School and university rules modals practice
modals of obligation, permission and prohibition/ education vocabulary
With your partner, decide which are the three best school rules and the three worst school rules from this list:
- 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 their grade and class/ form
- 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
When your teacher stops you, ask about any rules above you aren’t sure about, discussing if they are good or bad as a class each time.
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. Then change roles and try to find out what is good and bad about your partner’s school.
Report to the class which rules you found out, hear about the others, then discuss which are the three best and three worst rules in the class.
Modals grammar presentation
Without looking above, write the correct verbs in each gap below.
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.
Look at the first page to help.
Check as a class.
Make three good rules and three bad rules for universities, using vocabulary from above or here if you like:
- alumni/ fellow alumni/ alumni association
- an undergraduate (student)
- distinction
- doctorate/ PhD
- fees
- finals
- freshers/ freshmen
- Freshers Week
- gap year
- (student) halls/ dorm
- lab/ laboratory
- lecture
- lecturer
- postgraduate (student)
- professor
- roommate
- sandwich course
- scholarship
- student union
- summer job
- thesis/ dissertation
- tutor
Compare with another group or other groups, and choose the three best and three worst.
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