Can we have ages instead of school years?

[LadyoftheMercians]

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

Or "my 11 year old (year 6),..." that's all the info needed..8 extra characters and a space, that's it.

Ok fair enough. I just thought it was always 4/5. I stand corrected!

It’s not the start date, it’s the year naming. So a Yr8 in NI is a Yr7 in England and Wales and an S1 in Scotland.

The first year of primary in England and Wales is not numbered for some reason and is instead called YrR, so they are a year out from everyone else.

As far as I know, England's starting age is 4 whereas Scotland is 4.5-5.5. I would those to be different starting ages. You don't. Fair enough.

What? Nobody is suggesting any schools change anything. All that is being suggested is that posters use age rather than school class in non-school/education related posts.

I agree OP I grew up in the UK and we had uppers and lowers. U6 was 18 so same country different system.
I now live in a system where school starts at 3 and year 11 still means nothing.

Why does there have to be a daft code? Why not no code

I don’t like DD3 or DS2 and it’s not made clear in the most if it means DD aged 3 or my third daughter or DS aged 2 or my second son

"Daft code" don't you mean "Dcode"
😂😂😂

Agree. It's usually easy to interpret in the context of the post, and once you get above 6 or so, it's fair to assume it's age not child number.

DS16 is quite clear. I am not the Radford mother!

Realistically I'm going to give different advice for a 16-year-old in Year 11 to one in Year 12 a lot of the time.

I get that it's confusing internationally but Mumsnet isn't really an international website.

The problem with saying year 11 is that half the posters will read that as 11 years old and spout a lot of stuff about 11 being too young to have sex/drink vodka, etc.
I do appreciate that you might answer a question differently if a 16 year old was in Y11 or Y12 though.
I guess it depends on how wide an audience you want to reach.

I guess it depends on how wide an audience you want to reach.

That's rather the point isn't it. It's up to the OP (that's commonly deemed to be Original Poster for those on this thread not fond of abbreviations) to decide. They are the ones starting the thread so it's up to them to write it as they want to, provided it abides by the Talk Guidelines.

For me it's better if the school year is mentioned than the age.

Kids have different problems at different ages.

A year 6 child. Some issues - sats. School moving etc.

Year 7 - new school. Friendship issu3s. Do they need a phone etc.

Year 9- ? Sats. Friendship issues. ? Alcohol/ smoking etc.
Year 11. Gcse etc.

College. Year 12-3. Issues with college.

For me it's easier.

Than- 11 year old.dont know if in Primary or what especially when trying to advise re Friendship. Or going to school independence etc.

Advice for an 11 year old in year 6 would be different than an 11 year old in year 7.

Again 17 year old. Are they in school/ work/ uni/ apprenticeships etc.

Whereas year 12 would make it clear.

A lot of these issues are to do with kids on school. And most people who have experience with school kids and their issues wouldn't need it translating.( understand people from abroad wouldn't understand but this is a UK site)

Yes but Mumsnet is a UK site.
Year 11 in England and Wales is different to Year 11 in Northern Ireland and Scotland is completely different.

Age becomes even more important in a post if the deferral system in Scotland is thrown into the equation. It used to be that parents could hold back any child born in January or February and they would start P1 at 5.5 instead of 4.5. That has changed and now any child who hasn't turned 5 by the first day of the new school year can be deferred. This means that a child could turn 6 just as they start P1 and be in the same class as children who are 4.5.

I would say that makes school year even more important, not age. If a child has just started school then that is likely to be a much more relevant fact about them than whether they're 4.5, 5 or just turned 6.

@Finteq you seem to be assuming that this system is used UK-wide. It absolutely isn't. The system in England is different as the first year is called 'Reception', so they are a year out from everyone else who starts counting at Year 1.

Firm disagree. I’m not sure that anyone who has no experience of a Y11 child should be attempting to offer any advice specific to a child of that age. If you have/had children around this age, you will know what year group refers. If you don’t then it’s not relevant.

OK, having had a quick glance at posts above mine, of course, these school years are English-specific, so in that respect I am being unreasonable.

It still drives me insane when people offer advice on a teenager either based on when they were a teen themselves (being a parent is very different!) or from the POV of being the parent of a toddler.

Unless you’re in NI where you add 4 as we start primary school in P1 rather than reception. Its also different in Scotland and they have different age cut offs so my friend who’s son is 4 months older than mine is in the year below, but I think he’ll still finish school in the same year as mine because they have fewer years, or possibly not as it confuses me.

But you can just ask for clarification if you need more context to a post.

You will only know what year group is being referred to if you have experience of the school system the op is referring to. Lots of issues that don't relate to education area universal. Providing the age means you can get relevant responses instead of what currently happens with people assuming the number refers to age and answer accordingly or you get lots of responses asking for the age as they feel the age within the year group is important.

This - so I find it helpful when speaking about very late Aug child in school years.

IME if you use age most will assume school year younger and I'd get less relevant replies.

Oh for goodness sake, did you read anything before you posted?

If you have/had children around this age, you will know what year group refers. If you don’t then it’s not relevant

Unless your query is only related to matters within the English school system , 1000s of posters outwith England have experience of children at all ages.

E.g "Can my Year [ whatever] child travel from Edinburgh to London on their own" No idea

"Can my 15 year travel from Edinburgh to London on their own" Yes of course.

Yeah, if you had read a little further you would see that I commented on my own post admitting I was being unreasonable, as school systems outside the English system hadn’t occurred to me.