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Glossary

Understanding the meaning of education words, acronyms and phrases is sometimes tricky especially for new parents and carers. Use the glossary to look up the meaning of these terms. You can also add a suggested term if it is not featured.

Acronym When the name of something, often an organisation, is abbreviated to the first letters of each key word. For example, the acronym for the Department for Education and Skills is DfES.
ACCAC Qualifications Curriculum and Assessment Authority for Wales.
ACCESS ACCESS courses are designed to give mature students evidence of recent study. They often lead to GCSEs and A levels and are run by Colleges of Further Education. ACCESS to teaching would offer GCSE mathematics, English and science and appropriate A levels for ITT degree entry.
ACE Advisory Centre for Education.
ACEO Association of Chief Education Officers.
ACLF Adult and Community Learning Fund.
ACVT Advisory Committee for Vocational Training (EU).
AD(H)D Attention Deficit (Hyperactivity) Disorder.
Admissions Authority Schools which handle their own pupil applications are Admission Authorities. They send out information about the school and pupil application forms, giving a deadline for receipt. Local authorities are also admission authorities as they are responsible for admissions to community and voluntary controlled schools.
Advanced Supplementary Broader-based sixth form studies, the same standard as A levels.
AGCAS Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services.
AHRB Arts and Humanities Research Board.
ATL Association of Teachers and Lecturers.
AoC Association of Colleges.
APL Accreditation of Prior Learning.
APS Alliance of Parents and Schools.
AQA Assessment and Qualification Alliance.
AST Advanced Skills Teacher.
Attachment A file that is included with email.
AS and A levels AS (advanced subsidiary) and A levels offer flexible ways to learn. You can mix and match AS and A levels with vocational A levels and other qualifications. In Year 12, there’s a large range of AS courses to select from. Then, in Year 13, your teenager can specialise in three or four of those subjects at A level or take more AS courses instead. Final assessment is based on coursework and end-of-course tests.
AVCEs In many schools and most colleges, you can take vocational A levels or Advanced Vocational Certificate of Education (AVCEs). These courses are designed to develop the knowledge and skills needed for jobs in a broad field of work – such as hospitality and catering, leisure and tourism, or engineering.
AALA The Adventure Activities Licensing Authority inspects activity centres and other activity providers on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills. If the Licensing Authority is satisfied that the provider complies with nationally accepted standards of good practice they issue a licence.
Apprenticeships Apprenticeships offer those aged 16 to 24 paid employment combined with the opportunity to train for jobs at craft, technician and management level. They are an exciting way of gaining skills and qualifications that will help to start a career without having to study full-time, and are available now across a wide range of industries. You can find out more about apprenticeships at www.apprenticeships.org.uk.
Attainment target Each National Curriculum subject has one or more attainment targets. Each target identifies the knowledge, skills and understanding which pupils of different abilities and maturities are expected to have by the end of each Key Stage. Attainment targets for each statutory subject include eight level descriptions of increasing difficulty. During and at the end of each Key Stage a student's achievement will be measured by the level they reach.
ADSL Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. This is a technology created to allow high-speed internet access over ordinary telephones lines that are linked to a digital telephone exchange.
Avatar A character or icon that represents someone within a chat room. These can be cartoon characters, animals - anything that your child can imagine, really.
BA with QTS Bachelor of Arts - arts degree-level ITT qualification leading to QTS. One of the main routes into primary teaching.
BECTA British Educational Communications and Technology Agency.
BEd with QTS Bachelor of Education - degree-level ITT qualification leading to QTS. One of the main routes into primary teaching.
Behaviour Support Plan A Statement which sets out local arrangements for schools and other service providers for the education of children with behavioural difficulties.
Book Trust An independent educational charity established to promote books and reading among readers of all ages and cultures.
Brothers and Sisters A rule applied by some admission authorities if your school of choice is oversubscribed. They will sometimes treat the application more favourably if your child already has a brother or sister at the school.
Browser Software package which is used to view internet pages.
Browsing The act of looking around the internet, or a website, as you would do when walking through a shop.
BSA Basic Skills Agency.
BSc Bachelor of Science Science degree-level ITT qualification leading to QTS. One of the main routes into primary teaching.
BTEC National An A level equivalent qualification, usually the equivalent of two A level courses. Subjects include nursery nursing, business studies and art and design. There are considerable practical elements to the courses with work placements offered.
Basic Skills Agency The Basic Skills Agency is the national agency for basic skills in England and Wales and is supported and funded by the Government. The agency defines basic skills as: "The ability to read, write, and speak in English (or Welsh), and to use mathematics at a level necessary to function at work and in society in general." They are committed to working with others to make sure that effective opportunities exist to help children, young people and adults strengthen their basic skills.
Banding Banding is used by some comprehensive schools to ensure that their intake has a spread of pupils of all levels of ability. Children applying for a place are tested in order to identify their level of ability, and then placed into the ability band appropriate to their test results. If there are more applications than places available within a specific band, the places must not be allocated to children in the band who have scored the highest marks.
Booktrust Founded in 1926, Booktrust is an independent, educational charity to bring books and people together.
Breadth The National Curriculum handbook for teachers has a section for each subject called ‘breadth of study’. This says that your child is entitled to be taught through a range of important learning experiences. e.g. Between the ages of 5 and 7, in science, your child should – among other things – carry out complete experiments. Between the ages of 7 and 11, in music, your child should use computers to record and alter sounds. These deepen and broaden your child’s experience of the subject.
Bookmark This is when you save a page or website to a list of favourites. You can find out how to do this from your browser.
Buffering This happens when you attempt to download large sound or video files. The file may contain too much information to download in one go so it will be sent in chunks. Buffering means your player doesn't have to wait for the entire file to download - it simply plays what it has received.
Catchment Area Some admission authorities give priority to children who live in an area around the school.
CBEVE Central Bureau for Educational Visits and Exchanges.
CEG Careers Education Guidance.
CEO Chief Education Officer.
CET Continuing Education and Training.
CGLI City and Guilds of London Institute.
CHI The Support Society for Children of Higher Intelligence.
Childminders Childminders look after children under five and school age children after hours and in the holidays. The local authority decides how many children a childminder can care for and they are able to register as part of a network to provide early education.
CIHE Council for Industry and Higher Education.
CILT Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research.
COIC Careers and Occupational Information Centre.
Community school State schools in England and Wales which are wholly owned and maintained by the local authority. The LA is the admissions authority - it has main responsibility for deciding arrangements for admitting pupils.
Controlled Schools Schools in Northern Ireland which come under the control of Education and Library Boards.
County Schools State schools in England and Wales which are wholly owned and maintained by LAs - Local Authorities.
CPI Child Protection Issue.
CRAC Careers Research and Advisory Centre.
CSR Continuous Student Record.
CTC - City Technical College Independent, all-ability, non-fee-paying schools for pupils aged 11 to 18. There are 14 CTCs and one CCTA - City College for the Technology of the Arts - in urban areas across England. CTCs teach the national curriculum pre-16 with a focus on science, mathematics and technology. They offer a wide range of vocational qualifications and part of their role is to innovate in the development, management and delivery of the curriculum.
City & Guilds Nationally recognised occupational awards in a variety of work areas – from floristry and ceramics to information technology and journalism and radio. For more information on City & Guilds qualifications, NVQs and key skills, phone 020 7294 2850.
CSCI Commission for Social Care Inspection (formerly the National Care Standards Commission) is an independent public body set up under the Care Standards Act 2000 to regulate social care and private and voluntary healthcare services throughout England.
Co-educational The teaching of pupils of both sexes in the same school or college.
Comprehensive schools A school for pupils of all abilities aged between 11 and 18.
Child Protection Committee Local authorities, in exercising their social services functions, should ensure that there is an Area Child Protection Committee (ACPC) covering their area, which brings together representatives of each of the main agencies and professionals responsible for helping to protect children from abuse and neglect.
CRB The Criminal Records Bureau is an executive agency of the Home Office, set up to help organisations make safer recruitment decisions. By providing wider access to criminal record information, the CRB will help employers in the public, private and voluntary sectors identify candidates who may be unsuitable for certain work, especially that which involves contact with children or other vulnerable members of society.
Connexions PAs Connexions Personal Advisors are best placed to provide continuing one-on-one support for young parents who are at risk of disengaging from learning. Support includes advice on further education and careers.
Connexions Connexions is a Government support service for young people, the goal of which is to ensure success through learning and a smooth transition to adulthood and working life for every young person. Working alongside its partners, Connexions must provide teenagers with (or connect them to) the support they need to benefit fully from formal and informal learning.
Children’s Information Service (CIS) Each LA should have a CIS giving details on childcare and children’s issues.
Childcare tax credit Extra financial help for childcare.
Clearing Students who wish to progress to higher education and have not met the required grades for their first choice institution can sift through a listing of courses that still have vacancies.
CD burning Quite simply this is the act of copying information on to a CD using a CD burner.
CD-ROM A CD which plays on your computer and contains visuals as well as sounds. It's like a website but you don't need to connect to a phone line to view it. Many music CDs also include CD-ROM enhancements these days. Check to see if the CD-ROM will work on your computer. The CD-ROM will have the words 'PC compatible' or, if you have an Apple, 'Mac compatible'.
Chat Exactly what it says on the tin - chat. Except this kind of talking happens online or via mobile phones and uses it's own language, chationary.
Chat room One of the most popular areas for chat. The chat room is a space where a few people can communicate at the same time on any particular subject. Chat rooms can also be private for one-on-one 'conversation'. Beware, the people chatting are strangers who aren't always who they say they are so chat rooms come with a set of unique dangers.
Child-friendly search engine A search engine is a way of sifting through the millions of websites online to find relevant sites. Some key words (or meta tags) will bring up unsuitable sites. However, a child-friendly search engine will filter most of these out. You should keep in mind the fact that they're not 100 per cent effective and you may still need to monitor the results of a search.
Cyberspace This is a term for the internet, which is often viewed as a virtual world.
DfES Department for Education and Skills.
Database Collection of data that is organised so that its contents can be easily accessed, managed and updated.
Day Nurseries These take children under five for the whole working day. Children can attend on a part-time or full-time basis according to their parents' needs. They may be run by local authorities, voluntary organisations, private companies, individuals or employers. There must be at least one adult for every eight children and at least half of the staff must have a qualification recognised by the local authority.
DENI Department of Education for Northern Ireland.
Directory This is a subject guide on the internet. In computer file systems, a directory is a named group of related files that are separated by the naming convention from other groups of files.
Disapplied pupils The National Curriculum assessments have been designed to make sure that as many children as possible can be assessed. There may, however, be a small number of pupils who are not able to take part in some or all of the assessments. Usually this only happens if all or part of the National Curriculum is not suitable for a pupil because they have certain special educational needs.
DLOs Desirable Learning Outcomes.
Download The transmission of a file from one computer system to another (often smaller) computer system. From the internet user's point of view, to download a file is to request it from one computer, or from one Web page to another computer, and to receive it.
DPC Data Protection Commission/Commissioner.
DRC Disability Rights Commission.
DTI Department of Trade and Industry.
Degree A higher education qualification. Taken full-time, part-time or as a sandwich course, most last three years. Applicants generally need a minimum of two A levels, although it varies.
DipHE Diploma of Higher Education. Lasts two years and can be combined with professional or vocational qualifications. Can often be converted to a degree with further study. Entry requirements are similar to those for a degree.
Denominational school A school with its own particular beliefs, organisation and practices.
Discipline Committee The Governing Body must establish a Discipline Committee to review exclusions and consider any representations made by parents.
Disabled Person’s Tax credit Financial help for people with disabilities who are employed.
Disapplication Disapplication is an exceptional provision and is to be used at the discretion of the headteacher and governors based on pupils' needs. Schools may disapply particular National Curriculum subjects to enable them to include specified learning programmes in a pupil's curriculum that would not be possible alongside the full National Curriculum.
Diocese A diocese is the patch to which a bishop’s jurisdiction extends.
Digitisation This is the method used to convert films and music so they can be stored in a digital format like CD or DVD, or added to the content of a website.
Domain Name System (DNS) This is the system that locates a user's unique IP address.
EAB Education Assets Board.
EAL English as an additional language. Children who speak English as an additional language, rather than as their first language, may need extra help with their reading and writing. They will need lots of opportunities to talk with English-speaking adults and children about their work, thoughts and feelings. Often what they need most is varied, vibrant teaching that involves visual resources, sound, speaking and writing to make it easier for them to learn English.
Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership The partnership plans education locally for children below compulsory school age, and childcare for children from 0 to 14 years. Each year the partnership (there is one for each local education authority) draws up a plan which explains what local early education and childcare services will be provided and includes a list of all local providers of free early education.
Early Years Development and Childcare Plan A local plan which sets out how early education and childcare services will be provided.
EAZs - Education Action Zones Groups of 15 to 25 schools which aim to create new partnerships, raise standards and generate innovation within education. These groups of schools receive £1million a year for three to five years. An EAZ based on a single secondary school and its associated primaries will receive £350,000 a year. These smaller EAZs are only being set up in Excellence in Cities areas.
EBD Emotional and Behavioural Difficulties.
EDP An education development plan (EDP) is a strategic plan produced by the LA setting out how educational standards will be improved in that authority's schools.
Education Welfare Officers Education welfare officers are employed by LAs to monitor school attendance and help parents meet their responsibilities. They are also known as education social workers.
EECs Early Excellence Centres.
EiC (Excellence in Cities) Mainly focused on secondary schools, EiC aims to raise standards in specific city areas through targeted intervention and investment. The main programmes involved are extending opportunities for Gifted and Talented pupils, expansion of the number of specialist schools, establishing City Learning Centres, introducing new smaller Education Action Zones, providing access to Learning Mentors, and establishing Learning Support Units to tackle disruption.
EMA The Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA) is part of the Government's commitment to help young people have the opportunity to fulfill their educational potential. The EMA offers making weekly payments to young people to encourage participation, retention and achievement in Further Education.
Email Electronic mail carried on the internet
ERASMUS European Action Scheme for the Mobility of University Students.
ESS Education Standard Spending.
ETDA Education and Training Development Agenda.
EUI European University Institute.
Exclusion The suspension or expulsion of a pupil from school for disciplinary reasons.
Entry Level Certificates Entry Level Certificates used to be called 'Entry Level Awards'. These qualifications are designed for learners not yet ready for GCSE, Foundation GNVQ or NVQ level 1. There are Entry Level Certificates in the subjects that pupils will have studied up to the age of 14 and also in broader vocational areas that are more like the GNVQs. Pupils are assessed in tasks, which may be written, spoken or practical.
Excellence Challenge The Excellence Challenge is a three-year programme running from September 2001 that is committing over £190million to increase the number of young people from poorer backgrounds who apply for and enter higher education. A key purpose is to improve links between universities, colleges and schools.
Excellence Clusters Excellence Clusters are designed to bring the benefits of the Excellence in Cities programme to smaller pockets of deprivation. Like Excellence in Cities, they focus on some of the most deprived areas of the country, using a structured programme designed to raise standards.
EAZ Action Forum Each EAZ must have an Action Forum whose main task under the provisions of the 1998 Act is ‘the improvement of standards in the provision of education at each of the participating schools’. This will include drawing up and implementing an action plan and providing the means through which the business of the EAZ is conducted, including the management of its resources.
Examinations Appeals Board The Examinations Appeals Board (the EAB) is an independent body set up by Ministers in 1999 to help give confidence to candidates, parents, schools and colleges who make use of the examinations system that the grades awarded are fair and accurate.
European Community School Milk Subsidy Scheme European Community subsidy rules allow LAs and schools to offer nursery and primary school pupils a maximum of 250ml of subsidised milk a day for drinking. The European Community School Milk Subsidy Scheme is run by the Intervention Board and claims should be made through LAs.
Early learning goals The goals aim to make learning a fun and challenging experience and recognise the value of play. They will enable children to develop key skills such as speaking, listening, concentration, persistence, learning to work with others and early literacy and numeracy. The goals establish expectations for most children to reach by the end of the Foundation Stage, but are not a curriculum in themselves.
Early years education Children may receive early education in a range of places or settings