Seen a couple of reviews of the movie Turning Red that have commented for other readers that since the main character Mei-lin is in Canada, even though she’s thirteen and in Grade 8, she’s in first year junior high school (also one reviewer said it’s in Canada so they say Grade 8 instead of eighth grade- never heard that before; aren’t they interchangeable?)
Anyway, in B.C. it was
Elementary Grade- 1-7 (roughly six years old to twelve)
Junior High- 8,9,10 (age 13, 14, 15)
Senior High- 11,12 (age 16 and 17). I think Ontario has optional Grade 13?
Taiwan has Elementary 1-6; Junior High 7,8,9; Senior High 10,11,12.
From movies/TV I know some American schools are
Elementary- 1-6
Junior High (do they call it middle school?)- 7,8
Senior High- 9,10,11,12 ( and do some places call it freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, like in US colleges?)
How about you? Other countries?
Ontario got rid of grade 13, i was one of the last to do it. Kids coming after us had to do standardized tests instead, SAT style; suckers!
My schooling in ontario was also 1 to 8 elementary, 9 to 13 high school. Nothing in the middle, but larger cities might have the extra split because of numbers i think. I was in the kind of small town that you can walk across in an hour or two. Pleasant walking on nice sidewalks beside well kept lawns. Idyllic, in a way. One of the reasons i never started to drive is everywhere i lived in canada was very pedestrian friendly. Makes Taiwan seem like it is punishing pedestrians, by comparison
They got rid of OAC while I was in high school, but many kids went back for a 13th year to get more credits, boost scores for uni. We weren’t given standardised tests for Grade 12.
Australia (the states differ marginally, but its pretty much the same for all).
In most states, attendance is compulsory from ages 6-17.
Kindergarten starts from age 3-4 but is not compulsory.
Primary School - Grades 1-6 (ages about 6-11). I think the deal is that if they turn 6 during the year, then they should enroll from the first term of that year.
Secondary (High) School - Grades 7-12 (about 12-17).
For Primary and Secondary schools, the year runs from early February to early December, split over 4 roughly equal terms, usually with 2 weeks off in April (straddles Easter usually), 2 weeks in June/July and again in September/October, and it finishes in early to mid-December - giving a summer break of about 6-8 weeks.
University follows on from that and most courses require completion of Year 12 in High School as an entry requirement. There are also other Institutions (Colleges of Advanced Education, Tech related colleges etc) as an alternative to University.
Nor much in BC, at least when I went through the system. We talked about freshmen for university, but none of the others in any other context. I didn’t really learn those words for university until I was teaching them from textbooks in Asia, and I still don’t really know freshman or sophomore for high school.
Is a four-year high school the standard in the US?! I’m not sure what that seems odd to me.
Ah, so it’s high school sophomores that give us the adjective sophomoric? That makes a bit more sense than it being from university sophomores. Still seems too old though … junior high would be more suitable.
In Texas and California, the two states I attended school, we always said ordinal numbers for the names of grades.
1st Grade through 5th Grade = Elementary
7th Grade through 8th Grade = Middle School
9th Grade through 12th Grade = High school.
Students were referred to as…
First Graders, Second Graders, etc…up to 8th Graders. Then in High school we used Freshmen, Sophomores, Juniors, and Seniors.
It wasnt until I came to Taiwan that I heard Grade 1, Grade 2, etc
Bc depends on district. they can change things around. As an example my area, whose mayor was also a rotating principal to fix “broken” schools, changed the grades based more on maturity. Their system was
Elementary 1~5
middle school 6~8
high school 9~12.
We grew up using these terms interchangeably. 1st grade, 1st grader and grade 1. All very common and used daily by everyone. We never used sophomore, freshmen etc. We only knew those terms from movies, but have no real life relevancy for us. We just stated the grade we were in. Unlike taiwan which will even call high schoolers 1st graders, 3rd graders etc. Which sometimes seems half true haha.
When I first can here thirty years ago referring to junior/senior high as (for example) junior high grade three/guo zhong san nian ji was usual. I’ve noticed the terms Grade 7-12 becoming much more common- American English influence?
Certainly not standardized that way in California.
Generally, in the US, up to grade 5 is elementary. 7-8 is jr high/middle school. 10-12 is high school. Grade 6 might be in an elementary or jr high, and grade 9 might be Jr high or high school.
