England or Northern Ireland? Child in school between reception and year 11? Complete a survey: chance to win £100 NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

We at Mumsnet HQ are working with the TES to find out about parents views on some important educational matters - please complete our survey!

This survey is open to Mumsnetters based in England and Northern Ireland only with at least one child in school between Reception and Year 11 (in the academic year ending July 2017).

Add our details at the end and you will be entered into a prize draw where one winner will get a £100 voucher for the store of their choice (from a list).

Here's the link: www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/2PBZWZF

thanks MNHQ

Are you aware Year 11 in Northern Ireland is not the same as Year 11 in England?

Can I also point out that the N Irish exam board has retained letter grades, but from first award in 2018 added in a C* grade to try and keep in line with England.

Just pointing out NI is not changing to the 1-9 grades so I would expect to know very little about them at this point.

NI primary school runs from P1 - P7 and secondary school from year 8 - 14, although most people still seem to refer to 1st - 5th year and lower and upper sixth although I'm not sure if that's how it is in school or an age thing.

Filled it in but my results won't be fully comparable with an English parent as I filled in that my dd has just finished Yr11 - which she has. But I think it might be Yr10 in England? Probably some people will put down one and some the other.

And yes, I know pretty much nothing about the changing grades.

Yeah the questionnaire does not have the correct year groups for NI but I've completed it anyway

Done!

It's only "neither" if there are only 2 options. HTH.

Done.

Morning all

Nostra (?) culpa on the year groups foul-up - apologies. We'll try to alter the answer options so that we have the NI and English equivalents alongside each other.

Help an English gal out... is this correct?

Reception = P1
Year 1 = P2
Year 2 = P3
Year 3 = P4
Y4 = P5
Y5 = P6
Y6 = P7
Y7 = P8
....
Y11 = P12

???

On the regrading: we took our info from this BBC explainer, which says that while the NI exam boards are not regrading, around one quarter of NI P12s will be taking English exam board GCSEs and so will be taking the new grading style. Has that been superseded?

Thanks, and apologies as ever for Anglomania

MNHQ

Hi,
There is no P8 in NI.
It only goes up to P7 and then it's secondary school.

The first year of secondary school is Year 8, and so on - 13&14 are sixth form (though we don't have separate sixth form colleges here).

The figure of one quarter doing English board exams sounds accurate, but is probably based on uptake from previous years, I know that at least some subjects/schools have looked at either returning to CCEA (the N Irish board) or moving to WJEC (the Welsh board).

Reception in NI isn't P1 it's usually just referred to as Nursery. P1 is the year after nursery.

Three year old - Nursery
Four year old - P1 etc

11 year old - Year 8 in NI ( first year of high school)

P stands for Primary, so ends at P7 (English Yr6). So there are no 'P8s' or 'P12s'.

After P7 they go on to secondary, beginning with what we call Yr8 and you call Yr7.

GCSEs are mostly taken at the end of our Yr12, which you call Yr11.

Sixth Form is a continuation of secondary school rather than a separate institution, so Yr13 and Yr14.

In my dd's school most exams are CCEA and will keep the letter grades. We've been told nothing at all about the numbered grades.

P1 is the age equivalent of reception i.e. children start the September after they turn 4.

The reason it is called p1 and not reception is because it is a compulsory school year, unlike in England where children don't have to start school until they are 5. Which is why they don't start counting until year 1, which in NI is P2.

Yes to the pp who said that whilst currently one quarter of NI schools use English exam boards to take certain subjects many of them are now considering following the ccea (ni) exam board or Welsh boards to avoid a very confusing mix of numbers and letter grades.
So in NI you start your mandatory formal education in the academic year you turn 5. Academic year runs from 2nd July to 1st July. So this year P1 (Primary 1) entrants will turn 5 either before they start school in September or at some point between then and 1st July next year.
The year prior to this is not mandatory but most children attend a Nursery year. For nursery those children will turn 4 either between 2nd July and starting nursery or before 1st July the following year.
NI primary school (voluntary nursery followed by mandatory primary 1-7) finishes in year 7 where children will be turning 11 no later than 1st July after they finish school in P7.
They then transfer to secondary/grammar school (depending on whether the schools have an 11+ exam) to start Year 8. Most schools now continue to call this Year right up until Year 14, which used to be called Upper Sixth. So students in NI finishing school are turning 18 no later than 1st July after you finish year 14.
Clear as mud

I had no clue about this, but 2 of my DC left school nearly 10 years ago, and the other 2 are y1 and y4. GCSEs aren't even on my radar. 😊

There isn't any question on how you know info if you aren't a teacher/in education.

My DH is a teacher so I have picked boys up from him but also there are many threads on here discussing the changes

Question 4 asking which grade you think represents a pass under the new system is unanswerable because the new system now contains a 'standard pass' and a 'strong pass'. Do you want the standard pass grade (directly equivalent to a 4) or the strong pass grade?

Thank you all!

So:

[English] Reception = [NI] P1
Y1 = P2
...
Y6 = P7
Y7 = Y8
...
Y11 = Y12

??

Noble tbh you've probably exposed one of the things that might cause employers/parents trouble about the letter grades, at least until people become more familiar with it. There seems to be quite a lot of public confusion on this point.

Thanks also for the info re NI pupils moving away from English exam boards. Taking all this into consideration it might be best for us to use England-only data for these questions when we run the sums, but we'll take a view when we've got all the responses in.

I answered purely on the new grading as that's what the questions asked about.

However hand-in-hand with the new grading are new specifications which are a whole different kettle of fish.

As in, I'm not concerned re the grading, but am concerned that my DD2 will struggle with some of the new specs (e.g. emphasis on old fashioned texts for Eng Lit)

Hi @Rowanmumsnet yes that is how I would see the equivalent years based on ages. Good luck with the survey, I think it might be wise to exclude ni as I think we could skew your survey heavily re what we know!

your question about pass mark is ambigiuous.
you said grade C was a strong pass and then asked which number was a pass.

I am not sure if you want the strong pass (5)
or the pass (4)

I also fille din my email address wrong, as I put " instead of @ (stupid keyborad)

If I win you will find me won't you?
(thinks longingly of voucher)