What exactly is pre1A?

amother

Fri, Sep 08 2023, 10:51 am

OOT BT here. Growing up, there was preschool ages 2 to 4 turning 5, and then kindergarten was ages 5 turning 6, first grade was 6 turning 7 and so forth until 12th grade which was typically 17 turning 18. I would love to understand what pre1A is exactly, and is it specific to Lakewood?

TIA!

smss

Fri, Sep 08 2023, 10:52 am

Pre-1A is kindergarten and I don't think anyone knows why it's called that. One of those frum world mysteries, like G.O.

amother

Seashell

Fri, Sep 08 2023, 10:54 am

It isn’t a Lakewood thing, in Lakewood they call it Primary which sounds very British and I haven’t heard this used anywhere else besides Lakewood. Go figure.

smss

Fri, Sep 08 2023, 10:54 am

amother Seashell wrote:

It isn’t a Lakewood thing, in Lakewood they call it Primary which sounds very British and I haven’t heard this used anywhere else besides Lakewood. Go figure.

Yeah I think it's an NY thing

amother

Mocha

Fri, Sep 08 2023, 10:55 am

There is no pre1A in Lakewood. In Lakewood there is preschool then age 4/5 kindergarten usually not in a school then age 5/6 primary in school.

Pre1A and primary are both the same age and are both what in a public school would be called kindergarten

amother

Hyacinth

Fri, Sep 08 2023, 10:58 am

smss wrote:

Yeah I think it's an NY thing

I grew up in NJ and went to pre1A and that was back in 1986.

watergirl

Fri, Sep 08 2023, 11:02 am

"OOT" BT here.

In the general world in the States, 3s are in Jr. nursery, 4s are in Sr. nursery or Pre K, 5s are in kindergarten (required schooling by this age) and 6s are in 1st grade, so on. Many mainstream frum schools do this also.

The frum world in the States adopted a thing where the 4s are called Kindergarten, 5s are P1A, 6s are 1st grade. I've noticed many frum schools who did this are going back to what I posted above.

Only Eilyahu HaNavi knows why.

amother

Seashell

Fri, Sep 08 2023, 11:05 am

mha3484 wrote:

In Chicago boys are in pre1a and girls Kindergarten. Never understood it either.

This is very strange!

amother

Lily

Fri, Sep 08 2023, 11:17 am

There is actually a historical reason for this. Back when Yeshiva day schools were just starting in the New York area, it was a hard sell to get parents to send their kids to Yeshiva day schools over public schools. One idea used was to start teaching reading a year earlier than the public schools. Hence, Kindergarten in Yeshiva day schools was a year before kindergarten in the public schools. This appealed to parents who wanted their children to be advanced. It also kept kids in Yeshiva day school since they could already read, so parents wouldn’t want them to “repeat” kindergarten in public school.

I believe I may have learned this from a biography of a Rabbi in Elizabeth at the time.

Everything has a reason Smile

amother

Lightgray

Fri, Sep 08 2023, 11:27 am

Amelia Bedelia wrote:

Kindergarten in frum schools is pre K elsewhere

Really? So for 4 year olds? Why?

mpk

Fri, Sep 08 2023, 11:50 am

Actually the term Pre-1A comes from an era when kids could start school in September (A) or in January (B). So Pre-1A is the grade before first that begins in September.

amother

Papaya

Fri, Sep 08 2023, 11:55 am

It's mainly a New York thing. Funny story, we moved out of NY when one of my kids had just finished what everyone else calls pre-k (so 4s, turning 5). But in NY, that was called kindergarten, and had we stayed, he would have been pre-1a the following school year. But having left New York, he was now in actual kindergarten (5, turning 6 later in the year). He thought he was repeating a year. We had to explain the whole thing a few times before he understood that he was not, in fact, doing "kindergarten" a second time.

amother

Daffodil

Fri, Sep 08 2023, 12:00 pm

I live in Lakewood where it’s called primary, the year before first grade
Just to make it a little more confusing, in chassidish cheders, that year is kitta alef, first grade is kitta beis, etc
(Idk about Lakewood chassidish schools, but that’s how it was in bp growing up)

Hashem_Yaazor

Fri, Sep 08 2023, 3:04 pm

mpk wrote:

Actually the term Pre-1A comes from an era when kids could start school in September (A) or in January (B). So Pre-1A is the grade before first that begins in September.

This.
It's from public schools that had grades by half years.

amother

Hotpink

Fri, Sep 08 2023, 3:12 pm

When I was a kid close to 40 years ago in lakewood, we had pre nursery, nursery, kindergarten, primary, first grade. Now it’s younger 2s playgroup, older 2s etc…

mha3484

Fri, Sep 08 2023, 3:15 pm

amother Brass wrote:

It’s nursery (3) , kindergarten (4), pre1a (5), and then first grade (6)

This is a NY thing. My city has playgroup for 2 and 3 year olds. Then Nursery is 4 year olds and pre1a is 5 year olds.

The chassidish school in my city calls the year before pre1a kindergarten.