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Education

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Original poster

when and why did schools rename the years?

55 replies

headfairy · 14/05/2012 12:28

when I started secondary school in 1981 I started in the first year, then I went in to the second year etc, after O levels (remember them?) I went in to lower 6th and then upper 6th for my A levels. I know it's all changed now, secondary starts at year 7 an' all that, but when and why did it happen? Does anyone refer to Y13 (I don't think I've ever heard anyone refer to themselves or anyone else as being in Y13) or are they still upper and lower somethings?

OP posts:

Olympia2012 · 14/05/2012 12:30

It's year 13 here for dd

doormat · 14/05/2012 12:33

headfairy i was schooled in oz with yrs and didnt understand upper and lower when i came to live here....

witchwithallthetrimmings · 14/05/2012 12:34

I think it was when the national cirriculum was introduced in the late 1980s.

Original poster

headfairy · 14/05/2012 12:35

OH really Olympia I've never heard anyone refer to Y13 so I assumed it was called something else.

doormat I guess it's what you're used to, when I was at primary school we had first and second year infants and then first, second, third and fourth year juniors. I have to keep working out how old the kids are when someone refers to say year 9...

OP posts:

CaseySchraeger · 14/05/2012 12:36

IIRC it was somewhere between me (started first year in 1982) and my sister (started Y7 in 1994 at the same school). Which admittedly doesn't narrow it down much for you.

Was it a National Curriculum thing? I have that at the back of my mind.

Original poster

headfairy · 14/05/2012 12:37

Really witch, so quite soon after I left school then (left in '88), I know I was the last full year to do O levels ('86) as the next year did a mix of O levels and GCSEs to compare them, and I think the first year of GCSEs would have been '88. So I guess that would make sense to change the years then. I know when I did my A levels in '88 I was in upper 6th.

OP posts:

KatAndKit · 14/05/2012 12:40

when I started secondary school in 1989 I was a First Year. In 1990 I was in Year 8. So round this way the change happened in 1990 although perhaps some other schools had adopted the new year names a year or two sooner or later.

AnitaBlake · 14/05/2012 12:41

I went from 2nd year comp to Year 9 instead of into third year, so that must have been (casts mind back) 1990? For the record, I still don't understand it and get blank looks when I 'translate' it into old money so to speak!

CaseySchraeger · 14/05/2012 12:41

Wikipedia says (albeit unsourced) that it was in the academic year 1990-1991. I suppose that makes sense as I left in 1989 and the school was still using 1-5, L6 and U6 then.

Pozzled · 14/05/2012 12:41

It was 1991 in my school in London. Not sure if it was the same everywhere. I know because I went from 'second year' of secondary school to 'year nine'.

I guess it was to avoid confusion between different LEAs, when you have different school systems (primary/infant/junior/middle/high etc).

NickNacks · 14/05/2012 12:42

Thing is, in areas like ours where it's the 3 tier system (first schools are reception to year 4, middle schools are 5- 8 and upper school is yr 9-13.) then the '6th form' name doesnt mean anything logically because it's only your 4th or 5th year at that school.

Pascha · 14/05/2012 12:42

In 1989/1990 aged 12/13 I was in the 2nd year,
In 1990/1991 aged 13/14 I was in year 9. (so thats 3rd year then)

So thats when the change was. My sister did GCSEs in 1989 in the 5th year. She did Alevels in 1991 in year 13.

MaryPoppinsBag · 14/05/2012 12:43

I started Secondary School in 1990 and we were the first year group to start in year 7. Prior to that our form would have been 1A but it changed to 7A. The new national curriculum came in that year and we were the first year to have less options choices and were made to take a Foreign Language.

DeWe · 14/05/2012 13:26

It canged for my db in 1990, I think. He went from J2 into year 5.
My secondary stayed with the old way.

HaplessHousewife · 14/05/2012 13:33

We did the 13+ in my area so I went to a comp for first and second year and then when I moved to grammar school I went into Year 9 in September 1989. I think my school adopted the new system quite early though.

akaemmafrost · 14/05/2012 13:35

I left school in 1990 and I left the 6th form so it must have been after that. I have wondered this too.

BackforGood · 14/05/2012 13:38

I agree with 1989.
It was linked to the National Curriculum being introduced, and trying to make everything 'the same' across the country - including areas where they have Middle Schools just to confuse us all
My nieces are both in the 6th form and tend to talk about 'the 6th form'. DS's school will use Yrs 12 and 13 on letters (he's at the end of Yr11 - 5th Yr in old money - so we're getting various letters about next year), but they are signed by 'Head of 6th Form' .

LittleBoxes · 14/05/2012 13:41

I did my GCSEs in 1988 in the 5th year (first year to do them) and my A-levels in 1990 in the Upper Sixth. I'm as bemused by the year numbers as the OP is, so it must have happened just after I left school, in September 1991.

TheOriginalSteamingNit · 14/05/2012 13:43

I'm another who went from second year in July 1991 to Year 9 in September 1991.

I think it was to standardise things - with middle schools, for example, meaning different things by 'first year' than 11-18 schools.

I always really resented it and wanted to be a fifth year, not a Year 11, which just seemed to have less cultural resonance! Whilst we were at school, the majority of teachers continued to refer to the years by their old names in any non-official capacity though. We certainly always talked about new first years, or fifth year boys, etc.

TheSmallPrint · 14/05/2012 13:47

We started secondary school in second year, never understood that until I recently moved to a Grammar school area and realised that most children started secondary school at 11 not 12. Anyway, I was at school until 1988 and it wasn't Yr 1 etc when I was there.

bumpkinbillionaire · 14/05/2012 13:48

My school was lower third/ upper forth a la Enid Blyton. Nobody outside the school ever had a clue what w were talking about.

Original poster

headfairy · 14/05/2012 13:57

ooh bumpkin did you go to a really posh school then?

Thanks for replies... must have been a bit odd for those going from second year to year 9. Like, where did the other seven go?

OP posts:

Leftwingharpie · 14/05/2012 13:58

Good thread - this confuses me no end! I have no idea what year anyone is in and it's maddening, because almost everybody else in the world either had the current stystem themselves, or have children in it. I started secondary in '89 but we continued with III, lower IV, upper IV, lower V, upper V the whole time I was there. My year did the dummy run of the key stage 3 SATs.

Leftwingharpie · 14/05/2012 13:58

Bumpkin x posted! Were you at my school??

Elibean · 14/05/2012 13:59

We had weird names too - Remove, Inters, Lower and Upper Transits, Shell, Study 1 & 2.

I have NO idea why

(small, not-posh indie back in the dark ages)

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