When did metric start to be taught in British schools?

[najaB]

Nobody is suggesting people go back to imperial by default, merely removing the legal prohibition on advertising some things using those units.

There is no prohibition on using or displaying imperial measures.

 

[TravelDream]

The announcement is pure politics.

Things could still be advertised and sold in imperial, but had to have metric measurements too.
Like four pints of milks or four pints/ 2.272 litres as the label might say. Or the pint you buy at the pub.

I'm a bit young so I was taught totally in metric.

 

[AlterEgo]

There is no prohibition on using or displaying imperial measures.

*only in imperial measures.

 

[CarltonA]

Much prefer centigrade to fahreniet, 0 (freezing) to 100 (boiling) is simplicity itself.

It is interesting how the term "centigrade" has persisted in spite of, (at least officially), being renamed Celsius in 1948.

I was taught metric from 1974 until 1986 then joined ICI and went imperial until I left in 2001.

You were, after all, working for Imperial Chemical Industries.

 

[2192]

School science was largely metric. Our school physics labs had a set of bathroom scales, metric only. I was 64kg. But travelling by train to University I weighed myself at one station when no-one was looking, and I was 1cwt, 1qr, 10 3/4 lb. I was surprised the Engineering degree was mostly in Imperial units: Horsepower, cubic ft/sec, gallons, even slugs (I've forgotten what they were, and never needed to use them.) I'm age 80.

Network Rail staff need to learn that 80 chains make a mile. When I looked about a year ago on Google Maps street view at the bridge over the line just south of Reading Green Park, the NR sign said it was "so-many miles and eighty chains" from Paddington ! I forget the exact number of whole miles.

 

[Richardr]

I was at school from about 1969, and just remember metric (plus decimalization) as the main teaching.

For business, British Standards were largely converted to metric between 1965 and 1970.

 

[Giugiaro]

This is later than several posters above indicate, but it's commonplace to start new curriculum changes with younger groups (e.g. beginning primary or secondary school), and let the older ones finish learning on the old system, rather than throw a stumbling block at them a year before leaving school.

I'm having horrible flashbacks of the Portuguese spelling agreement.

I was forced to do the final exam using the Portuguese Language Orthographic Agreement of 1990, after 11 years of learning the old spelling.
I was furious because many things changed to appeal to Brazillian writers in a way that distanced Portuguese spelling from the rest of the romance and Latin-influenced languages.

 

[DelayRepay]

The announcement is pure politics.

Things could still be advertised and sold in imperial, but had to have metric measurements too.
Like four pints of milks or four pints/ 2.272 litres as the label might say. Or the pint you buy at the pub.

I'm a bit young so I was taught totally in metric.

I agree it's a meaningless announcement. I was taught entirely in metric, but I buy milk and beer in pints, I measure long distances in miles and I know my waist size in inches but not in centimetres (and inches is a smaller number which is better!).

But the most commonly quoted example of people wishing to return to metric involves buying food. I don't think I've ever bought cheese by the pound or kilo - I want a piece 'about that big'. And I don't buy half a pound of sausages, I buy four or six.

 

[Mojo]

But the most commonly quoted example of people wishing to return to metric involves buying food. I don't think I've ever bought cheese by the pound or kilo - I want a piece 'about that big'. And I don't buy half a pound of sausages, I buy four or six.

I agree, I’m also surprised by people talking about market traders - all the markets I ever go to sell fruit in the rather bizarre British measure of the mixing bowl and don’t have any weighing scales in sight.

 

[contrex]

I think there are fair few people who came of age around 1970-ish who know that there are 28.35 grams in an ounce, and 2.2 pounds in a kilogram. I was taught exclusively Imperial until age 11 in 1963, then both after that.

 

[Ianigsy]

I was at primary school in the late 1970s-early 1980s - the school had only opened a few years earlier so had been kitted out for metric as new.

My main memory of measurements is of getting a sum in liquid volume wrong because I read my own "l" for litre as a 1.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Like many in my generation, age 42 now, I was taught metric (only) at school but Imperial at home. So I can (to some extent) do both.

 

[SargeNpton]

This thread has prompted a memory of government adverts appearing in newspapers, probably mid-70s or later, using rhymes to give approximate imperial to metric conversions. Two that I can remember are...

A litre of water's a pint and three-quarters.

A metre you see, is three foot three

 

[ChrisC]

I began teaching in 1978 so by then only metric was taught. Certainly at that time and right through the 1980’s and well beyond, imperial was still being used by the children’s families at home and in shops etc. Even after metric had been taught in schools for 20+ years furniture and carpet measurements were still in imperial and food shops were still selling half a pound of bacon, cheese etc. The children were still buying a quarter of sweets from the sweet shop. Even now clothes sizes such as waist and inside leg are still measured in inches. Sometimes in my early years of teaching I did wonder why the country as a whole had not changed over to metric when that was all we were teaching the children.

Decimal money and length in metric made my life as a teacher much easier counting in multiples of 10 and 100. However, even right up up to my retirement I found weight and volume and capacity difficult to teach to young children because of the large numbers involved when using grams and ml. Children in my Year 1 and 2 classes had just about mastered counting and using numbers up to 20 and some had progressed on to numbers up to 100. Then when I began to teach weight they didn’t have to weigh things very heavy to be suddenly faced with amounts of grams well above 100 and up to 1000. These sizes of numbers were beyond their understanding at that point in their learning.

 

[Mojo]

My other half’s father is strictly pro-imperial, to the point whereby he won’t provide measurements in metric even where it is clearly the most sensible. My frustration when he gave me the measurements as something stupid like twelve feet, 3 inches and 6 eighths by 10 feet, 2 inches and 3 eights, quickly turned to pure amusement when we arrived at the shop to find that prices were actually displayed in square yards and was met with “err erm uhh” when asked how many square yards he would require. Fortunately I had also taken measures in metres which were displayed alongside yards on the signage

 

[===gricer===]

 

[BanburyBlue]

I was born in 1964, and always did metric at school.

 

[OhNoAPacer]

Aged 62, essentially we did imperial at primary school but metric at secondary school.
I can switch between them if needed and like most which I use can depend on circumstance.

 

[Lost property]

Metric was "mentioned in passing " during my time at school, and again during my technical training with the emphasis being placed on distinguishing between p.s.i and bar... which is wise because the latter can get a bit messy if you get it wrong.

However, all this changed, rapidly, when the Gov't sent me on an all expenses paid holiday to Germany for 2.5 years..albeit this wasn't quite how the RAF perceived my tour there, but I did. You learn, very quickly, through necessity to use metric and to be honest, I really can't understand why anybody would be in favour of Imperial given the simplicity of metric.

That said, in the UK there are certainly two obvious areas, rail being one and horse racing another, where Imperial is established and unlikely to change. It can be just as bad in aviation when you get kgs / litres / lbs / US / UK gallons for fuel quantity and conversions are required

 

[PeterY]

Metric was "mentioned in passing " during my time at school, and again during my technical training with the emphasis being placed on distinguishing between p.s.i and bar... which is wise because the latter can get a bit messy if you get it wrong.

However, all this changed, rapidly, when the Gov't sent me on an all expenses paid holiday to Germany for 2.5 years..albeit this wasn't quite how the RAF perceived my tour there, but I did. You learn, very quickly, through necessity to use metric and to be honest, I really can't understand why anybody would be in favour of Imperial given the simplicity of metric.

That said, in the UK there are certainly two obvious areas, rail being one and horse racing another, where Imperial is established and unlikely to change. It can be just as bad in aviation when you get kgs / litres / lbs / US / UK gallons for fuel quantity and conversions are required

Is depth still measured in fathoms? Knots is still in common use.

I can imagine things easier in imperial.

 

[krus_aragon]

The children were still buying a quarter of sweets from the sweet shop

My grandmother would buy a quarter (or "chwarter", seeing as she spoke Welsh) of sweets for me and my brother in the 90s, but it took us many years to work out a quarter of what it was.

Even now clothes sizes such as waist and inside leg are still measured in inches

To my mind, these might as well be arbitrary graduations (like shoe sizes and ladies' dress sizes). All you really need to know is the size you currently are, or what the next size is - if things are getting a bit tight. The only time a measurement becomes relevant is when you need to order something you don't usually wear, like a posh hat.

That said, in the UK there are certainly two obvious areas, rail being one and horse racing another, where Imperial is established and unlikely to change

ERTMS may beg to differ on the former: The Cambrian lines have been kilometre-based for years now.

 

[najaB]

Is depth still measured in fathoms? Knots is still in common use.

I doubt fathoms are used much these days, certainly I've seen vessels with their plimsol lines marked in metres. Knots are used more commonly since the nautical mile has a direct relationship to celestial navigation and latitude and longitude.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Always a good idea not to mix up metric and imperial measurements, as infamously resulted in the USD125mln 'Mars Climate Orbiter' spacecraft burning up / crashing into Mars in September 1999.

Oops!

 

[Three_Counties]

Born in 1971. Primary School 1976-1982 taught metric but how to convert from imperial. Secondary 1982-1988 taught metric but how to convert both ways. At home always imperial measurements.

At my regular medicals, I am given my weight in kgs but I still cannot visualise what that means without a swift conversion to stones and pounds in my head, which never fails to impress the (invariably) younger nurses who are all clueless about the imperial system.

 

[philjo]

Started infant school in late 1970s so was taught only metric, though in A level maths we did do some conversion calculations- mainly temperature scales.
I use inches for clothing. In cooking I usually use pints for liquids as I can measure milk by eye from the bottle.
My grandmother’s hand written recipes are obviously all in imperial measurements. Until recently a lot of packets/jars were 454g as that was 1lb and butter was based on half pound packets I.e.225g. Now many are standardised at 250g or 500g units. So I have rebased some of my grandmother’s recipe based on 1lb =500g instead of 454g. As long as you are consistent it Makes things easier, e.g. one recipe means a whole packet of dried fruit, and 1 packet of butter. So the only thing that needs weighing is the flour. The problem comes if you try to mix units in the same recipe.

 

[birchesgreen]

I learnt metric only at school which i started in 1976, i don't really have any idea about the imperial system. I vaguely know how long a foot is, thats more or less it.

I know my height in cm, i don't know my weight in any measure, too scared to find out.

 

[dastocks]

Born in 1964 and only taught metric, with an occasional nod towards imperial units. I remember a big fuss about decimal currency at primary school, but was too young to have used the pre-decimal currency other than the coins and notes that continued in circulation.
I was in the last school year that was taught maths with slide rules and log tables at O and A level; the following years used calculators.

 

[najaB]

I was in the last school year that was taught maths with slide rules and log tables at O and A level; the following years used calculators.

Now that's interesting. I was taught to use log tables in 1990.

 

[dastocks]

Now that's interesting. I was taught to use log tables in 1990.

Maybe they continued with log tables, but slide rules definitely went.

 

[najaB]

Maybe they continued with log tables, but slide rules definitely went.

Not all of my education was in the UK, so it's entirely possible they disappeared here sooner than that.