Things have changed a little bit - but not much.
Prior to the age of five children may go to playschools or nurserys, and places are funded by the state for four year olds. They start school properly in the school year they will turn five at a Primary Schools.
In the past Primary schools were divided into Infant Schools (ages 5-7) and Junior Schools (Ages 8-11). Over recent decades the trend has been towards amalgamation, and many schools are now just Primary Schools covering the whole (5-11) age range.
In the last ten years (I forget the exact date of introduction) SATs were introduced at the ages of 7, 11 and 14. These are used to provide league tables for schools and, theoretically, to band children into ability groups. However, they have no relevance to deciding which schools or univerisities pupils attend.
Secondary schools were, after the war, split into three types. Technical colleges, Secondary Moderns and Grammar schools. They were selected for by a test called the 11+, taken at the age of eleven. Roughly the top 25% in the tests qualified to go to Grammar school. The system began to be abolished in favour of comprehensive schools for pupils of all abilities in the 1960s and 1970s, but there are still a few counties (Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, Cheshire and Kent I think, perhaps others) where the Grammar school system remains and pupils still take the 11+.
In other counties parents fill in a form putting down their first three choices of local school for their offspring and send it to the local education authority who, in conjunction with local schools, allocate their children to a school based upon geographical location, siblings already at the school and so forth. Then everyone appeals against the ruling and complains to their MP. There is, essentially, no real choice. While non-Grammar schools are prevented from selecting on ability, schools affiliated with a church are allowed to interview potential parents to ask them how often they go to church and suchlike. Alledgedly many church schools (note these are state church schools, not private schools who can give places to who the hell they want) use this as a cover for offering places to nice middle children with supportive parents. Hence church schools have better results, and the whole application process ends up with the added amusement of parents mysteriously finding religion six months before their children turn eleven and suddenly attending church every week, until little Johnny gets offered the desired place at St. Muggs CE Secondary School when they immediately “loose their faith” again.
Anyway - secondary schools run from either 12-16 or 12-18 depending upon whether or not they have a sixth form. After the SATs for fourteen year olds, pupils choose which GCSEs to study for. At a rough guess, the average pupil will take, say, 9 or 10. The GCSEs replaced the old O-Level (short for “Ordinary-Level”) in the mid-1980s. The theory was to allow everyone to gain a qualification, since where many people failed O-Levels, GCSEs are graded all the way from A to G, and it takes a real effort at applied dimwittery to fail one. Of course, it was a meaningless cosmetic changes, because employers only take into account GCSEs at C grade or above (the theoretical equivalent of the old O-Level.) GCSE exams are taken at the age of 16 and are a qualifcation in their own right - at this stage students are free to leave education.
After GCSE students who remain can choose to study A-Levels (short for Advanced-Level). Some schools, generally the better performing, will have sixth forms and students will remain at the same school to study A-Levels. Students from other schools have the choice of moving to a school with a sixth form, or studying for A-Levels at a Sixth Form College - a separate Higher Education college. There are no fixed requirements at GCSE to study A-Levels, but most schools and colleges will obviously require a decent showing at GCSE to take on a pupil for A-Levels. A-Levels used to be a two year course with exams at the end, and students tended to chose three subjects to study. Two years ago this changed - students chose five or so subjects and take A/S exams after one year - they then chose three subjects to continue onwards to full A-Level with. In the subjects they drop, they recieve A/S levels (a qualification in its own right, worth half an A-Level) assuming of course they passed the exams. A-Levels are graded from A to E and are a qualification in their own right.
(Worth noting that the introduction of compulsory A/S levels was a bit of a disaster. There is a fair chance it may be reversed)
Students apply for university places through the UCAS scheme a couple of months before their A-Levels. Not having taken their exams yet, the applications are based upon the grades their teachers predict they will recieve. A-Levels are worth UCAS points depending upon their grade - an A grade is worth 10pts, B 8pts, C 6pts and so forth. University courses generally require a certain number of points, though if a university likes a candidate at interview they can offer a lower (or higher) requirement. Students fill in a single UCAS form applying for a certain number of courses at universities (in my day it was 8 different universities, I think its now less) - then sit back and wait for responses from the universities.Having received all the responses, students then nominate a first choice and a second choice (presumably with lower requirements). If they get the required UCAS points for that first choice they go to that uni, same for the second choice - if not they have to go through “clearing”. This is when, in the week following A-Level results, students who didn’t get sufficent points to meet their offers ring around universities trying to snap up the remained unfilled spaces.
To illustrate - I was predicted at A level ABB (26 points). I applied for 8 universities and received 6 offers. I took up the offer from Hull at 24 points, and a lower offer from York. I ended up getting AAB (28 points) so took up my place at Hull University.
All universities charge identical fees to English students (it works differently for Scots who have their own different education system) - £1,100 a year. There is difference in reputation though - Oxford and Cambridge are the best, followed by the older “redbrick” universities (Manchester, Leeds, Bristol, etc. Bristol and Durham are special cases, they are both regarded as the universities chosen by those rejected by Oxbridge). The lowest reputation is that of the “New univerisites” or ex-ploys as they are normally known. These were, until the 1990s Polytechnic colleges, i.e. further education institutions awarding lower qualifications than degrees, or degress accredited by other univerisites, but who were upgraded in the 1990s. Obviously there are redbrick universities that are pants, and new ones that are good but thats the way things go.
British universities are now semesterised like US ones, and most courses are three years (or four years in Scotland). US terminology like “freshman” “sophomore” is not used this side of the Atlantic. Students “read” either a single subject, or joint honours - but are allowed to take out of department modules. For example, each year I was at Hull I needed to take 8 modules, in the first year these were all compulsory - in later years about 6 were compulsory and I could have chosen to take a module in a different subject.