Someone recently asked me about age groups. They wanted to support their child with Tutor In A Box but weren’t sure which one to order. This got me thinking… and since ages and year groups can be a little confusing, I thought I’d dedicate this next blog to it!
For the majority of the UK, children go to two schools – a primary school and a secondary school. The primary school is where they start (and may well attend a reception / nursery group there as well) and goes all the way up to Year 6. After primary school they go to a secondary school, which is from year 7 all the way up to year 11 (when they take their GCSE’s).
On our website, we have conveniently split the ‘Buy Tutor In A Box’ into two pages! You’ll notice if you hover over the Buy Tutor In A Box tab you get two drop down options – primary and secondary! This is because most* schools follow a primary and secondary model.
*I realise not all schools follow this model so I’ll come back to it at the end of the blog.
So you’re at a primary school or secondary school. In each year, students will be roughly the same age. Of course there needs to be a cut off, so schools work according to the age of a student.
*Further details…. Let’s take an example of a year one student. Suppose they are born on the 2nd of September, they are 5 on the 1st September so they will be in Year 1. However, they will be one of the oldest students in the year as they turn 6 a day after they start school! In contrast, a student who’s born in August but in year 1, will be the youngest as they will be 5 for the whole year and won’t turn 6 until the summer holidays!
What’s with the Key Stages?
Sometimes you will hear a phrase that says a student is working at ‘KS3’ (Key Stage 3) or KS2 (Key Stage 2). This is basically short for the level they are working at!
According to the government, there are particular standards and things that children should be able to complete at each level. They’ve produced a framework that doesn’t work on year groups, but instead works on Key Stages (KS). Therefore, in Year 1 and 2 you are covering KS1 material.
What does it look like?
Check out the table below for a clearer idea of what ages belong to which year group and what Key Stage they are in!
| School | Year Group | Age | Key Stage |
|
Primary |
Reception | 4-5 | – |
| Year 1 | 5-6 | KS1 | |
| Year 2 | 6-7 | ||
| Year 3 | 7-8 |
KS2 |
|
| Year 4 | 8-9 | ||
| Year 5 | 9-10 | ||
| Year 6 | 10-11 | ||
|
Secondary |
Year 7 | 11-12 |
KS3 |
| Year 8 | 12-13 | ||
| Year 9 | 13-14 | ||
| Year 10 | 14-15 | KS4 | |
| Year 11 | 15-16 |
So there you have it! A little bit of an overview of the different age groups and year groups! Hopefully this has provided a bit of useful information, feel free to get in touch if you’ve got any questions though!
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As mentioned earlier in the blog the primary and secondary school system is not exclusive! There are still areas (according to Wikipedia these are… Central Bedfordshire, Worcestershire, the Royal Borough of Windsor, Maidenhead – Berkshire, Leicestershire, Northumberland and the Isle of Wight) that still use the three tiered system.
Growing up, I attended the three-tier system so it was completely normal for me to have been to five different educational establishments! (First School, Middle School, High School, Sixth Form College, University).
Therefore we’ve created another table below based on the three-tier system …
| School | Year Group | Age |
|
First School |
Reception | 4-5 |
| Year 1 | 5-6 | |
| Year 2 | 6-7 | |
| Year 3 | 7-8 | |
| Middle School | Year 4 | 8-9 |
| Year 5 | 9-10 | |
| Year 6 | 10-11 | |
| Year 7 | 11-12 | |
| Secondary School | Year 8 | 12-13 |
| Year 9 | 13-14 | |
| Year 10 | 14-15 | |
| Year 11 | 15-16 |