DD / DS is Year X

[TheChineseChicken]

I've noticed on a lot of threads that children are described as being in Year X or Y rather than ages given. For those who don't have children currently in school it makes it really difficult to work out how old they are.

Why not just say the age of the child in years?!

I think partly because people get confused with DS2 etc. Is your DS age 2, or is it your second DS.

Also say with a 4 year old...answers might be different if they are at nursery or in reception. Or an 11 year old could be in primary or secondary school.

Quite often it's relevant to the thread. So a thread about "can my child walk to school by themselves" - it's relevant that your child is in Y5 because lots of schools have rules relating to year groups as opposed to age. Likewise knowing that an 11 year old is at secondary school rather than primary school might make a difference.

... and tbh if I'm asking for advice about my Y10 child, I'm probably not so interested in responses from a parent who only has toddlers and no idea what age Year 10 is ...

I understand that information might be helpful in certain contexts. But often several posters give an answer to the OP assuming the child is eg 6 years of age then realise the child is in Year 6 and is actually 10 years of age.

But that would only apply if they are on the cusp of primary / secondary?

Fair enough that you only want comments from people with children of a similar age (I guess)!

The problem with Y3 or whatever is that not all schools work this way so it can take time to work out where the kid is in development. For instance in Scotland we have P1-7 and then S1-6.

I think it’s because in many ways it feels easier to judge a child’s emotional maturity by their school year than their age. It’s probably completely illogical but I would think of an 11 year old y7 (first year of secondary) as being considerably more mature than an 11 year old y6 (last year of primary) even though there could be as little as few days difference between their biological age. I can see how it’s annoying though if you don’t have children or don’t have children in the English school system.

I think when people put 'Year X' they are more than likely looking for shared experiences.

I have one DS and he's in Year 12 (he's 16) so I wouldn't have up to date experience of stuff going on in YR (4 years old).

But if I saw 'I have a DS in Year 12' I would have a read and see IYKWIM.

Just add 4 to the school Year generally.

I'm in Scotland and have to do a calculation to work out what the school year equivalent is as Reception = Primary 1, year 1 = Primary 2, etc. Ours runs P1-P7 then S1-S6

I think it depends on the context. Anything to do with education I would give their year group as that is more relevant than their age. It is relevant that my dd is in yr7 whereas at 11 she could be still in primary and the advice would be quite different. I would though assume that anyone answering would also be aware of the educational system on which they are commenting. For example if someone said my child is in P4 or grade 6 then I would be less likely to comment because I am not in that cultural context. Outside of educational context I would probably give their age.

We live in a Three Tier catchment with Year 7 being the last year of Middle School. Couldn't join in with all the Year 6 leavers tales and starting High School at 11 years old.

It doesn't just apply to primary/ secondary though. A child in yr1 would have transitioned from reception so the expectations to sit still for longer would be greater. Also say in terms of birthday parties the relationships are different if they have only known each other for three weeks compared to a year and three weeks. Year two - SATs year, different stresses to yr1 or yr3. Yr9 thinking about options compared to yr10 when doing options - questions about changing schools might be quite different depending on year group.

Well possibly IABU then

It confuses the hell out of me...though that might be because I'm in Ireland and I haven't got the foggiest clue what the breakdown of school classes is in the English education system.