Not at all JJ - grandson started in Primary 1 through to Primary 7 (7 years) and is now going into S1 at age 11. Probably because his birthday is in Oct so he started Primary 1 at school before he was 5.
Totally at odds with the tenor of this thread, does anyone else, especially those who are or may have been involved in teaching, cringe at the terminology, "Year 7, 8, 9 &c", when it used to be 3rd year, 4th year, fifth year (form) etc.
Mike, I'm not a teacher but went to school when it was infants, 1,2 and 3 then juniors 1,2,3 and 4, followed by secondary 1,2,3,4,5 then lower 6th and upper 6th. Much easier to my mind, I just can't get my head round the new way. Even though 6th form is now years 12 and 13, most schools say 6th form in their prosects guides.
You are quite Rocky, it's still the sixth form, which makes sense to us but must confuse the poor little buggers in Year 11! For some peculiar reason my own school (back in 1960) did not have a first form. New boys entered the second form (first year), followed by the third (second year) and fourth (third year). The fourth year was conveniently called the Remove, so that by the time you entered the fifth form the numbers were back in sync. I never found a satisfactory explanation for this curious terminology, though I am sure that others of my age will recall the Fat Owl of the Remove in the now-banned Billy Bunter books.
I just take aged 5 as being year 1, then add to that. Being from the generation where the first form was first year at secondary school, I still find this all really confusing.
I think we've agreed that kids (in England) will be 12 at the start of Year 8, and will have their 13th birthday during Year 8 (or in the summer holidays at the end of Year 8).
When I say banned I really mean Not Available. I defy you to go into any public corporation library or bookshop and ask for a copy. As to why this should be so, the answer is simple; they are God's gift to the PC nutters. Take, what you will, a BB book at random; therein you will find everything to delight the heart of the modern leftie: class snobbery, academic elitism, ingrained racism, mockery of those suffering from eating disorders, sadomasochistic paedophilia et al... I was forced to read these things as a kid, wonder if I can still claim any compo for psychological damage.