what age did you have to start school in 1951/52?

Answer 1

It was 5 in 1951
It was 5 when my daughter started school in 1965
It was also 5 when I started school in 1943
The actual starting age could vary in that if schools have places, a child could start the term before its 5th birthday.
It's the leaving age which has changed during these years.
My father left school at 12 to become an apprentice butcher and while I was at my primary school, the school leaving age was raised from 14 to 15.
A several times Gt. uncle was working in the coalpits in Bristol when he was 8 (after walking 4 miles to work - did an 8-hour shift); he was a coal haulier. His only schooling was at a Wesleyan Sunday School where said he learned to read and write a little.
Things have changed a bit!

Answer 2

Personally in 1951 & 1952 I was 1 & 2 respectively.

Answer 3

In the U.S., it depended on the state law and the local school district. Where I lived, you HAD to start If you were going to be age 6 by September 1 (or the first day of school, my mother can't remember which). You could start younger, sometimes much younger, if you passed certain "readiness" tests. I started at age 4, my older brother at age 5 and my younger brother at age 6. This was in years 1954-57.

The link below has State Compulsory School Attendance Laws, with the year of first enactment, and the ages of mandatory attendance for 2002. From this, you can tell that the laws are different for each state. The earliest year mandatory attendance was enacted was in Washington D.C. in 1864; the most recent, 1929 in Alaska and 1918 in Mississippi.

Answer 4

That is usually determined by states.
In 1951/52

Six was the most common age to begin school. Kids born after mid October often has to wait until the next fall semester making them nearly 7 when they started school.

Answer 5

Following the Education Act of c1944, the starting age for junior school was 5 [five years boys and girls].

However, during the war itself, most children started in nursery school from about age 2. This was to enable their mother's to return to work as part of the war effort.

I was born 1941 and was in school by c1943. Cannot remember learning much during those extra couple of years, except the time.

It is now, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong, bong o'clock in the forenoon plus twelve minutes, or so.

Other way to tell the time is: -
The big hand is on the 12 and the little hand is on the 19. Therefore it is 19 minutes past 12-ish. I think.

Answer 6

The starting age was 5 and the leaving age was 14.

Answer 7

As a matter of fact, yes, I did have to start school in 1951, at age 5. (Started in kindergarten.)

Answer 8

It was aged 5 years.

Answer 9

I was born in 1950 and started school at the age of 5. I took the 11-plus, passed it, and went to the local grammar school from 1962-67. Both my children started school at age 5, although they could have started before that - however, that would have only been playgroup, or something of that sort. I left school at 17, although ROSLA had made it possible to leave at 16. Both of my children went from primary to junior to secondary to 6th form and on to university. My parents, on the other hand, both left school at 15, and my grandparents left at 13, my grandmother to go into service, my grandfather to take up an apprenticeship in carpentry. How life has changed. I get really annoyed sometimes when I observe how young people seem to hardly appreciate schooling these days. And did you see that TV programme where young people of 16 THOUGHT they were taking an O level exam instead of GCSE, when in fact they were taking the 11-plus, and most of them failed it? But when they took their GCSEs they came out with As and A stars!

Answer 10

I was born in 1946 and can tell you. Most U.S. schools started around Labor Day and the children had to be 6 by December 31. There was not a lot of leeway.