how do student loans work

So I'm lucky enough that my parents can pay for full fees for uni in the UK - basically I'm int'l and go to boarding school here and I do a bit of volunteering/comps some people talk about student loans for university. Obviously Ik what the concept of student loans is but can someone talk about how the nitty-gritty works because I'm rlly confused when they have convos about it and I feel too embarrassed to ask because I don't want to seem like some clueless posh c***. (hopefully this post doesn't come off obnoxious)