contrapunctus: When was this book written? In the UK "public school" means private school, it's good and confusing :lol: I don't know why it's like that, just always has been for hundreds of years. The terms used in that book are old though.
I'd say 6B would be 6th form which is kids doing their A levels once they've finished normal secondary education, so ones from 15 upwards depending on when their birthday is.
UK education starts earlier than it does in the US, I started school at 5 (my birthday's in July so I was one of the youngest in my year) but secondary education ends at 15-16, it's up to the child if they stay on for another two years to do A levels.
Which are only called A levels (advanced level) because the exams you did at 15/16 were called O levels (ordinary level).
I could confuse you now by saying there used to be 2 different difficulties of exams; O levels, the harder ones, which were also called GCEs (General Certificate of Education) and CSEs (Certificate of Secondary Education) which were easier. My year at school was the last year to ever do both, after that schools did an amalgamated version which is what people do today GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education). A levels are still A levels though.
My "form" classes at secondary school were numbered in the way they are in that book. 1F, 2F and 3F for the first three years because we stayed with the same teacher, Mrs. Fleet, for registration for those years. Moved schools after that and the system expanded slightly, still the number to denote your year, but there were two letters that followed, maybe because there were too many teachers who's names began with the same letter in the new school, so they used both initials xD
I'm just suprised that this book of yours only says "6". That's a bit unclear as the 6th form has two years. They're normal called upper and lower sixth, that's probably what the lower and senior bit is about though. Public schools do like to develop their own quirky ways of doing things though, and fictional public schools even more so! I read some kids books when I was younger that were set in girl's boarding schools, and one of those had an upper and lower fourth year which confused me entirely and still does to this day :lol:
