Can someone explain UK school years to me?

[TuesdayJulyNever]

Have I got this right?

Reception is age 4.
Then years 1-6 are primary.
Then age 11 is the start of secondary and that’s year 7?
How many years of secondary school are there, and which ones are exam years?

And is it the same in NI, Scotland, Wales and England?

I’m always mildly befuddled on threads where dc are described by their school year rather than their age.

Yes, you've got that right. For England anyway. I don't know about Scotland.

England they start the September they are 4. Cut off is August 31st.
I believe NI cut off is 31st June, so some start at 5.

Main exam years are Yr11 (so 16ish) and Yr13 (18ish)

In some areas you 12&13 are part of school in other areas they are college. Or mixture of both.

Secondary school is years 7 to 11 - with GCSEs in year 11.
Year 12 and 13 are 6th form, with A levels in year 13.

Wales is the same as England.

Def different I Scotland and cut off is calendar year not farming year I think

In England:
Reception age 4
yrs 1-6 primary from age 5-11
years 7-13 secondary age 11-18
exams are in yrs 11 (age 16) and 13 (age 18)
Mostly…..there are some areas that do middle school,
so school 1 is yrs R-4
school 2 is years 5-7
school 3 is years 8-13

lots of places have 6th form colleges for years 12& 13 only.

NI and Scotland are slightly different.

Scotland has a Feb cut off, start school between 4.5 & 5.5

Primary is 1-7
Secondary is 1-6
Often written as 1st Year rather than S1

Depends if you're in the state of independent system and if that independent system is traditional.
There's very clear comparison charts online.

In England the first year is called Reception so it's a sort of year 0 and then you still have years 1-6 afterwards, so 7 in total in primary school. In Scotland and NI these are called Primary 1-7 (I think!). Not sure about Wales.

Primary can be split into Infants (R-2) and Juniors (3-6).

Our are has infants (Reception - yr 2) juniors (yr 3-yr6) and secondary (yr 7-13).

Exam years are
National 4/5 in 4th year
Highers in 5th year
Advance Highers in 6th year but some might opt to broaden knowledge and do other Nat5s or Highers.

In Scotland there is no receptions year.
it’s primary 1-7.

you start primary 1 around age 5ish
you start secondary school around 12 and that goes up to 6th year but you can leave after 4th year

Scotland is completely different with a 6 month difference in school cut off. I would never refer to my son as being in S3 except on Scotsnet as I wouldn’t be understood. I’d say he was 14, almost 15. Lots of English posters do go on about year 9 or something and I have no clue.

Scotland you start in P1 (Primary 1) the school year starts in August, to start in August you must be 5 before the 28th feb the following year, so the very youngest child starting will be 4½ years old, in practice many children born in January and February defer and start when they are 5½, if you defer you stay in that year for the rest of your school life
Primary is for 7 years P1 to P7
the high school S1 -S6 (secondary) 4-6 years
the main exams are taken at end of S4 when most pupils are 15-16 these are either national 4 or 5's ( roughly equivalent to GCSE) most people to 6-8max, provided you are 16 you can leave school at end of S4, if not 16 you can't leave till december in S5
the next exams are at end S5 called highers generally upto 5 subjects ages 16-17
in S6 pupils either study more highers or Advanced highers and apply to university ages 17-18,

there are 13 years of school
Honours degrees are normally 4 years though you get an ordinary degree after 3,

Where we are in wales they start the term after they are 4 so they can start September, January or Easter. Everything else is the same as England.

In England the first year is called Reception
It is but officially it's EYFS. Early Years Foundation Stage. Just to complicate things further. Some schools don't call it reception any more. They either call it EYFS or foundation.

EYFS nursery and reception
Key Stage one - years one and two
Key stage two - years three, four, five and six

What you have described is pretty much the norm but there are variations. Where I am in north east England we have First School (optional Nursery age 3 then Reception age 4 and up to Year 4 which is ages 8-9) then Middle School (Years 5 to 8) then High School (Years 9 to 11, or to 13 if a sixth form).

Some areas have a three tiered school system. So typically it's reception to year 4 in first school, year 5 to year 7 in middle school and year 8 upwards in high school .

I had no idea other parts of the U.K. did the reception age cut off earlier in the year. This is so sensible, barely 4 is too young to start for summer borns. Why don’t we all have a February cut off?

oh yes that’s so true. I do find it weird to think a child’s birthday is end of feb and they don’t defer, they would only be 4 for the majority of primary 1! That just seems so young!

Not quite. Reception isn't called EYFS, it's part of the Early Years Foundation Stage. As are childminders and private nurseries.
0-Reception is EYFS
Year 1-Year 2 is Key Stage 1
Year 3- Year 6 is KS2
Year 7-Year9 is KS3
Year 10-Year 11 is KS4 (GCSEs)
Year 12-Year 13 is KS5 (A Levels) and also called Sixth Form

An English child with an August birthday can be 4 for their entire first tear in the school building.

First / Middle / Upper systems can be:

R-Y4; Y5-Y7 or Y8; then up to Y13 or
R-Y5; Y6 to Y8 or Y9; then up to Y13

Schools in the two systems eg in Worcestershire can be a couple of miles apart, and also mixed with more standard primary / secondary schools eg Catholic schools in the same area. Gets quite complicated.

It's a fine balance. I deferred on mid Feb child
So he ended up one of the oldest in the year but some of the teaching materials seemed really babyish for him lower down the school.
He turned 6 half way through P1, and had me reading him Harry Potter as bedtime stories. While switching off to Biff & Chip.

in theory in Scotland any child not 5 on the day the schools go back in August ( about the 15th) can defer, though in practice you will generally not get funding for another year of nursery unless they are a Jan/ feb birthday or in some cases December Deferring late August, September - November birthdays is pretty much not heard off unless medical developmental delay with good enough reasons to convince council to pay for extra year of nursery as most parents can't self fund another year of nursery and they may not have a place so it's kind of pointless doign 2 years in nursery then an year at home or with childminder before going to school
when school finishes in May of S6 at least 60% of kids will still be 17 and roughly 25% will be 17 when they start university if they go the following October

Basically it continues to be really unhelpful whenever someone refers to their child's school year and not their age.