British School System

[linlou43]

 Hi all!

   I'm a regular poster on the main board and don't post on OT often 
but as an American reader I have a couple of questions, inspired by 
the main list thread on Snape as a teacher, for any British list 
members they may care to answer.


    First, is it the normal practice in a British school to keep the 
same instructor for a given subject until you have progressed through 
the first testing level? My personal public school experience is of a 
single teacher, per year(new one each year), teaching all subjects 
through my first five years of schooling and then traveling to 
different classes starting in the sixth grade. Even once I started 
having seperate teachers per subject, however, the teacher usually
(there were exceptions) changed each year, as the subject matter 
progressed.


   Secondly, on a totaly seperate issue that has nothing at all to do 
with HP...

   I live in the state of Massachusetts and as of the 2002/2003 
school year the passing of a standardized test is a graduation 
requirement. I have also heard of this being instituted in other 
parts of the country. I am wondering if anyone in Britain has heard 
about this developement in American public education and if anyone 
has any thoughts on how it might be compared to the testing system 
employed there.

 -thanks to anyone who can help, linlou