What country are you from and do you call it 1) elementary, junior high, high school 2) elementary, middle school, high school, 3) primary, ???, secondary?
Fyi: it's called post secondary because, I think, UK calls it primary, secondary, and after that is post secondary.
US.
Middle School and Jr. High vary depending on how the grades break.
When I was coming up it was this:
Grade School: 1-6
Jr. High - 7-9
High School - 10-12
But when I hit 9th grade, they changed it:
Grade School: 1-5
Middle School: 6-8
High School: 9-12
Grade school, didn't even know that one.
Slovakia.
If I am to translate it word-to-word:
Základná škola - Base school (so primary) (9 years) - split into 1st degree (1-4) and 2nd degree (5-9).
Stredná škola - Middle school (2-5 years based on field of study, 4 and 5 year fields are with graduation)
Get ready for a twist: Gymnasium (8 or 4 years) - 8 year gymnasium starts after 5th grade of primary school and 4 year after 9th grade. They also replace middle school. It's not that popular since you basically won't get any job without college with gymnasium. It's really just a preparation for college (literally "high school" (Vysoká škola)) (though perhaps better than middle school).
US. In my dialect, all three are different.
Middle school: 6-8
Intermediate school: 7-8
Jr High: 7-9
I attended an intermediate school that called itself a jr high, so I can understand the confusion.
For my state in Australia its
Kinder Ages 3-5
Prep Ages 5-6
Primary School Ages 6-12, called Grade 1-6
Secondary/High School Ages 12-18, Called Years 7-12
After that you've got higher education choices via TAFE or University, theres no cut off ages for that.
School is mandatory from ages 6 To 17.
Finland
0-5 year olds Kindergarten (voluntary)
6 y.o.'s pre-school (mandatory since 2018)
Grades 1-6 in comprehensive school are called "low school" (mandatory) Grades 7-9 in comprehensive school are called "high school" (mandatory)
Second degree years 1-3 (mandatory since 2021), you choose either "upper secondary (gymnasium)" or vocational school (or both).
And if you wish to study further university/uni of applied sciences. Basically everyone does their masters (3+2 years) if they choose uni. Uni of applied sciences is usually 3 years.
That's interesting given that in California pre-school is 4-yo and kindergarten is the year after that.
Uk.
Its primary school then secondary school.
Primary school is 6 years "full time" (5/6 years old to 11/12 years old). There are pre-school and "reception" years.
Secondary school is 5 years, with an optional extra 2 years.
Anything beyond secondary school is uni/college/apprenticeship/life
I found secondary school year 6/7 to cover the majority of the foundation of 2 years at Uni (ie, maths, physics, chemistry had a huge amount of repitition before building on it and specialising).
Heres more info:
https://cdn.roostermarketing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/school-years-1.png
Primary is 4-11.
The extra 2 years are no longer optional. You can choose where you do them but you're not allowed to just not.
Only England and Wales though. Scotland and Northern Ireland work differently. And some areas of England, because of course we can't keep it simple.
Romania. We call it primary (1-4), gymnasium (5-8) and lyceum (9-12). They come from French/Latin.
Latin is one of the roots of our language and we underwent a big pro-Latin cultural movement in the 19th century, while French also had a big cultural and educational influence.
Gymnasium and lyceum are both Greek. They did pass through Latin on their way into modern use. Lyceum was the name of Aristotle's school in Athens.
In Denmark it's called Grade 0. 4-5 Grade 1-10. 6-15 Gymnasium (not sure why?) 15-18
Canada:
Elementary: grades 1-8
High School: grades 9-12
Weird. I'm in Nova Scotia and we had elementary (primary to 6th), junior high (grade 7-9) and high school (grade 10-12), then college or university. Didn't Ontario used to have grade 13 as well?
UK:
It can vary on area though. Some people have middle schools but I've no idea what ages they are since I've never seen one. Also, some UK people will hear me say "HS" and assume I'm American, not realising some secondary schools are called "high school"
To complicate matters more a "public school" is private.
ETA: I think US grades are off by one to UK "years". Though I've got into arguments with Brits about this I can only reference my own life. So our "Year 7" kids starting high/secondary school are 11yo. I believe that's 6th grade in the US?
Is "6th Form" not used as an alternative to College anymore (it was archaic when I went to 6th Form 20 years ago so wouldn't be surprised if it has bitten the dust)
Yeah it is. Sorry I was talking mainly of my experience - I left school to go to college across the country but everyone I knew carried onto sixth form.
That along with all the other complications mentioned in another comment (HE College vs uni) makes for an exciting mess. 😁
Oh and it's called 6th form cos you're in year 6 of secondary school. Which is also called year 12!
To add to that, college can sometimes be an alternative to university rather than something which precedes it. And high school can go on until 18. As you say, it can be geographical - I only really have experience of the Scottish system (and even then it's been a while...)
I grew up in an area with middle schools, and went to one, I think they were age 8 to 12. So people went up to secondary school a year later than most regions. I have no idea why it was like that. We also had spam fritters for lunch which no-one else I know from my generation (Gen X) had to endure. We were just fucking weird I guess.
Weirdos make the world interesting. 🙂
I've heard of spam fritters but never had one. I've eaten a lot of 'old fashioned' foods though like toad int' hole, kippers, faggots, etc.
Sweden
I don't believe we have the exact same stages as the US or UK, so I will do my best to explain it:
Grundskola - covers years 1 through 9 and is mandatory by law for everyone to attend.
Grundskola, year 1 through 3, student age 7 to 9 years - "lågstadiet", the frist three years in grundskola is called "lågstadiet", meaning the "low stage".
Grundskola, year 4 through 6, student age 10 to 12 years - "mellanstadiet", the middle three years in grundskola is called "mellanstadiet", meaning the "middle stage".
Grundskola, year 7 through 9, student age 13 to 15 years - "högstadiet", the last three years in grundskola is called "högstadiet", meaning the "high stage".
After grundskolan is completed we have "Gymnasiet" for another three years, this is where students really start to get to pick what direction they want to study towards, there are meny different programs to choose between, here are a few of the most common:
Samhällsprogrammet - Society studies, a generic program if you don't know what to study
Naturvetenskapsprogrammet - Natural sciences, a generic program likw above but you get dedicated science lessons, a good program that prepares you for just about any future studies.
Fordonsprogrammet - Vehicle studies, you like vehicles and want to work with them, you get to learn mechanics and learn how cars work, popular choice for those who have a hard time studying more theoritical subjects.
After gymnasiet you have a big graduation ceremony and party, everybody gets to wear the traditional hat (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student_cap#Sweden) and get to ride in the back of a birch covered lorry blaring music, this is called a studentflak and is part of the graduation party for most people.
After gymnasiet you basically have two options for further education: Högskola/Universitet or Kvalificerad Yrkesutbildning (KY), Högskola/Universitet is the more academic route forward, while KY is a trade school.
In Brazil the names changed quite a bit across the years. I believe that the current ones are
The first two used to be called primeiro grau (first grade), segundo grau (second grade). And even further back, the primeiro grau was actually two, primário (primary - 4y, from 7yo to 10yo) and ginasial (gymnasial - 4y, from 11yo to 14yo).
Texas, US. We called it Elementary (optional Pre-K, required K through 5), Middle (6 through 8), and High (9 through 12). They're called Primary and Secondary when filling out forms or legal documents.
Also Texas, US (grew up in Lubbock graduated 96) we had Elementary (K-6), Jr High (7-9), and High School (10-12). Now I live in Plano and have kids in school here. The specific area we are in has Elementary (K-5), Middle School (6-8), High School (9-10), and Sr High (11-12). 🤷♂️
Republic of China, Taiwan
Kindergarten, Elementary/Primary 1-6 grade, Junior High 7-9, Senior high school 10-12, though most say year 1 junior(7th grade), year 1 senior(10th grade), then College/University/Tech University.
Some choose vocational high school after junior high, and most people from vocational high choose Tech University.
I attended a complete high school, means the whole secondary education combined, so we call junior high section 1-3rd grades and senior high section 4-6th grades🤣
I'm going to take this opportunity to re-use the phrase I sent my Chinese friend!
新年快乐 🎉🐉
新年快樂🐲 To you too.🎊
Sweden, none of the above since we are not English native speakers. 😬
Grundskolan (mandatory for 6-15 year olds). Gymnasiet (optional for 16-19 year olds).
Roughly what percentage of people go on to Gymnasiet? Is the next step University of some sort?
Basically everybody attends gymnasiet. Some programs are focused on preparing for higher studies, such as University, other programs at focused on a trade. All programs have a minimum core curriculum of math, Swedish, English etc.
Yes, the next step is University (or some other kind of higher education), or not, if higher education is not your thing.
Canada (Ontario)
Netherlands:
0.5: Kindergarten - ages 4 and 5
1: Basisschool Onderbouw (elementary part one) - ages 6, 7 and 8.
1.5: Basisschool Bovenbouw (elementary part one) - ages 9, 10, 11, sometimes 12.
2. Middelbare school (High school) - Ages 12 - 16/17/18 depending on what level of education you're going for.
0.5-1.5 is because they are usually all in the same school.
In Mexico they are:
From (the French-speaking part of) Belgium, 6 years of primary and 6 years of secondary. Nothing inbetween as that's already 12 years. Secondary usually happens within the same school although there are two divisions within it:
programs are designed for three cycles ("degrés") of two years (D1, D2, D3)
teacher's diploma follow a division in two "degrés" of three years : teachers for the inferior one (DI) have a bachelor and teachers for the superior one have a master. In the near future the diploma's will change but the distiction is mostly going to stay
In this latter sense, "inferior secondary" would be the equivalent to middle school and "superior secondary" the one for high school, although as I have explained it is not as separated as in the US, Italy, France or others. As someone who teach in the superior secondary "degré", I do usually introduce myself as a high-school teacher when talking to people from other countries.
Following the title, I forgot the little ones, so in total we have
3 to 4 years of maternal school (2,5 - 6 years old). Traditionnally only the last one was mandatory but this is currently changing so I don't know whether or not the whole of it is already mandatory for everyone
6 years of primary school (6-12 years old)
6 years of secondary school (12-18 years old)
US. Growing up it was:
I went to school in the US state of Georgia. It was elementary (k-5), middle (6-8), and high (9-12). There was a school district next to mine that had a primary school that was k-2 and elementary was 3-5. There were other districts that had the 6th grade in elementary school, although that was becoming less common.
US. We have kindergarten (start at age 6) followed by grades 1 through 12. How they are divided depends on where you live. Here are three examples I have seen:
K-8: Primary school
9-12: Secondary school or High school
K-5: Elementary school or Grade school
6-8: Middle school
9-12: High school
K-6: Elementary school or Grade school
7-9: Junior high school
10-12: High school
Anything beyond 12th grade is "post-secondary."
Where I grew up it was k-2: primary, 3-5: elementary, 6-8: middle, 9-12: high.
Where I moved after college had primary, intermediate, and high; elementary, intermediate, and high; elementary, junior high, and high; all combinations, but I didn't know the grade levels.
In the US, the names vary a lot by location. Even which grades are included can change based on the local population and how they choose to organize it. My wife and I went to school in the same state, maybe 45 minutes apart, and we did not have the same names or grade delineations.
For me, pre-school and kindergarten are each there own thing. Grades 1-3 were “elementary school”, 4-6 were “middle school”, 7-8 were “junior high”, and 9-12 were “high school”. We called them this based on the actual names of the school buildings. But even by the time I was in junior high, they started moving the 4th grade classes to the elementary school, so I’d assume kids in my own home town might say 1-4 is “elementary”. We didn’t have a “junior high” building. Grades 7 and 8 were still part of the “middle school”, but based on the changes in curriculum and the fact that they were held on a designated side of the building, it was colloquially referred to as “junior high”
In Russia it was for me just 1-11 grades with the last 2 being optional and the 4th one being suspiciously absent.
You went from 3rd grade to 5th?
Does everyone in Russia?
Was it a year of outdoor school or something?
Ontario Canada Elementary, secondary but it depends on the school. Some are called high school, mine was called secondary school in the 90s but I think it's called a high school these days.
From the US, there was some experimental stuff going on when I was in school and I was out in the boonies so k-8 schools with self contained classrooms was the norm and they were called elementary schools. I did kindergarten and first grade normally then there was a change and 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grades were combined into the same classroom and called primary school. I was in primary school for what would have been 2nd and 3rd grade. 4th through 8th were the normal self contained classrooms in elementary school.
I was in the last class for my elementary school then they combined it with another school that was k-6 and opened a jr highschool that was 7th and 8th. So I didn't go to a jr high or a secondary school but if I were a year younger I would have gone to a jr high. I did go to a primary, an elementary, and a high school.
US. I had Elementary kindergarten-4th (5-10). Middle school was 5th-7th (/10/11-12/13). Junior high was 8th-9th(13/14-15). High school was 10th-12th (15/16-18/19).
4? What part of the US are you in? Is that common?
That was Arkansas.
both 1) or 2) are common in the American Midwest but also primary school or grade school for that first stage
Virginia, USA in the 1980s it was:
K-5 Elementary
6-7 Intermediate
8 was just called 8th grade building or maybe junior high
9-12 High School
Philippines (current overall)
Do you like high school being only 2 years?
US - specifically Michigan. The naming convention and splits most commonplace around me seem to be
Kindergarten - 4th grade | “Elementary School”
5th grade - 8th grade | “Middle School”
9th grade - 12th grade (referred to as Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, Senior years) | “High school”
But there is a bit of variance depending on district size. For example my school district downsized. So currently we have
Kindergarten - 6th grade | “Elementary School”
7th grade - 12th grade | “Secondary School”.
The former setup seems to resemble most of what other Americans would recognize.
Regarding “postsecondary education”, at least here, that specifically refers to any education past the standard 12 year education program, be it medical school or trade school or what we call college and many other places call uni/university.
Gonna just piggyback on your comment because I am also US, Georgia for me.
Primary: Pre-K thru 2nd
Elementary: 3rd thru 5th
Middle: 6th thru 8th
High: 9th thru 12th
K-5 was elementary, 6-8 was middle school and 9-12 was high school but I was in a small enough area that they merged all three into one building. Nothing like going to the same building and seeing the same teachers for all 13 years.
USA, 2
Czech Republic, and it's pretty much the same as Slovakia (and perhaps other countries around here.)
Základní škola (elementary, ages ~6+), Střední škola (high school, ages ~15+), Vysoká škola (college, ages ~19+).
Střední škola is sometimes replaced with 4 or 8 years of Gymnázium starting after ZŠ (4-year G.) or after 5th grade (8-year G.) Střední škola is normally focused on a particular field, whereas Gymnázium is more generic and is normally followed by Vysoká škola.
Scotland:
Primary school P1-P7 (5-11) Secondary school S1-S6 (12-17)
Germany: 4 years elementary school, after that the kids are divided into 3 school categories based on their performance:
Hauptschule 5-9, after that you either start apprenticeship for 3 years and learn a profession, or you continue with Realschule
Realschule 5-10, after that you either start apprenticeship for 3 years and learn a profession or you continue with Gymnasium
Gymnasium 5-12, after that you may apply for university. You can only enroll in university if you have completed grade 12 final exams (called Abitur)
In Germany kids are required to be enrolled in school or in apprenticeship by law until they turn 18
where I live we have two schools; elementary and middle school/gymnasyum.
The first 4 class of elementary is the "lower", the last 4 class are the "upper" classes.
after that, university or "main school" is where we go
Slovenia.
Osnovna šola (primary school) 1-9 starting at age 6 split into razredna stopnja (class level)1-5 and predmetna stopnja (subject level)6-9.
Srednja šola (secondary) 1-2/3/4 depending on programme or gimnazija (general education secondary) 1-4
Visoka šola (high school) comes after secondary vocational and is usually 1-3
Fakulteta (basically uni) after any secondary that meets criteria usually after gimnazija (you don't have any qualifications by finishing that) 1-3 for dodiplomski študij (bachelor), 1-2 for magistrski študij (masters) and however long it takes to get a PhD
Lithuania
1-8 progimnazija 9-12 gimnazija 11-13 profesinė (vocational)
1-10 pagrindinė (basic) and 1-12 vidurinė (middle) used to exist but almost none of these exist now.
Hong Kong
Kindergarten
Primary (grades 1-6)
Secondary (grades 7-12)
Tertiary / post-secondary / higher education (university)
US, Florida
When I went to school, we had grades 1-5 at one school (ages 6-10) 6th grade at another, 7th grade at another, 8-9th grade at a 'middle school 'sometimes called "junior high" and grades 10-12 at the high school, compulsory schooling ending at age 17 or 18 unless you failed a year, they didn't allow skipping grades.
When my kids went, there were elementary schools for grades Kindergarten-5 (so ages 5-6 to 10-11) OR K-8, middle school for grades 6-8 if you weren't at a K-8 and high school for grades 9-12.
