Posted by John Giddy on November 15, 2007 at 21:59:35 from 58.175.113.43 user jgiddy.
In Reply to: TarBoard:educational, was Re: Fireworks and Responsibility ! posted by Ed Kiser on November 15, 2007 at 17:21:43:
Hi Ed
As an elderly Colonial, I will have a go at explaining "fifth form":
In many schools which followed the British system at the time, the progression through school was by moving, usually on a yearly basis, from one class to the next one up in the series. In many of these schools, the term "Form" was used as an alternative to "Class" as a name for the stage in question. Thus "Fifth Form" would have been the fifth stage through that particular hierarchy of classes.
Some schools divided the whole school experience into "Junior" and Senior" segments, with "Junior" being from approximately age 6 to age 12, and "Senior" from age 12 to age 18. So, without further knowledge of the details of the British system, I can't tell whether the "fifth form" referred to by Andrew was in the Junior or Senior part of the sequence, though I suspect it was the Senior, as I can't imagine a boy of (say) 11 years old coping with weighty ancient Greek texts.
Maybe Andrew can correct my many inaccuracies in the above.