Hogwarts: English or Scottish? (was British Terms)

[Kirstini]

No: HPFGUIDX 72542

Dave:
> NEWTs: held at the same time as 'A' (Advanced) Level examinations 
> (England) and Highers (Scotland).  Typically students take 3 or 
> 4 'A' levels and 6 to 8 (IIRC) Highers - do we have any canon 
> evidence of the number of NEWTs taken?
> 
> Move from primary to secondary education at 11: consistent with 
> both, I believe.


Me - Kirstini:
Actually, both these bits of information are incompatible with any 
Scottish schooling analogy I was trying to draw. Oops. We move up to 
primary between 11 and 12 - Like Harry, I was born in 1980, and went 
to high school in 1992, not 1991. We take Highers the year before 
NEWTS are sat, and we take three to five. When I was at school, you 
then sat a modualar program of Sixth Year Studies in the final year, 
where you wrote dissertations and were prepared for the first year of 
university - but they've changed this now. The OWLS are consistant 
with Scottish schooling, as we have an O-Level/GSCE equivalant called 
Standard Grades. I can't for the life of me remember when school goes 
back, but I think it may well be a week earlier than Hogwarts, ie, 
the last week of August. However, the summer holidays make sense - 
the long summer holiday (and shorter Easter and Christmas holidays) 
is definately more Scottish than English. 
Someone raised the point a few days ago that Hogwarts must have a 
different cut-off date from either Scotland or England, as Angelina, 
one of the oldest pupils of her year, turns 17 in late October of her 
sixth year. Ohhhh, my head.
I don't suppose we could just *ask* JKR, could we? Anyone got a spare 
child?
Kirstini