With your partner, decide which are the best 3 school rules and worst 3 school rules below:
Children have to attend class on Saturdays but they can go home early on Wednesdays.
You have to retake your end of year exams during the summer holiday if you flunk (=fail) them in June
You have to wear a mortarboard hat for your graduation ceremony
You have to raise your hand when you want to speak in class
You can’t wear short skirts, hooded tops, very baggy trousers, ripped jeans or anything pink. If you do so, your home room teacher can send you home to get changed.
You have to do detention after school if you arrive late
You can drop all foreign language courses when you are 16
You have to do PE (= Physical Education) outside in all weathers
You can be expelled from school for cheating in tests
If you have dyed hair, you can be suspended from school until it grows out
You aren’t allowed any physical contact with other students, including shaking hands
You aren’t allowed to smoke while wearing school uniform, even outside the school gates
You are aren’t allowed to run in the school corridors, and you have to walk on the left
Mobile phones can be confiscated by the teacher
Pupils can’t eat lunch outside the school canteen
Secondary school students have to do military training
Students can decide their own curriculum and if they want to go to lessons or just do self-study in the library
Children have to sing the national anthem and salute the flag at school assembly
Pupils aren’t allowed to wear any religious items, e.g. a cross or headscarf.
Junior pupils have to help senior pupils carry their books etc. (= fagging)
Naughty children can be punished by being made to write lines (=the same sentence 100 or more times)
Very badly behaved children can be given corporal punishment, e.g. the cane (a stick)
Even in the playground, children cannot use their mother tongue or dialect. They must use standard English at all times
6th formers have to help teach the younger kids
Girls have to wear coloured ribbons in their hair showing which grade and class they are in
Children must always call the teacher ‘sir’ or ‘miss’
All students have to study RE (= Religious Education)
Parents don’t have to pay tuition fees or pay for textbooks, but they do have to pay for school trips, school lunches, art supplies and stationary.
Boarding school students are only allowed to go home three times a year.
You have to pass an entrance test before you can enter the school.
Parents are supposed to attend the ceremony on the first day of school.
In co-ed schools, boys and girls can’t speak to each other during school hours
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Grammar Practice- Modals
In France, children _________ attend class on Saturdays but they ________ go home early on Wednesdays.
In the UK, you ___________ retake your end of year exams during the summer holiday if you fail them in June
You __________ to wear short skirts, hooded tops, very baggy trousers, ripped jeans or anything pink in some schools in the USA. Pink is banned because it is thought to be a gang colour.
In the UK, you might _________ do detention after school if you arrive late
In the UK, you __________ drop all foreign language courses when you are 16
In some schools in the USA, you _____________ any physical contact with other students, including shaking hands. This is to stop both fights and sexual behaviour at school.
In China, secondary school students _________________ do military training
In some Free Schools such as Summerhill in the UK, students _________ decide their own curriculum and if they want to go to lessons or just do self-study in the library
In France, pupils _______________ wear any religious items, e.g. a cross or headscarf.
In many developing countries in Africa and Asia, older children such as 6th formers _________ help teach the younger kids
In Thailand, girls ___________ wear coloured ribbons in their hair showing which grade and class they are in
In the UK, children _________________ always call the teacher ‘sir’ or ‘miss’
In Japan, parents ___________________ attend the ceremony on the first day of school
You are now going to pretend to be the head teacher of a school. The six rules you chose above are the rules of your school. Someone from another group will pretend to be a student who is thinking about coming to your school or a parent of a student who is thinking about coming to your school. Answer all their questions about your school, trying to make the school seem as good as possible. You can’t lie about the bad rules in your school, but you can try to avoid answering. If they ask about anything that isn’t covered by your school rules, you can say anything you like.
Now change roles and try to find out what is good and bad about your partner’s school. Then get back together with your original partner and decide which school is better.
Now make good and bad rules for universities. Here is some vocabulary you might like to use:
lecture
lecturer
tutor
professor
fees
scholarship
thesis
a distinction
the student union
a doctorate/ PhD
Freshers
alumni
roommate
(student) halls
sandwich course
an undergraduate (student)
a postgraduate (student)
finals
a gap year
lab
a summer job
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PDF for easy saving and printing: School rules modals
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