Primary education in the 1990s

[hammeringinmyhead]

Now I have a small child of my own I've been thinking about my experience in primary school and I wondered if anyone either worked in education in the 90s/had this happen to them and could shed some light, or could tell me if weird decisions like these still happen?

I'm a September birthday, and I did year 1 as normal in 89-90. Then, the 6 of us who were September to December birthdays skipped year 2 and went straight into the year 3 class. We stayed with this group of older children for 3 years.

The year we would have been in "class 6", so the last year of primary for all of the older children in my class, they combined year 5 and 6 into a big group and split them, 15 from each year in a class. So I was back in a class with half kids I hadn't been with since I was 5, and half the children I'd spent the last few years with.

So, I went 1, 3, 4, 5, 5&6 combined, 6. And ended up (along with 5 others) doing the year 6 curriculum of vikings or whatever, twice.

Can anyone advise what the logic would have been here? I hear people my age saying they "skipped a year" but then the high school wouldn't take me until I was 11 so it seemed a pointless exercise and was really hard on friendships.

I mean weren't fixed at 30

I skipped year 1 and went straight from reception to year 2. Did year 3 twice as I sat for a selective prep and got in but they wanted me back in my correct year group.

I started Reception at 4. If your 4th birthday was 30th August at my school you’d start reception on the 1st September. We had kids who turned 5 during the first week in the same class as kids who’d been 3 just a few days before. There were no staggered starts and no empathy for those of us who were in the younger end of the year and who struggled with being full time from the start. No one was kept behind or moved years ahead. Some children were sent for “remedial” support either one to one or in groups run by unpaid volunteers, usually Mums’ of the kids at the school who themselves had little education (like my Mum who had little formal education, leaving at 15 with no qualifications and struggling to help me learn to read, do maths etc).

I moved for Junior school to a private school as I was getting “left behind” and my parents, comparing me to cousins in their home countries, felt British state education was very poor. At the private school students were moved back or ahead in year groups depending on ability. Students kept behind might choose to take less GCSE’s to leave “on time” or take GCSE’s at 17. Students who were ahead took As when we were doing GCSE and Alevels when we were doing As. They might then choose to leave early, take a GAP year or go to a university which would accept them at 17 or they sometimes chose to do more A-Levels or a vocation college course.

We did have a combined Year 5/Year 6 group. We were set different work. We’d work independently on something while the other half of the year were having a lesson taught from the front of the class and then we’d swap. We’d work together for Art, PE etc. Year 5 would be taught a news Maths or English concept whilst Year 6 were having Music for example in a separate block then they would work on that subject for the week independently and vice versa. It wasn’t boring and it did promote independence.

Oddly we wouldn’t play together at break times. We’d keep to our own year group despite sharing a classroom everyday which looking back was a bit weird.

Interestingly, my friend’s daughter, who is neurotypical, has been kept behind twice as her “handwriting is poor and she lacks confidence”. I really worry about what this will do to her long term. One year they kept 5 children behind and the next year it was just her. She’s done Year 1 AND Year 3 twice.

I really think the school has failed her completely and I would have took her out and moved her. I’m convinced it’s to do with SATs and league tables. It’s not just that she’s academically behind, she’s also really struggling to identify with children her own age and, as a teacher myself, it’s becoming apparent that she’s much less mature than you’d expect from a nearly ten year old. Her parents have no idea how she will cope or even when she will go to senior school.

I can’t believe it’s been allowed to happen.

I went to a not infants school with 4 years, and 7 classes. So there was an element of split year teaching to accommodate the missing class. When I was in the 4th year (y3) I had a 3rd year friend (y2). We then moved up to the juniors and the 3rd years had to do the 4th year again. This was 88-89, slightly before the National Curriculum.

A few years later my area standardised intakes with the majority of the country to avoid splitting Key Stages across differwnt schools. You moved up at 8/ y4 and 12/y8. My year group was the first y7 in secondary and we did 3 years in juniors and moved up in a double intake with y8. We missed out on things like prefects, Head Boy/ Girl and the residential trip.

This does seem to have happened a lot. The birth dates of my school year at secondary spanned September 1982-December 1983 because so many people has skipped a year.

I wad a January baby and myself and some other kids (around 6 I think) were added to a year 4 class from yr 2. So we did yr 4 and 5 with that class and year 6 twice effectively. I don't remember much repetition in work but am mid 30s now so its a while ago. My mum claims my little 'advanced' group were good readers and that's the only reason we were chosen, not date of birth. In year 6 we were often sent to help reception and year one with their reading and writing.

1986-7ish - I was a "third year junior (Year 5) in a fourth year class (year 6)" along with about 6 or 7 other children. I think because we were all relatively high achievers and could cope with the work.

I seem to remember the two year groups didnt really interact much, despite being in the same class for an academic year; I sat with my three best friends who were also moved up.

During our "proper" fourth year (Year 6) we were put back with our peers. I don't remember repeating the curriculum topics, but I guess my experience was before the National Curriculum was introduced, so I think individual schools had more control over what to teach.

I was August born, started reception after turning four but was kept back in Year 1 for an extra year.

That was in 1986 btw

It's a bit different in scotland but I was skipped a year. We moved schools when I was P6 and my sister in S1. My sister struggled in the new high school and I was very clever so had surpassed my primary school peers. So I skipped p7 and went straight to S1 to help my sister who was S2 at that point. It wasn't an issue until I got to older, then my friends could buy alcohol etc and I was still a year younger! I also felt a bit under prepared for university at 17.

I was one of a group put forward a year too - I'd actually forgotten about this until reading your post, OP! There were about five or six of us who were 'Year-1s-in-a-Year-2-class'.

@terriblyangryattimes

I wad a January baby and myself and some other kids (around 6 I think) were added to a year 4 class from yr 2. So we did yr 4 and 5 with that class and year 6 twice effectively. I don't remember much repetition in work but am mid 30s now so its a while ago. My mum claims my little 'advanced' group were good readers and that's the only reason we were chosen, not date of birth. In year 6 we were often sent to help reception and year one with their reading and writing.

This was my experience too. Mum also mentioned reading as a reason.

The worst thing for me was doing the bloody SATS twice. I'm sure that wouldn't be allowed now.

This happened quite frequently before class size regulations were a thing, purely to even out the class sizes. Some years it was the oldest children who were ‘moved up’, other years it was based on the mix of children, how many boys/girls, SEND etc. If the teachers weren’t very good at thinking flexibly then it did lead to some children ‘repeating’ a years work. The school I taught in had a two year planning cycle so that if the repetition wouldn’t happen.

My class was tiny (22 kids) so that didn't happen to my year group but it happened in both my siblings groups in the 1980s.

Those siblings are 6 years apart soust have been quite normal for it to happen. Both siblings had 2-3 kids from the year below come up to their class. Then, when my siblings moved on to secondary school, those kids stayed in year 6.
I had a kid in 6th form in my year but was the year below age wise because she was really clever.

I apparently skipped a class in the 80s. But ended up with my own age group at secondary. I still don't really get it.