Age of Starting School

[Lady Macbeth]

No: HPFGUIDX 71551

Kathy N Said:
>>> In California the cutoff date is Dec. 2. A child needs to be 5 years old
on Dec. 2nd in order to start kindergarten that year.  Depending on the
child a parent may wait until the  child is 6 before registering them for
kindergarten. Schools start either the week before or the week after Labor
Day and end sometime between the 1st and 3rd week of June. California is 180
days of schooling.

So I have thought that Hermione is 11 when she starts just like Harry and
Ron.<<<

Lady Macbeth:
This is very similar to a reply I was going to make, so I'll elaborate on
this point.  I started school in Wisconsin, and I was 5 about to turn 6 when
I started - pretty standard, my birthday is 25 Dec.  However, upon seeing my
test scores when I went in for Kindergarten Roundup, the school district
wanted to put me in second grade.  My mom refused, on the basis that she
didn't want her five year old in class with a bunch of seven year olds.
However, I remained advanced the rest of the way through school, and a lot
of parents and teachers wondered along the way if my mom had made such a
good decision.

Hermione seems very similar.  I'm not sure, however, if British schools make
any kind of exceptions for "exceptional" students.  If they do, it is all
together possible that she was indeed 10 and turned 11 in September.  She
may have been an "advanced" student from the start, and would have been
going into a standard secondary school when she was "too young" if she would
have remained in the Muggle world.

-Lady Macbeth


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