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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
My part of the country "pre-school" is called play school. Not sure if that is a national thing though.
I've also never heard this post secondary thing OP is on about.
Post secondary is university, college, community college, etc. I hear it all the time on US News.
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.
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).
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!
Oh and it's called 6th form cos you're in year 6 of secondary school. Which is also called year 12!
I think it's a hold over from some time in the past where the year numbers started over again at secondary school, as I understand you'd do your O levels in 5 form, then A levels in 6th.
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.
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?
In Denmark it's called Grade 0. 4-5 Grade 1-10. 6-15 Gymnasium (not sure why?) 15-18
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).
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.
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.🎊
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). 🤷♂️
Canada (Ontario)
In Mexico they are:
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?
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)
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.
