It's been a long time since I've been in school (I graduated high school in 1997, which tells you roughly how old I am!) but I thought a mini chapter about this might be in order. My story No Reservations was partly set in the high school years of the main characters' lives, and I remember getting a few questions or misunderstandings around the ages of the characters because not many people had knowledge of the Scottish school system. So let's briefly talk about it now.
SCOTTISH SCHOOL STRUCTURE First up, you have primary school. This begins when you're four or five years old, and you progress from Primary One through to Primary Seven. I was relatively young for my year, so I started when I was four and left primary seven when I was eleven.
Once you leave primary, then it's time for high school. Here you progress from First Year to Sixth Year. You take exams in Fourth Year, and you can leave after this point if you really hate school and just want to get on with life. Alternatively you can also take exams in Fifth and Sixth year, potentially with the view to going on to college or university.
Now, when I was at school, we sat Standard Grades in fourth year, and then it was Highers in fifth or sixth year. This may have changed. My youngest sibling left school in the early noughties, and none of us have kids, so I'm not entirely sure how the exams work these days. I'm going to assume they've probably changed a bit but follow a similar structure.
Anyway, if you stay in school until Sixth Year is over, then you'll be 17 or 18 years old when you leave (I started university a couple of weeks before I turned 18). And it means Iona and Ryan in No Reservations were only one year below the legal drinking age in the UK when they both got drunk at that house party! (Someone did think Sixth Year was the equivalent of sixth grade - I can assure you it most definitely isn't!)
UNIFORMS Ooh, let's talk about uniforms next! So I spent my young life desperately wanting to be American, probably because I wasted a lot of time reading Sweet Valley High books and watching Saved By The Bell. And one of the things I was super jealous of was the fact no one seemed to wear a uniform to school - well, unless they went to Catholic school, although I don't know if that was just a stereotype? (Can someone from the States please confirm or deny?)
Now, I did go to Catholic school, but the non-denominational schools also have uniforms over here. And I hated having to conform! Our uniform when I was there was meant to be navy blue. I got kinda rebellious around about fifth year and started wearing black instead. (I know, I don't know how I didn't get jail time for that!) I also started wearing my denim jacket, but denim was strictly banned, so I spent a lot of time trying to hide from the head teacher (apparently one of his main roles was prowling around the extensive school grounds looking for non-conformists like myself!).
Honestly, I was so relieved when I went to uni and could finally wear whatever I wanted without worrying about being pulled up for not wearing my tie. Based on what I've seen on Facebook from folk who now have kids at my former high school, it looks like the girls now wear some sort of tartan skirt - I'm really not sure I would have enjoyed that!
THE SCOTTISH COUNTRY DANCING What else can I tell you about my experience of schools in Scotland? Well, there's the dreaded Scottish country dancing we were forced to do in P.E. before Christmas. I mentioned this in The ReluctantRoadtripper as it was a Truly Traumatic Time. Do they think they're preparing us for all the ceilidhs we'll be attending in our future??? I can probably count on one hand the ceilidhs I've participated in. And the more I think about it, I think I would have four fingers left over on that one hand.
(I will point out here that the Scottish Country dancing doesn't happen in all Scottish schools, and apparently if it does happen, it's not necessarily at Christmas, but I know enough folk who went through the horror at schools other than my own, so it's getting discussed!)
The dancing itself wasn't too bad, but it was intrinsically linked with the fact that you had to wait for a guy to come and ask you to dance. And that was the point when you would realise who the guys fancied and who they didn't. Spoiler alert: no one fancied me. (I was definitely a late bloomer.)
It gets worse, though. Because every so often, I guess to not be sexist, etc., the girls would get a chance to pick the boys. And this was actually even worse than the other option. Who do you pick? Will they think you fancy them if you pick them? Of course they will! The conundrum would keep me awake in bed at night.
Eventually, I decided to choose the harmless class clown type guy. He was cute and seemed like a nice guy; he probably wouldn't overthink me choosing him. And that worked out fine. Until . . .
One of the other girls came up to me and worriedly asked if I fancied him. It turned out one of her friends liked him, and therefore, I was technically stepping on her toes by asking him to be my dance partner. And so it was back to square one.
I can't remember who I went for next. Likely, I just waited until only the slim pickings were left and just chose out of necessity. High school really was the pits . . .
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Is there anything else you'd like to know about Scottish schools? If so, I can add it on here, or do another chapter if I have enough material!
