Omission of Key Stages I came to this article looking for an explanation of Key Stages As they are central to how most schools in England work rather shocked to find they re not even mentioned Sorry but I do not have enough knowledge to add this myself but I will add something that links to the Key Stage wiki page As well as understanding the Key Stages themselves meaning of grades in particular grades we get sent on school reports such as 6a bear no relation to my own schooling experience what I was looking for is how they work as my son is at a school that completes Key Stage 3 at the end of Year 8 for 3 subjects and at the end of Year 9 for all other subjects The Key Stage wiki page also lacks any explanation of the grades used