Can we have ages instead of school years?

LadyoftheMercians · 2025-09-26T21:58:31+00:00

I have no idea how old a year 11 child is? And therefore no clue on of they should be allowed a phone in their room overnight. Inspired by a thread, not necessarily a TAAT

Reachedtheend · 26/09/2025 23:02

I agree with you OP.
It sometimes becomes apparent during the course of a thread what age the OP is talking about but it would be much easier if the actual age of the child was mentioned rather than just the school year.

didntlikeanyofthesuggestions · 26/09/2025 23:03

If you have no experience of a child in, say Year 11, then simply ignore that post and just reply to topics that are relevant to you.

Or just figure it out. It's a pretty easy code to crack.

ShamrockShenanigans · 26/09/2025 23:07

You can either work it out on your fingers or just use Google 🤷‍♂️

ShamrockShenanigans · 26/09/2025 23:07

Double posted.

Twistedfirestarters · 26/09/2025 23:07

didntlikeanyofthesuggestions · 26/09/2025 23:03

If you have no experience of a child in, say Year 11, then simply ignore that post and just reply to topics that are relevant to you.

Or just figure it out. It's a pretty easy code to crack.

I agree. People tend to use it more for school related issues anyway i.e. how much homework does your year 11 child get? If you don't know anything about year 11 kids you probably can't answer so move along ...

beasmithwentworth · 26/09/2025 23:07

Year 11 is the year when they take their GCSEs. It could be 15 (in the case of DS who is born young in the year - largely as long as they are 16 before 1st of September)

I know this isn’t exactly what you were asking for but the years pretty much follow the years in a lot of countries.

year 6 is the last year of primary school and that normally means 11 years old (there are exceptions- depending on when you are born in the year)

first year of secondary is year 7
and so on.
GCSE year is year 11
A level is year 13 and normally taken aged 18 but you could be 17 as the exams are before the official school year ends and you might be young in your year (both of mine are)

Jollyjoy · 26/09/2025 23:08

Absolutely this. It’s very English centric and the rest of us need to look up what it means if we are interested. The point is we don’t know if we have exp of a year 11 child or not because we don’t understand what that means!

Redpeach · 26/09/2025 23:09

Completely agree, and i say that as someone with kids in the system

Jollyjoy · 26/09/2025 23:10

beasmithwentworth · 26/09/2025 23:07

Year 11 is the year when they take their GCSEs. It could be 15 (in the case of DS who is born young in the year - largely as long as they are 16 before 1st of September)

I know this isn’t exactly what you were asking for but the years pretty much follow the years in a lot of countries.

year 6 is the last year of primary school and that normally means 11 years old (there are exceptions- depending on when you are born in the year)

first year of secondary is year 7
and so on.
GCSE year is year 11
A level is year 13 and normally taken aged 18 but you could be 17 as the exams are before the official school year ends and you might be young in your year (both of mine are)

This is all very helpful but completely unrememberable for someone who lives with a differently named system…

SpudsAndCarrots · 26/09/2025 23:11

I think it's more helpful really. An 11 year old in year 6 and year 7 are completely different in terms of maturity.

SparklyCardigan · 26/09/2025 23:11

I'm Scottish and even I can work it out. It's not rocket science.

RightOnTheEdge · 26/09/2025 23:13

YABU. It's not hard to work out, or just ask.

cinnamonbunlover · 26/09/2025 23:14

Add 5 to the year to get the age

Twistedfirestarters · 26/09/2025 23:15

I think I've just seen the thread that inspired this. It's 124 posts long. I guess that means plenty of people understood it and the op has had enough responses to be helpful.

Not everyone uses school years, I'd say it's mostly ages unless it's a school related issue so plenty of threads to join in on?

OchonAgusOchonOh · 26/09/2025 23:16

The post may well be relevant. Putting the age in code just disguises it and makes it difficult to determine whether it is or not.

The problem is some posts use age (easy and simple to understand), others use school year as some sort of code for age. Readers will potentially misread and misunderstand if they're not used to the code. I was a bit surprised at people thinking 11 year olds should have their phones in their bedroom at night but turns out it's year 11. I still have no idea what age that is.

It's obviously fine using the class if it's a post about school and the class is relevant but otherwise why not just use age? Age just seems more natural to me.

OchonAgusOchonOh · 26/09/2025 23:18

ShamrockShenanigans · 26/09/2025 23:07

You can either work it out on your fingers or just use Google 🤷‍♂️

I would have no idea how to work it out on my fingers and really can't be arsed using Google.

WilliamBell · 26/09/2025 23:19

SpudsAndCarrots · 26/09/2025 23:11

I think it's more helpful really. An 11 year old in year 6 and year 7 are completely different in terms of maturity.

Yes, it's shorthand for 15 but nearly 16, Vs just turned 15, surely?

Without having to resort to saying that your child is 187 months.

pizzaHeart · 26/09/2025 23:19

I agree that it’s relevant as often the school year influences the structure of the year and its expectations.
11 y.o. in year 6 or in year 7 would be a very different story.

OchonAgusOchonOh · 26/09/2025 23:21

pizzaHeart · 26/09/2025 23:19

I agree that it’s relevant as often the school year influences the structure of the year and its expectations.
11 y.o. in year 6 or in year 7 would be a very different story.

I really struggle to see how they could be that different.

ChangingWeight · 26/09/2025 23:24

But people aren’t added to school years based on a set age. When I was at school
year 11 was 15 year olds turning 16, so what age do you use? And then there’s people who might be old/younger if they defer a year or have extra needs etc

cygnusgenie · 26/09/2025 23:25

beasmithwentworth · 26/09/2025 23:07

Year 11 is the year when they take their GCSEs. It could be 15 (in the case of DS who is born young in the year - largely as long as they are 16 before 1st of September)

I know this isn’t exactly what you were asking for but the years pretty much follow the years in a lot of countries.

year 6 is the last year of primary school and that normally means 11 years old (there are exceptions- depending on when you are born in the year)

first year of secondary is year 7
and so on.
GCSE year is year 11
A level is year 13 and normally taken aged 18 but you could be 17 as the exams are before the official school year ends and you might be young in your year (both of mine are)

I guess for those of us not English, this is not at all clear. While age is always clear m

ShamrockShenanigans · 26/09/2025 23:27

OchonAgusOchonOh · 26/09/2025 23:18

I would have no idea how to work it out on my fingers and really can't be arsed using Google.

Show quote history

Then you'll always be confused, because it's not like the whole of Mumsnet are going to stop doing it because a random OP has requested this 🤣

cornflourblue · 26/09/2025 23:27

I'm Scottish and have no idea what age a Year 11 would be.

Equally would you know what S5 means?

TheWrongReasons · 26/09/2025 23:28

If you don’t know what age a year 11 child is, you probably don’t have any experience of parenting them and so can’t offer much help anyway.

cinnamongirl123 · 26/09/2025 23:29

Jesus christ OP, if you don’t know what age a Year X child is, why are you even reading a thread about them. Or just look it up, it’s not rocket science. Add 5 years, basically.