School years AKICOLJ

[philmophlegm]

I've been puzzled about this before, but I don't remember if I ever asked anyone else about it, and if I did, I don't remember what the answer was.

When we do You're Hired!, the year group involved is the year that sits A/S levels, that is the year before they do their final A-level exams (A/2?) or as we called it in my day, "the Lower Sixth". Nowadays that year is referred to as "Year 12". The subsequent year is "Year 13".

When I went to school, I had three years of infant school, four years of junior school, five years of comprehensive school and two years of sixth form. That adds up to fourteen years.

Do children today have a year less of school than they did in my day? (I started in 1976 and did my A-levels in 1990.) Or was I somehow unusual? Or do they not count the first year of infants as "Year 1"?

Can anyone explain the discrepancy? How many years did you spend at school?

Comments

[purplecat]

They don't count the first year of infants as year 1, for some reason it is "Reception".

Lots of schools will take them from the year before that, at least in Manchester, no idea what that's called.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

OK, that makes sense. At my school, it was called both "Reception" and "First year infants" pretty much interchangably.

[(Anonymous)]

It's very simple really - the first year at school (age 4-5) is called Reception. After that you have years 1-6 at primary school, and 7-13 at senior school.

[brixtonbrood.livejournal.com]

(anonymous comment was me - computer decided to log me out randomly)

so yes, age 4 you start Reception. Year 1 is for 5-6 year olds and so on until year 13 for 17-18 year olds.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

OK, that makes sense. At my school, it was called both "Reception" and "First year infants" pretty much interchangably.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

1971 to 1984, ages 5 to 18.

I hopped schools too often for a detailed description to be of any use to you; but what should have happened to me was: primary school 5 - 10; high school 10 - 14, 1st year to 4th year; upper school 14 - 18, 4th year again, 5th year, lower 6th, upper 6th.

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

So did you just do 13 years then? You seem to have started later than me (I started school aged 4 years and 4 months).

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I did 13 years. My birthday is in March, and I *think* I started school at the start of the autumn term after that. I then finished after my A levels, the summer after my 18th birthday.

[foradan.livejournal.com]

I went to school in Ireland, so the system was different, but it added up to 14 years:
Primary School (Junior Infants, Senior Infants, 1st-6th Class) - 8 years (the first two were not compulsory, and hence are named differently)
Secondary School (1st-6th Year) - 6 years.
Total 14 years (exactly the same ones are you).

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Do you (or anyone else for that matter) know what the system is in Northern Ireland? Wales and England seem to be the same, but I have a feeling that Scotland is somehow different, and I have no idea about Northern Ireland.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

Scotland has a distinct educational tradition, but Northern Ireland is a variation on the English and Welsh pattern.

[ggreig]

Scotland is different. When I was at school, I spent 7 years at primary school (5-12), then 6 years at secondary (12-18). I don't believe that's changed since I left school in 1985.
Edit: ...and the years are numbered P1-7 and S1-6.

[foradan.livejournal.com]

I don't even know how the system in the Republic has changed since I left school. The only thing I know about the Scottish system is that they do more subjects at the final school exams than are done for A-levels, like we did in Ireland. We did 7 subjects - English, Irish and Maths and 4 others of our choice.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't know what Scotland is like nowadays, but when I was at school the exams were:
- at 16 (4th Year) you did a maximum of 8 O grades (our school experimented with 9 but it almost killed the kids doing them)
- at 17 you did a maximum of 5 Highers.
- in 6th year you did a mixture of Sixth Year Studies (SYS), extra Highers and extra O grades.

[eledonecirrhosa.livejournal.com]

Sorry, last comment went through anonymous! Stupid computer! Grrr...

[ggreig]

That sounds like what I experienced, but the exam structures have changed since then and I believe they [have recently changed/are about to change] again, and I don't know the details.

[adaese.livejournal.com]

I was 4 1/4 when we left Nigeria, and I know I went to school for a bit there, so schooling there, then, must have started pretty early. But on coming back to England, I went to playgroup for a while, then nursery school, then proper school.

I then wound up being in the first year of junior school two years in succession - no, I didn't have to repeat a year, I just switched from a school where Junior started at 7+ to one where Junior was defined as 8+.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

As others have said, the first year is Reception, although some schools call this "Foundation" and merge it in with the top year of their attached pre-school (if they have one). Years 1 and 2 are Key Stage 1, so Reception and years 1 and 2 are what in my day was called Infants. Key Stage 2 is what we used to call Juniors - i.e. ages 7 to 11, years 3 to 6.

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

As others have already commented on the Reception class discrepancy, I shall just answer your later question: I spent 13 years at school. 3 at infants, 3 at juniors, 5 at secondary, gaining special permission to leave school at 15. (OK, so I did immediately spent 2 years in a sixth form college, so permission was easy to get, but still required.)

Through having a September birthday, and managing to simultaneously be in *both* categories that my school gave "special extra lunchtime lessons" to (the very top and the very bottom - I couldn't write), I got put up a year three times, and held back a year twice. I am absurdly proud of that rather unusual achievement ;-). I also managed to miss up to 50% of my formal education in any year without ever getting a detention or a letter home for doing so. [As a direct result of this, I don't *remotely* grasp why schools are so strict about permitting small amounts of absence for good reasons]

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

OK, that's the best answer!

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

To give more detail re your initial question: the first year of infants, sometimes called 'Reception' is formally 'Foundation Stage 2'. Foundation Stage 1 is the pre-school nursery class; nowadays a lot of schools though not all run their own pre-school, usually just for the one year (in my children's school, the transition from Foundation 1 to Foundation 2 is pretty smooth and seamless, they have a lot of shared areas etc.) Foundation Stage, and I *think* but not sure some earlier age-group childcare stuff, follow the Early Years Curriculum, which is basically about 'learning through play'. So the school curriculum proper starts with Key Stage One, which covers Year 1 and 2.

Part of the reason for this, I think, is that legally children have to start school (unless officially withdrawn to homeschool etc) in the term *after* their 5th birthday (see Wellinghall for an example.) So Year 1 is the first year that all pupils have to attend for the whole year. Some schools do staggered intake twice or three times a year in Reception/Foundation 2, some including ours do not, they want you to start in September for Foundation 2 regardless of birthday. So Frodo-lad, with a July birthday, started school last September, but didn't legally have to do any of that year at all, and could have just gone straight into Year 1 this coming September. In fact he's been at that school for two years now, as he did the government-paid-for half-days at the preschool the year before as well, and the whole Foundation Stage has given him a great grounding for starting Key Stage One which I wouldn't want him to have missed out on. The government obviously agrees, hence the funding for pre-school places, but the law says children don't *have to* attend early years education. Probably more detail than you wanted!

As for me, I did fourteen-and-a-third years at school (or eleven-and-a-third depending on whether you count VIth Form College as school.) I did one term in Reception/first year infants, as my school did do staggered intake for 'rising-5s' in the term in which you turned 5, and as I had a July birthday I only got one term. The extra year comes at the other end of schooling - I spent 3 years at VIth Form College, partly because I missed quite a lot of my first year there through glandular fever, partly because I was doing zero-to-A-Level Greek which took three years (see above re gladular fever, we had originally wondered if I could do it in two), and partly because my parents encouraged the extra year on the grounds of my being young in the year and somewhat emotionally immature - I think this was a good decision. As I did university applications at the start of my 3rd year of 6th form, having already taken 3 of my A-Levels, this led to the amusing situation of my having a choice between a genuinely unconditional offer from Oxford, who were set-up for post-A-Level applications, and conditional offers albeit of the 'one E' variety from other universities who couldn't cope with non-mature, in-school with A-Levels still to do applicants (I imagine this would work better nowadays!) I remember the UCCA person at school being a bit nonplussed that I didn't have a first-choice/second-choice thing on my final form, but as I pointed out, a second choice with conditions I could potentially fail would be completely pointless when I literally couldn't fail to meet my unconditional first-choice offer!