School year system in the UK/Gluttony

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 128811

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "festuco" <vuurdame at x> wrote:

Gerry:
> What we see in Hogwarts is what I know from my school (age 12-18).
> People usually hang out with their peers, not with much older children
> as they are not interested in having younger ones around them. Unless
> there is a family connection. In case of Harry, we see him having
> contact with Fred and George through Ron, and a bit with the memebers
> of his Quidditch team.

Geoff:
I would tend to agree. 

I went to an all-boys day grammar school in South London. There was a 
great deal of mixing which went on outside the classrooms. There was a 
cafeteria system for meals so you went in when you wanted to which 
allowed for interaction between different years.

There were a lot of out-of-school societies and clubs and you would mix 
with pupils of different years there. For example, I was a fairly keen 
chess player at that time and as a First or Second year pupil would 
often find myself playing (and probably being thrashed) by a Fourth, 
Fifth or even Sixth Former.

For games afternoons, two years at a time would often go - usually 
close combinations like First/Second Years, Third/Fourth and so on. 
this sort of structure was encouraged by the school.