Also, CrabCake, how do British schools compare to what we see of them on TV? Would you say your experience was more Inbetweeners or Harry Potter? 
Well I went to a selective school that was established during the early 1600's (iirc), so it had a thing for the sort of "ancient traditions" that were really codified in the Late Victoyan era that you see a lot in the famous public schools that produced Britain's elite, and, yes, Hogwarts. (Of course, nowadays, it's all the rage for all comprehensive schools to ape the traditions of public schools, forming Houses and updating the uniforms in a bizare sort of cargo cult manner.) School uniforms, fwiw, are basically garbage. All they convinced me was that kids have no idea how to dress, even if it is literally prescribed to them what to wear. (I certainly was, err, not great sartorially - I don't think I wore a tie at an appropriate length till I was fifteen)
I made a concerted effort to never take part in sports though. Although that was because I never realised that I was short-sighted until I was fourteen, so my initial experiences with all sports was owlishly squinting across the field or pitch before being let down by various other physical deficiencies (little hand eye coordination, slow reaction times, boredom).
