Question for British list members/PS for Goddlefrood

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Carol" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:
>
> --- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, Mary Ann Jennings
> <macloudt@> wrote:
> >
> > Carol, Geoff is has already given lots of great info, but, if it
> helps, I was working in a Year 5 (9 and 10 year olds) a few weeks ago
> and the Twin Towers came up in class discussion.  All the kids used
> the term 9/11.  This term is also frequently used on the BBC news,
> which IMO is the ultimate proof that it's in common use in the UK.
> > 
> > Mary Ann, skiving from finishing her final paper (again)
> >
> Carol responds:
> 
> Thanks very much. But do the children know that it means September 11,
> not November 9?
> 
> Carol, noting that in the U.S., fifth grade (which I assume
> corresponds with Year 5) is comprised mostly of ten- and
> eleven-year-olds (they'd be ten at the beginning of the year but most
> will have turned eleven by this point in the school year)
 
Geoff:
Year 7 corresponds to the old First Year which is for children who 
reached 11 in the currency of the previous school year.

For example, pupils entering the current Year 7 in September 2007 
would have reached the age of 11 between 01/09/06 and 31/08/07.
So children who entered Year 5 in September 2007 would have reached 
the age of nine in this period.

For cross-reference, the UK exam year when pupils take GCSE exams and 
reach the age of 16 in that year is Year 11 (the old Fifth Year).

The all-through class numbering system became generally used in the 
UK round about 1989/90.