People in UK saying "high school"

[Davros]

I've noticed this term being used more and more. To me it's "Senior" or "Secondary" school. Schools with the old fashioned divisions have "Lower, Middle and Upper". Even if you follow the American usage it isn't the same as our Senior, i believe it is years 10, 11, 12 and 13. Why are people calling Senior school High school? I know, each to their own blah blah

Wheely please read the thread!!

Isn't it to do with a generational thing and American culture

No Wheely it’s not.

Oh Wheely. Wheely, Wheely, Wheely.

Oh God, and then comes along Wheely . Not sure whether to laugh or cry.

Wheely it’s really really old Scottish usage.

So old it predates the existence of the USA, as pointed out by a pp.

They got it from us.

Also seems pretty common in lots of other parts of the U.K.

Just obviously not where you or the OP live.

I vote we let Pink’s last post be the conclusion of the thread.

I went to high school nearly 40 years ago; the name then, as now, is XX High School.

What do the English call jotters if they're not calling them jotters????

I went to xx RC High School for girls many years ago. catholic’s went to primary then either the girls or boys high school. Non catholics went to first, middle and high schools. Nobody went to lower and upper, they were parts of your school, like key stages or infants and juniors. We had an upper and a lower school play and choir and band for example and certain clubs were upper or lower school only. This was in the middle of England. My eldest dcs current school is called st. X RC high school.

I went to Ellesmere Port Catholic High Scool in the 1970's

Never quite worked that out Piper

I think it is "exercise book" or "notebook".

Let's not go into its other use in the expression "to get your jotters"

Scottish here.

As posted a million times already.

My school was and is “” “”””””’S High School.

Buggar all to do with America or popular culture.

HTH.

Exercise book in my day.

I'm 22 and we called it high school

Jotter was rough book - Eastern region 20 years ago. Jotter is less unwieldy...

There's a lot of assumptions being made about my reason for asking a question to find out views of people from different areas

Thats not what you did though OP, what you did was go their not called high schools, I'M RIGHT, I ASSUME EVERYONE ELSE WANTS TO BE AMERICAN, i'm going to start a tread on mumsnet telling everyone their wrong.

When people have come back and gone well in my area their not called secondries you've gone. No no i don't mean scotland i mean the uk, (op scotland is in the UK) but when people hace gone even excluding scotland theres areas of england that their called high schools, youve gone but their still comps and people hace gone nope we're in a three teir system and your accusing them of making assumptions

You've made the assumtions

Bloody hell have i put my foot in it!😂😂. Deep breaths all round

I don't know lol I was just saying my experience. You don't know what, you don't know

Am now enlightened. Namastay🙏🏻

Why's everyone so worked up about the use of high school for?

I'm in Scotland and in most of my city's school they are Tynecastle High, Forrester High, Royal High. So that is why we say it as it is called that.

It isn’t a new thing. I went to an ex grammar school in South London in the 70s. It had recently switched from ‘Lady Bloggs Grammar School for Girls’ to one of the then new comprehensive schools and called itself ‘Lady Bloggs High School for Girls’. I think it was the head teachers desperate attempt to retain an element of class rather than use the rather infra dig term ‘secondary school’ or worse still ‘comprehensive school’.

It might have kept her happy but it was still a total shithole.

Our local grammar schools became comprehensives in 1980, all three changed their name from xxxx grammar high school. There's a lot more high schools than High School Musical!

Why's everyone so worked up about the use of high school for?

Because the OP inferred that the use of High School was a creeping Americanisation, just like Santa just like Halloween when im actual fact they originate and are still widely used in Scotland. Which is part of the UK.

Piper what is a jotter? Is it scrap paper (used for working sums or thoughts out and thrown away?) Is it a rough book? (used for first drafts), is it an exercise book (used for practice exercises done in class and to take down notes in class, kept tidy, handed in to the teacher for marking)? The old word for exercise book was copy book - hence the old expression "blotting your copy book" for making a mess of something. Does "jotter" cover all those, making it a less precise, more general word?

I find the adoption of American English by people who have previously used British English (not the continued use of words which Americans adopted, but when people are influenced by media and adopt American usage not in long term use in their region) the result is often a loss if subtlety and range. "I'm excited for" is an example of this. In British English the choice of conjunction adds meaning; excited "for" means something different to excited "about". "I'm excited for my cousin" means I'm excited on my cousin's behalf, something exciting is going to happen to my cousin and I have empathy for her. "I'm excited about my cousin's wedding" obviously means the excitement is mine, I feel it on my own behalf, it is caused by the prospect of an event. "I'm excited for my cousins wedding" in British English means you feel excitement empathetically on behalf of an event, which is nonsensical.

I don't know whether American English never had the "for" versus "about" distinction (perhaps American English uses an older convention here, in which the distinction hadn't evolved) or dispensed with it along the way as surplus to requirements, but it seems like a reduction of the range of the language to revert to it either way.

Sometimes American English is actually an older form which has remained unchanged in American English but evolved in British English. In these cases there seems to be less range in older forms of language still in use in American English.

So what was your reason for posting then @Davros ?

A jotter is an excerise book

I bet the Scots using How instead of Why really rips your knitting! There is always pedants on here complaining about the use of ‘can I get’ when that phrase is commonly used in Scotland

Just because it is not used in England does not mean it’s the Americanisation of language

I'm Scottish. I sometimes say how instead of why. I always say aye instead of yes. But "can I get" really bugs me.