes, the Combined/Triple Science thing confused me at first, it is misleading.

Thanks for laying it out like this, it helped a lot!

LOL. This does bring me to another question I had but forgot to ask in the original post, are high school and secondary school used interchangeably and mean the same thing or are there differences between the two?

Yeah high school and secondary school are the same. I think most people say high school, secondary school is a bit more formal?

Oh and btw in case no one has mentioned, a 'public' school in the UK is what you guys would call a private school (don't ask why idk)

Where I lived most people called it secondary school (or senior school, but that's an extremely local thing I think) and nobody would have ever called it a high school, but I think that's regional? My school did offer triple science, but it was just like you got an extra lesson of science a week and the tests were harder. At my school combined and triple were the same teachers, but each teacher at GCSE level was either a biology, chemistry or physics teacher (although there was crossover - we had the same teacher for chemistry and physics) whether you were in combined or triple. We also had five periods a day of an hour each - two, break, two, lunch, one, home.

Hope I didn't make things more confusing! I was in the south of England btw (not London).

Yeah, I think it depends on where you live. (So is it possible for there to be a crossover between bio and chem? Same teacher for both? I wanted to do biochemistry as the subject, cause it's relevant to the plot. But that's not a thing in Year 11, I don’t think?)

It wasn't confusing at all, thank you for your help!

If they're doing GCSEs (generally 14-16, sometimes 13-16) biology and chemistry are going to be separate, younger than that it's all just science. So the lessons are going to be separate but they could totally have the same teacher, in my school we had a few teachers who taught all three, even if most of them had some sort of specialty. Something as specific as biochemistry you're probably not going to get until university.

Yeah, that's what I thought, secondary school seemed too early to introduce biochemistry. Thank you for explaining all of this!

Hello DW Tumblr, I didn't know where else to ask this question so I'm asking here: how does the UK school system work? I'm writing a fanfic and I did do my research, but I'm still iffy on some things like how many periods a day would a year 11 have? Five or eight? I'm getting different answers everywhere I look. Also timetables, it's my understanding that they alternate between Week A and Week B, is this right? Also, also year 11 is when students take their GCSE exams, no? So like what's the deal with Combined Science and Triple Science, are they taught by the same teacher?

Hello! British student here! About to start college but I can help with this!

Okay, so in my school, we had 5 periods and then at the peak of GCSE times we were having early morning revision and after school revision. We did also have an alternating week A and week B, Y11 is indeed when GCSEs happen, they occur in May and June. Combined Science and Triple science do get taught by the same teachers - that was the case in my secondary school but it may be different in other places.

Hopefully that helps! Have a lovely day and good luck with your fic!

Thank you so much! It's such a relief to get actual confirmation, I thought I was getting everything wrong. Just to clarify though in Triple Science, you would have a different teacher for each subject, like bio, chem, physics, or did one teacher teach all three? Because I got mixed responses when I was looking. Does it depend on school size?

This helped so much! You have a good day as well and hope you have a great time in college!

I never did triple science so I wouldn't know. We did have specific teachers for chem, bio and physics in combined science, and I think only some specific teachers were qualified for triple science but I'm not quite sure- I think it does depend on school size and the number of science teachers that the school has.

(Teachers probably did have to be able to teach all three but I think in my school, our teachers had their specialty subjects)

the-tardis-is-blue

OP, the reason you might be getting different answers is because it changes in different schools! For example, my secondary school had 9 half-hour periods, and most lessons were 2 periods long. But my brother's school had (iirc) 7 periods, where each lesson was a single period.

Neither of us had alternating week A and B timetables like prev, so you can go with whatever suits your fic better!

To make things even more complicated, some schools nowadays have students sit some of their GCSE exams in year 10 and the rest in year 11, though the standard is sitting them all in year 11 so probably best to go with that.

I did triple science so I can help with that! Many science teachers have the qualifications to teach any of biology, chemistry, and physics, but some might not be able to teach it at specific levels (eg. my year 7 physics teacher wasn't able to teach it to me at GCSE or A-level, because he was a chemistry specialist). My experience was that I had different teachers for biology, chemistry, and physics. However, like prev said, that probably does change depending on things like class size. At my secondary school, most people did triple rather than combined, so the class sizes weren't tiny. People who did combined came to the same biology, chemistry, and physics classes, but sometimes did different work from workbooks if we were being taught something that wasn't on their specification. I don't know if that's the norm though; mine was a grammar school which probably explains that.

I'm not sure if you'll have come across this in your research, but in case you haven't, the difference between triple and combined is just how many GCSEs you get at the end. When doing triple, you're essentially doing three separate subjects (in fact I never thought of it as triple science, they were completely separate in my head) so you get three separate GCSEs. When doing combined, you learn a bit less content and end up with two GCSEs.

You also might want to double check which country in the UK your fic is set in! Me and prev are both going off experiences with the English system (I think, sorry prev if I'm wrong!), but it can differ a lot between countries. Scotland, for example, has a very different system, such as different term times and ways of labelling years. Welsh schools can differ depending on whether the school teaches in Welsh or English, and often use different exam boards. I'm afraid I don't know any Northern Irish people, but I'd be surprised if their system is the same as English.

This is what was happening! I was looking at timetables to get a sense of how a regular school day would look like and it was different every time.

Oh, interesting, I was under the impression that Week A and B were the norm, how did your school do it?

I saw that students sit for mock GCSEs in year 10, and then take the real thing in Year 11, don't know how right that is. But yes it's best to stick with year 11, if that's the standard.

That's great, thank you for your help! The way you break it down makes a lot of sense. Different teachers for each science is the logical way to go. One person teaching all three seems excessive, especially if classes are that big. What's the difference between grammar and secondary school? And while I have you here can I ask how the workload was in Triple Science? Did a lesson alternate between the classroom and the lab? How many times a week did you have say Chem?

Yes, I did come across this in my research! I was so happy when another person brought it up and I knew what it was. Proof that I'm not completely helpless lol.

I'm following the DW canon and using Coal Hill Secondary as the school, which is in Soreditch. So it would be the English curriculum that they follow and that's the one I put in my searches.

the-tardis-is-blue

My secondary school had the same timetable every week. We'd get a new timetable each September and then follow that through the whole school year. Every day started with form time / 'form', aka registration and other administrative stuff like notices. Some subjects had one lesson a week, core subjects (eg. Maths and English) had more. PSHE (can't actually remember what that stands for but it's basically government mandated 'life skills' and social stuff that are universally agreed to be unhelpful / things people already know. A lot of the time it boils down to 'bullying is wrong' / 'don't break the law' / 'watch this YouTube video we embedded into the PowerPoint presentation'. Bonus points for linking everything back to the British values) is I think supposed to be at least an hour total a week, but I might be wrong.

With exams: 'exam years' are years 11 and 13. iirc coal hill is only a secondary school, not with a college or sixth form attached, so you don't need to worry about anything beyond year 11. Non exam years (7-10) will sit end-of-year exams (normally shortened to 'end-of-years') around May/June/July each year - they feel like a big deal at the time, and might change what set you'll be in or your target grades for next year, but in the long run they don't actually do anything except give you experience in an exam environment. Mock GCSEs ('mocks') might be combined with the year 10 end-of-years, or they might take place about halfway through year 11. Some places go extra and do mocks at the end of year 10 (instead of their end-of-years), and then more in year 11. I've even heard of some schools going a bit overboard and doing two sets of year 11 mocks, which imo is a bit crazy considering they'll also be doing end-of-topic tests within their subjects, but I'm not a teacher so what do I know lol.

The GCSEs themselves are nation-wide, so the dates are set by the exam boards (plus the regulatory committee) rather than the schools. If you wanted an example, you could look up the 2025 exam timetable. Students will take them in their schools, generally in year 11 in May/June, and then get a longer summer holiday because term doesn't end for everybody else until halfway through July.

A grammar school is a type of secondary school where you have to take a test to apply and then they choose who gets in based on how local they are and what score they got. Coal Hill isn't a grammar school afaik.

I'm pretty sure I had two hours total for each science subject (biology, chemistry, and physics), split into two lessons - so I'd have two one-hour lessons per week for each one. We weren't a big enough school to have a specific lab as opposed to a normal lesson - our science classrooms were all labs, normally with tables in the middle and then lab stuff (aka a long worksurface with sinks and gas taps dotted around) around the walls. A lesson might be dedicated as a 'practical' lesson, or might be half-and-half, or might be entirely theoretical. It just depended where you were up to in the course, since some sections were more practical-focused than others. I think there were certain 'required practicals' that we had to do in order to pass the GCSE, and others were just to help with understanding the rest of the course.

#All the reblogs actually made me less nervous to write about a uk school #cause there's no fixed rules I have to follow #it varies person to person #and learning about all this was part of the fun!#thanks again!

Oh, that timetable is easier to follow! So I searched it up it stands for Personal, social, health, and economic education. And yeah lol it seems like a bore, even if the intention behind it is good.

I did come across sixth form and A levels in my research, but yes it wasn't relevant to me. The last one is crazy, it would suck to be those kids.

So, I did look at 2025 exam timetable like you suggested and it really helps! That's nice, a longer summer break is very much needed after all those exams.

No, I don't think Coal Hill is a grammar school either, but it's great that you were smart enough to get into one!

My school did it the same way, where class and lab were together, but then when I was looking people were saying class and lab are separate, but you bring up a good point, it might just depend on school size.

Thank you so much for such an in-depth explanation, you've been a big help!

Hello DW Tumblr, I didn't know where else to ask this question so I'm asking here: how does the UK school system work? I'm writing a fanfic and I did do my research, but I'm still iffy on some things like how many periods a day would a year 11 have? Five or eight? I'm getting different answers everywhere I look. Also timetables, it's my understanding that they alternate between Week A and Week B, is this right? Also, also year 11 is when students take their GCSE exams, no? So like what's the deal with Combined Science and Triple Science, are they taught by the same teacher?

OK so it's been a hot minute since I was in highschool I'll just explain how it worked for me. Also yes you will get different answers because different schools work differently (Wales, England, Scotland, all have differences as well)

how many periods? we had 6. form, 2 morning, break, 2 after break, lunch, 2 afternoon.

Sometimes study sessions before/after school because year 11

Week A week B??? Not at my school no. Maybe at some but no we didn't do that

COMBINED AND TRIPLE!!!!!!!!!!!

Not every school offers triple science (mine didn't) it's more about how much depth you go into the sciences, and with triple you get 3 separate qualifications at gcse level but combined gives you 2. But even in the combined course you do still study the same subjects (slightly misleading name)

They are not all taught by the same teacher, unless your school is VERY underfunded. Which is more likely than you'd think :))) but no, you usually have different chemistry, biology + physics teachers even with combined.

If you have any other questions please feel free to ask, I didn't go through british highschool to not get SOMETHING out of it

Yes, the Combined/Triple Science thing confused me at first, it is misleading.

Thanks for laying it out like this, it helped a lot!

LOL. This does bring me to another question I had but forgot to ask in the original post, are high school and secondary school used interchangeably and mean the same thing or are there differences between the two?

Yeah high school and secondary school are the same. I think most people say high school, secondary school is a bit more formal?

Oh and btw in case no one has mentioned, a 'public' school in the UK is what you guys would call a private school (don't ask why idk)

Where I lived most people called it secondary school (or senior school, but that's an extremely local thing I think) and nobody would have ever called it a high school, but I think that's regional? My school did offer triple science, but it was just like you got an extra lesson of science a week and the tests were harder. At my school combined and triple were the same teachers, but each teacher at GCSE level was either a biology, chemistry or physics teacher (although there was crossover - we had the same teacher for chemistry and physics) whether you were in combined or triple. We also had five periods a day of an hour each - two, break, two, lunch, one, home.

Hope I didn't make things more confusing! I was in the south of England btw (not London).

Aaaaaaaaaaaah found it.

I'm CHRONICALLY Northern, terminally so, gonna die of it one day :/ argh bleh etc.

LOL. I love learning about different terminology, and this didn't confuse me any more than I already am hehe. Though, I'm probably going to stick with calling it a secondary school, cause that's what it's called in DW.

Hello DW Tumblr, I didn't know where else to ask this question so I'm asking here: how does the UK school system work? I'm writing a fanfic and I did do my research, but I'm still iffy on some things like how many periods a day would a year 11 have? Five or eight? I'm getting different answers everywhere I look. Also timetables, it's my understanding that they alternate between Week A and Week B, is this right? Also, also year 11 is when students take their GCSE exams, no? So like what's the deal with Combined Science and Triple Science, are they taught by the same teacher?

OK so it's been a hot minute since I was in highschool I'll just explain how it worked for me. Also yes you will get different answers because different schools work differently (Wales, England, Scotland, all have differences as well)

how many periods? we had 6. form, 2 morning, break, 2 after break, lunch, 2 afternoon.

Sometimes study sessions before/after school because year 11

Week A week B??? Not at my school no. Maybe at some but no we didn't do that

COMBINED AND TRIPLE!!!!!!!!!!!

Not every school offers triple science (mine didn't) it's more about how much depth you go into the sciences, and with triple you get 3 separate qualifications at gcse level but combined gives you 2. But even in the combined course you do still study the same subjects (slightly misleading name)

They are not all taught by the same teacher, unless your school is VERY underfunded. Which is more likely than you'd think :))) but no, you usually have different chemistry, biology + physics teachers even with combined.

If you have any other questions please feel free to ask, I didn't go through british highschool to not get SOMETHING out of it

Yes, the Combined/Triple Science thing confused me at first, it is misleading.

Thanks for laying it out like this, it helped a lot!

LOL. This does bring me to another question I had but forgot to ask in the original post, are high school and secondary school used interchangeably and mean the same thing or are there differences between the two?

Yeah high school and secondary school are the same. I think most people say high school, secondary school is a bit more formal?

Oh and btw in case no one has mentioned, a 'public' school in the UK is what you guys would call a private school (don't ask why idk)

Where I lived most people called it secondary school (or senior school, but that's an extremely local thing I think) and nobody would have ever called it a high school, but I think that's regional? My school did offer triple science, but it was just like you got an extra lesson of science a week and the tests were harder. At my school combined and triple were the same teachers, but each teacher at GCSE level was either a biology, chemistry or physics teacher (although there was crossover - we had the same teacher for chemistry and physics) whether you were in combined or triple. We also had five periods a day of an hour each - two, break, two, lunch, one, home.

Hope I didn't make things more confusing! I was in the south of England btw (not London).

Yeah, I think it depends on where you live. (So is it possible for there to be a crossover between bio and chem? Same teacher for both? I wanted to do biochemistry as the subject, cause it's relevant to the plot. But that's not a thing in Year 11, I don’t think?)

It wasn't confusing at all, thank you for your help!

Hello DW Tumblr, I didn't know where else to ask this question so I'm asking here: how does the UK school system work? I'm writing a fanfic and I did do my research, but I'm still iffy on some things like how many periods a day would a year 11 have? Five or eight? I'm getting different answers everywhere I look. Also timetables, it's my understanding that they alternate between Week A and Week B, is this right? Also, also year 11 is when students take their GCSE exams, no? So like what's the deal with Combined Science and Triple Science, are they taught by the same teacher?

OK so it's been a hot minute since I was in highschool I'll just explain how it worked for me. Also yes you will get different answers because different schools work differently (Wales, England, Scotland, all have differences as well)

how many periods? we had 6. form, 2 morning, break, 2 after break, lunch, 2 afternoon.

Sometimes study sessions before/after school because year 11

Week A week B??? Not at my school no. Maybe at some but no we didn't do that

COMBINED AND TRIPLE!!!!!!!!!!!

Not every school offers triple science (mine didn't) it's more about how much depth you go into the sciences, and with triple you get 3 separate qualifications at gcse level but combined gives you 2. But even in the combined course you do still study the same subjects (slightly misleading name)

They are not all taught by the same teacher, unless your school is VERY underfunded. Which is more likely than you'd think :))) but no, you usually have different chemistry, biology + physics teachers even with combined.

If you have any other questions please feel free to ask, I didn't go through british highschool to not get SOMETHING out of it

Yes, the Combined/Triple Science thing confused me at first, it is misleading.

Thanks for laying it out like this, it helped a lot!

LOL. This does bring me to another question I had but forgot to ask in the original post, are high school and secondary school used interchangeably and mean the same thing or are there differences between the two?

Yeah high school and secondary school are the same. I think most people say high school, secondary school is a bit more formal?

Oh and btw in case no one has mentioned, a 'public' school in the UK is what you guys would call a private school (don't ask why idk)

That makes sense.

Oh wow, I didn't know that. Thanks for bringing it up!

Hello DW Tumblr, I didn't know where else to ask this question so I'm asking here: how does the UK school system work? I'm writing a fanfic and I did do my research, but I'm still iffy on some things like how many periods a day would a year 11 have? Five or eight? I'm getting different answers everywhere I look. Also timetables, it's my understanding that they alternate between Week A and Week B, is this right? Also, also year 11 is when students take their GCSE exams, no? So like what's the deal with Combined Science and Triple Science, are they taught by the same teacher?

OK so it's been a hot minute since I was in highschool I'll just explain how it worked for me. Also yes you will get different answers because different schools work differently (Wales, England, Scotland, all have differences as well)

how many periods? we had 6. form, 2 morning, break, 2 after break, lunch, 2 afternoon.

Sometimes study sessions before/after school because year 11

Week A week B??? Not at my school no. Maybe at some but no we didn't do that

COMBINED AND TRIPLE!!!!!!!!!!!

Not every school offers triple science (mine didn't) it's more about how much depth you go into the sciences, and with triple you get 3 separate qualifications at gcse level but combined gives you 2. But even in the combined course you do still study the same subjects (slightly misleading name)

They are not all taught by the same teacher, unless your school is VERY underfunded. Which is more likely than you'd think :))) but no, you usually have different chemistry, biology + physics teachers even with combined.

If you have any other questions please feel free to ask, I didn't go through british highschool to not get SOMETHING out of it

Yes, the Combined/Triple Science thing confused me at first, it is misleading.

Thanks for laying it out like this, it helped a lot!

LOL. This does bring me to another question I had but forgot to ask in the original post, are high school and secondary school used interchangeably and mean the same thing or are there differences between the two?

Hello DW Tumblr, I didn't know where else to ask this question so I'm asking here: how does the UK school system work? I'm writing a fanfic and I did do my research, but I'm still iffy on some things like how many periods a day would a year 11 have? Five or eight? I'm getting different answers everywhere I look. Also timetables, it's my understanding that they alternate between Week A and Week B, is this right? Also, also year 11 is when students take their GCSE exams, no? So like what's the deal with Combined Science and Triple Science, are they taught by the same teacher?

Hello! British student here! About to start college but I can help with this!

Okay, so in my school, we had 5 periods and then at the peak of GCSE times we were having early morning revision and after school revision. We did also have an alternating week A and week B, Y11 is indeed when GCSEs happen, they occur in May and June. Combined Science and Triple science do get taught by the same teachers - that was the case in my secondary school but it may be different in other places.

Hopefully that helps! Have a lovely day and good luck with your fic!

Thank you so much! It's such a relief to get actual confirmation, I thought I was getting everything wrong. Just to clarify though in Triple Science, you would have a different teacher for each subject, like bio, chem, physics, or did one teacher teach all three? Because I got mixed responses when I was looking. Does it depend on school size?

This helped so much! You have a good day as well and hope you have a great time in college!

I never did triple science so I wouldn't know. We did have specific teachers for chem, bio and physics in combined science, and I think only some specific teachers were qualified for triple science but I'm not quite sure- I think it does depend on school size and the number of science teachers that the school has.

(Teachers probably did have to be able to teach all three but I think in my school, our teachers had their specialty subjects)

the-tardis-is-blue

OP, the reason you might be getting different answers is because it changes in different schools! For example, my secondary school had 9 half-hour periods, and most lessons were 2 periods long. But my brother's school had (iirc) 7 periods, where each lesson was a single period.

Neither of us had alternating week A and B timetables like prev, so you can go with whatever suits your fic better!

To make things even more complicated, some schools nowadays have students sit some of their GCSE exams in year 10 and the rest in year 11, though the standard is sitting them all in year 11 so probably best to go with that.

I did triple science so I can help with that! Many science teachers have the qualifications to teach any of biology, chemistry, and physics, but some might not be able to teach it at specific levels (eg. my year 7 physics teacher wasn't able to teach it to me at GCSE or A-level, because he was a chemistry specialist). My experience was that I had different teachers for biology, chemistry, and physics. However, like prev said, that probably does change depending on things like class size. At my secondary school, most people did triple rather than combined, so the class sizes weren't tiny. People who did combined came to the same biology, chemistry, and physics classes, but sometimes did different work from workbooks if we were being taught something that wasn't on their specification. I don't know if that's the norm though; mine was a grammar school which probably explains that.

I'm not sure if you'll have come across this in your research, but in case you haven't, the difference between triple and combined is just how many GCSEs you get at the end. When doing triple, you're essentially doing three separate subjects (in fact I never thought of it as triple science, they were completely separate in my head) so you get three separate GCSEs. When doing combined, you learn a bit less content and end up with two GCSEs.

You also might want to double check which country in the UK your fic is set in! Me and prev are both going off experiences with the English system (I think, sorry prev if I'm wrong!), but it can differ a lot between countries. Scotland, for example, has a very different system, such as different term times and ways of labelling years. Welsh schools can differ depending on whether the school teaches in Welsh or English, and often use different exam boards. I'm afraid I don't know any Northern Irish people, but I'd be surprised if their system is the same as English.

#this helped a lot!#it wasn't confusing at all #oh my god thank you #I need someone to annoy with this #please info dump everything you know #i need it #thanks again!

This is what was happening! I was looking at timetables to get a sense of how a regular school day would look like and it was different every time.

Oh, interesting, I was under the impression that Week A and B were the norm, how did your school do it?

I saw that students sit for mock GCSEs in year 10, and then take the real thing in Year 11, don't know how right that is. But yes it's best to stick with year 11, if that's the standard.

That's great, thank you for your help! The way you break it down makes a lot of sense. Different teachers for each science is the logical way to go. One person teaching all three seems excessive, especially if classes are that big. What's the difference between grammar and secondary school? And while I have you here can I ask how the workload was in Triple Science? Did a lesson alternate between the classroom and the lab? How many times a week did you have say Chem?

Yes, I did come across this in my research! I was so happy when another person brought it up and I knew what it was. Proof that I'm not completely helpless lol.

I'm following the DW canon and using Coal Hill Secondary as the school, which is in Soreditch. So it would be the English curriculum that they follow and that's the one I put in my searches.

Hello DW Tumblr, I didn't know where else to ask this question so I'm asking here: how does the UK school system work? I'm writing a fanfic and I did do my research, but I'm still iffy on some things like how many periods a day would a year 11 have? Five or eight? I'm getting different answers everywhere I look. Also timetables, it's my understanding that they alternate between Week A and Week B, is this right? Also, also year 11 is when students take their GCSE exams, no? So like what's the deal with Combined Science and Triple Science, are they taught by the same teacher?

Hello! British student here! About to start college but I can help with this!

Okay, so in my school, we had 5 periods and then at the peak of GCSE times we were having early morning revision and after school revision. We did also have an alternating week A and week B, Y11 is indeed when GCSEs happen, they occur in May and June. Combined Science and Triple science do get taught by the same teachers - that was the case in my secondary school but it may be different in other places.

Hopefully that helps! Have a lovely day and good luck with your fic!

Thank you so much! It's such a relief to get actual confirmation, I thought I was getting everything wrong. Just to clarify though in Triple Science, you would have a different teacher for each subject, like bio, chem, physics, or did one teacher teach all three? Because I got mixed responses when I was looking. Does it depend on school size?

This helped so much! You have a good day as well and hope you have a great time in college!

I never did triple science so I wouldn't know. We did have specific teachers for chem, bio and physics in combined science, and I think only some specific teachers were qualified for triple science but I'm not quite sure- I think it does depend on school size and the number of science teachers that the school has.

(Teachers probably did have to be able to teach all three but I think in my school, our teachers had their specialty subjects)

Thanks! Right as I was reading about it, I was like having one teacher for all three seems like too much to put on a person, but teacher shortage is a genuine problem, so I see why this could happen.

Specialty makes more sense, but if any teacher can juggle the chaos of teaching three sciences at once, it's the Doctor.

So I've got much to think about.

Thanks again!

Hello DW Tumblr, I didn't know where else to ask this question so I'm asking here: how does the UK school system work? I'm writing a fanfic and I did do my research, but I'm still iffy on some things like how many periods a day would a year 11 have? Five or eight? I'm getting different answers everywhere I look. Also timetables, it's my understanding that they alternate between Week A and Week B, is this right? Also, also year 11 is when students take their GCSE exams, no? So like what's the deal with Combined Science and Triple Science, are they taught by the same teacher?

Hello! British student here! About to start college but I can help with this!

Okay, so in my school, we had 5 periods and then at the peak of GCSE times we were having early morning revision and after school revision. We did also have an alternating week A and week B, Y11 is indeed when GCSEs happen, they occur in May and June. Combined Science and Triple science do get taught by the same teachers - that was the case in my secondary school but it may be different in other places.

Hopefully that helps! Have a lovely day and good luck with your fic!

sendhelpstars

Adding onto this, Combined Science is the one we were required to do as part of this this "core subjects" thing, whilst Triple Science was one of the options we were given (thus giving you 3 GCSEs instead of the usual 2). It basically took the curriculum in combined science and adds more detailed information and in some cases entirely new parts (in physics you would do the subject of space)

I don't know how it works in other schools, but the exams for triple science in my school were taken alongside the combined ones, just given more time.

#it did make sense #thank you!

I did come across this in my research lol. The Triple Science exams are longer and more detailed but it's six exams either way, right?

Hello DW Tumblr, I didn't know where else to ask this question so I'm asking here: how does the UK school system work? I'm writing a fanfic and I did do my research, but I'm still iffy on some things like how many periods a day would a year 11 have? Five or eight? I'm getting different answers everywhere I look. Also timetables, it's my understanding that they alternate between Week A and Week B, is this right? Also, also year 11 is when students take their GCSE exams, no? So like what's the deal with Combined Science and Triple Science, are they taught by the same teacher?

Hello! British student here! About to start college but I can help with this!

Okay, so in my school, we had 5 periods and then at the peak of GCSE times we were having early morning revision and after school revision. We did also have an alternating week A and week B, Y11 is indeed when GCSEs happen, they occur in May and June. Combined Science and Triple science do get taught by the same teachers - that was the case in my secondary school but it may be different in other places.

Hopefully that helps! Have a lovely day and good luck with your fic!