Acupuncture is the art whereby pains and ailments in the body are helped by the careful and relatively painless insertion of very fine needles into electrically active points in the skin. These points are called acupuncture points. It is a system of restoring and preserving health.
Acupressure is where a system of massage is used on the acupuncture points instead of inserting pins.
History
It is thought that Acupuncture has now been practised for more than 7000 years.  In fact, a body has been discovered in Turkey, said to be more than 6000 years old which has markings of acupuncture points for treating arthritis.
Acupuncture is believed to have originated in China and the Far East. From there, some acupuncture knowledge has disseminated to other countries and variations developed, eg. Japanese, Vietnamese. Originally crude needles of bamboo and stone were used, then gold and silver, and now stainless steel.

Schools of Acupuncture
There are several schools for learning Acupuncture in England. They are each independent of each other. Once qualified from accredited schools, practitioners are then eligible to join one of the umbrella organisations. If qualified from elsewhere, such as abroad eg. the Far East, checks will be made before being eligible to join.
As mentioned before, each school teaches different systems of acupuncture and correspondingly certain basic educational requirements may be necessary for a particular school.