Fifth Year refers to the fifth year of schooling in

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

s in

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

and

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

. It was also the traditional term for the same year group in

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the Law of the United Kingdom#Legal jurisdictions, three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. Th ...

, until about 1990 when most schools replaced it with Year Eleven and

Year Twelve Year 12 is an educational year group in schools in many countries including England, Wales, Northern Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. It is sometimes the twelfth or thirteenth year of compulsory education, or alternatively a year of post-compu ...

. It is also equivalent to 11th grade.

Scotland

In Scotland this is also known as S5. During this year pupils will generally sit Higher exams, essential for entry to a Scottish university. Other exams that can be taken are

National 5 ''Curriculum for Excellence'' (Scottish Gaelic: ''Curraicealam airson Sàr-mhathais'') is the national curriculum in Scotland, used by Scottish schools for learners ages 3–18. The implementation of ''Curriculum for Excellence'' is overseen by ...

's and

National 4 ''Curriculum for Excellence'' (Scottish Gaelic: ''Curraicealam airson Sàr-mhathais'') is the national curriculum in Scotland, used by Scottish schools for learners ages 3–18. The implementation of ''Curriculum for Excellence'' is overseen by ...

's. Fifth Year is now an "optional" year which pupils choose to remain at school to be part of unless the student would enter the fifth year at an age less than 16 in which case they are required to stay on until the end of the winter term. Most pupils are 16 or 17 years of age by the end of their Fifth Year. Fifth Year is commonly known to be the most stressful school year in the Scottish education system due to the great increase in difficulty of the courses being taken as well as the increase the amount of work required to be completed.

Ireland

Fifth year is the first mandatory year of the

Leaving Certificate A secondary school leaving qualification is a document signifying that the holder has fulfilled any secondary education requirements of their locality, often including the passage of a final qualification examination. For each leaving certificate ...

cycle. It is usually preceded by the optional

Transition Year Transition Year (TY) () is an optional one-year school programme that can be taken in the year after the Junior Cycle in Ireland. However, depending on school population and funding it may not be available, and in other schools it is compulsory. ...

. Most pupils are 17 or 18 years of age by the end of their Fifth Year. Many secondary schools have Summer exams at the end of Fifth Year to test the student on what they have learned throughout the year. Fifth year requires students to work more independently and requires more responsibility than in the

Junior Certificate The Junior Cycle () is the first stage of the education programme for post-primary education within the Republic of Ireland. It is overseen by the Department of Education (Ireland), Department of Education and the National Council for Curriculu ...

cycle. This is the penultimate year in their schooling. 5 Education in the Republic of Ireland Secondary education in Scotland

References

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