Question for British list members/school years

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Carol" <justcarol67 at ...> wrote:
>
> Geoff:
> > Years 12/13 are not used as identifiers in the UK system.
> > 
> > We continue to use the old terminology so you will see schools 
> referring to Lower Sixth/Upper Sixth or First Year Sixth/Second Year
> Sixth.
> 
> Carol responds:
> So a student goes from Year 11 to Lower Sixth? Isn't that a wee bit
> confusing?

Geoff:
No, because the Sixth Forms in most schools operate almost as 
an independent section of the school. They have quite a lot of 
classrooms, common rooms of their own and usually more freedom 
- often no uniform as such. Again,they're used to hearing about the 
"Sixth Form".

Carol: 
> And are most students eighteen when they complete the Upper Sixth
> (those with summer birthdays would still be seventeen)?

Geoff:
Yes. But the seventeen year olds would still come of age within that 
school year although of course they would have left by then.


Geoff (earlier):
> > So we tend to refer to Year 7 as the 11+ year. 
 
> Carol responds:
> 
> Forgive me, but that's very confusing. It's all in what you're used
> to, I suppose.
> 
> Geoff (earlier):
> At one time - until the late 1960- all children changed from Junior
> school to Secondary at this point. Now, it's a mix. Depending on the
> area, the switch to Secondary can be Year 7, 8 or 9.

Geoff; 
Perhaps I need to enlarge on this a little.

Can I make it clear that when I say, for example, entry at five, this 
means the September following the child's fifth birthday, sometimes 
called 5+.

Until the 1960s, which I will refer to later, state day schools were 
organised so that children attended an Infants school for two years 
starting from the age of five, then a Junior school for four years and 
then five years Secondary school from the age of 11 up to national 
exams - I am not including Sixth Forms in this. Each school would 
number its classes from 1 upwards.

Many schools had Infant and Junior schools on the same site but had 
different head teachers. Sometimes in urban areas like London, you 
came across JMI (Junior Mixed and Infants) schools with both schools 
under the control of one head.

At that time, children in their last year at Junior school - namely the 
school year in which they reached 11 - took national exams to 
determine their selection for secondary schools. these exams were 
colloquially known as "the 11+" .

At this time, there was a tendency with Public schools, both day and 
boarding, to start their secondary education at thirteen. Their intake 
had often come from Preparatory schools who took an intake at 9. Just 
in passing, it is interesting that Hogwarts which is a private boarding 
school followed the state transfer age pattern.

When the Labour government under Harold Wilson came to power in 
1964, they issued the famous (or infamous depending on your political 
leaning) Circular 10/64 which instructed all Local Education Authorities 
(LEAs) to prep`re schemes for comprehensive school with the aim of 
stopping the 11+ selection process.

The so-called three-tier system gained much ground at this time with 
entry to a Primary/First school at 5, Middle school at 9 and High school 
at 13. This was mainly because in many cases, LEAs could adapt existing 
buildings at less cost!

I taught for 32 years in the same school in South London. when I started, 
it was a Modern school, i.e. for those whose 11+ results had not allowed 
them access to a grammar school and had boys from 11-15/16. Under 
the new directives, we gradually changed to a 13-18 mixed 
comprehensive with a Sixth Form from 1969. In 1990, we again changed 
to a 12-16 mixed comprehensive with pupils moving away to a central 
Sixth Form college after that.

I came up through the Infant at 5, Junior to 11+ and grammar school 
route. For many years there was no  pre-5 education on a organised 
national level. I started school in the term after I was 5 - in the summer 
term of 1945. Prior to that, my mother had informally taught me reading 
and simple Maths at home which was not uncommon.

On another topic, the names "freshman", "sophomore" etc. are not used 
in the UK in schools and I haven't heard reference to them being used in 
further education either. I've always seen them as being as US thing.

I hope that will make matters a little clearer.