Britain’s currency is based on the pound sterling (£) which is divided into one hundred pence (100p).

The coin denominations are 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, 20p, 50p, £1 and £2. The most common bank notes are £5, £10 and £20, though they do go higher.

Thousands of years ago, Great Britain was joined to Europe and was covered with ice. About 15,000 years ago, the weather became warmer. The ice melted and the sea level rose. Great Britain became an island about 8000 years ago.

Celtic people called Britons settles in Britain. They were warriors and farmers who were skilled metal workers. They built villages and hill forts, and used iron weapons and tools. Celts called Gaels lived in Ireland.

Education is an important part of British life. There are hundreds of schools, colleges and universities, including some of the most famous in the world.

Children’s education in England is normally divided into two separate stages. They begin with primary education at the age of five and this usually lasts until they are eleven. Then they move to secondary school, there they stay until they reach sixteen, seventeen or eighteen years of age.

Teachers in primary schools ( 4 – 11 year old) are always addressed by their surname by parents and pupils alike, always Mr, Mrs or Miss Smith.…. In secondary schools (11 – 16 years), teachers are usually addressed as Miss or Sir.

People from all cultures and ethnicities can be found in every corner of Britain and each person in his or her own way has contributed to make Britain the place it is today.

If you walk down a street in Britain, especially in the bigger cities you will usually see people with different hair, skin and eye colours. They may have white, brown or black skin and blonde, brown, black, or red hair, with blue, black, brown or green eyes. Many of the people you will see will be British people but they all look different because the people of Britain are a mixed race. Roads and motorways are Britain’s primary domestic transport routes. There are some 225,000 miles (362,000 km) of roads in Britain. Travel by car, van or taxi is by far the most common means of transport, accounting for 85 per cent of passenger mileage in Great Britain. There are two main kinds of buses in London: the red double-decker and the red single-decker. The main places a bus goes to are shown on the front of the bus. Some double-deckers have automatic doors and you pay the driver when you go in. On single-deckers you sometimes buy your ticket from a machine in the bus. Most London buses have a conductor who will come round and collect fares.

Sightseeing buses

There are many sightseeing, open top, buses in London and other cities.

London was the first city in the world to have an underground railway, called the ‘tube’. The first line was built in 1890.