Patrick's education

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

Trying to write a fic inspired by some of the recent AO3 additions and a nitpicking community post that came up shortly after. I've re-read Peter's Room and AT, but can't find my copy of RAH.

Am I right that in RAH, Patrick has been dragged to interview at Broomhill and tutors have been suggested, but nothing is confirmed other than the plan to sit his O-levels that June, which will be the same time as Ginty?
Will he still be 16, or turned 17 by then?

Prior to that, he was at his hated London day school from some time after Falconer's Lure to December in Attic Term, so is that one year and a term, or two? I think it's two and a term, so he would have been just turned fourteen and entering third year mid-year? (UIV, as Kingscote and my school would have it)

Presumably he was at a boarding school before that? Would he have been at a prep and then a Catholic boarding school for one year age 13?

Meanwhile, Dartmouth for Peter has the problem of not existing by RAH - is there any mention of Peter doing O-levels there? I'd like to think they push him towards science and practical qualifications and generally not being on their boats, just designing them Somewhere Else. I'm assuming he's then one year behind Ginty and one ahead of the twins, education-wise.

I don't recall either of their birthdays, but have an impression Peter's is spring and Patrick's summer - anyone know?

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Comments

[hooloovoo_42]

Doesn't that mean that Patrick's school are merely taking them 7 months early, so Patrick, being a year older, is taking them 5 months late, rather than 12 months for a June sitting.

If his birthday is in the summer, he should have been 15 going into the 5th year and may still only have been 15 if he'd taken his O levels at the "normal" time.

[mheloyse.livejournal.com]

Yes, my birthday's in July, so I was 15 when I took my GCSEs and 17 when I took my A-levels - either this is a generalisation on Ginty's behalf, or she's simply basing it on herself, given that her birthday is on 6th January.

I can't recollect any clues to when in the year Patrick's birthday occurs. My headcanon has him as a Scorpio, but I don't think that's actually based on anything!

I would guess from Ginty's conversation that he'll be 16 in Attic Term's November - just because he says, I'm taking them a year late, everyone else is 15; she says to reassure him, it's rare for people at my school to take them before the age of 16.