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

Schools with the old fashioned divisions have "Lower, Middle and Upper".

Nope. Mine was First, Middle and High

My school was called Z Girls' High School, my sister went to X High School. One selective state one comprehensive. The other local school is Y Performing Arts School but used to be Y High School So I say high school.

(South west England in the 90s & 00s)

The school I went to is and was a Bucks Grammar school and was and still is called DC High School

I'm in my 49s and high school was on the name of mine

Town name High School for me in the 70s. Academy was popular too though back then when it didn’t mean what an academy does now.

it seems there are many high schools in England.

The high school I went to in the NE of England was called King Edward VI High School (tens of thousands of pupils, possibly over 100,000 have gone through it) by everyone. It is years 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13. Before that I went to a first school (up to year 4), then a middle school (years 5-8).

The town we lived in once we were married had 2 high schools. Both years 9-13. One side of the town went 2-tier and became an academy. Now it's years 7-13 and referred to as X name, but officially is X name campus, but nobody says that. They are now really primary schools and a secondary, but that was just changing as we left the area.

In the SW of England, where we are now, I have had to adjust to saying primary and secondary school as they are all referred to as that. Primary being years reception to 6 and secondary being years 7 to 11 or 13, depending on if they have a sixth form.

I have always assumed a high school is years 9 - 11 (or 13), so the three tier system and a secondary school is years 7 - 11 (or 13), so a two tier system, but I might be wrong if others refer to secondarys as high school. I thought high and secondary were slightly different with how many years they cater for.

Our local grammar is a High School.

Because ours is (actually called) "[A] High School" (SE England)???

Mine was xx High School for Girls. Had been since before the war. Still is.

My school was and still is a Comprehensive school.

RiverTam it also supports the assertion that it’s not simply a ghastly Americanism.

Also, if you have a re-read, you’ll see that there are other LAs operating a mixed system and this was also the case in the past (with a larger number of LAs). In practice that means that you have primary schools and middle schools feeding into the same high school, with the ex-primary children entering in year 7 and the ex-middle children entering in year 8 or 9, depending on the authority. If you have entry point at year 7 and year 8/9 then you have to pick one name or the other and in the LAs I’m familiar with they were all called high schools - and still are, apart from in some cases where they have adopted academy in the title. So in that sense the ‘strict meaning’ has evolved.

I use academy/high school/secondary school interchangably. Where I grew up it was all academy (Dingwall Academy, Inverness Royal Academy, Fortrose Academy) where I am now it is all high school (James Gillespies High School, Liberton High School, Tynecastle High School). These are all bog standard comprehensives.

Yeah, it's regional. Lots of schools called high schools and it was common parlance when I was at school (I'm in my 40s).

In some counties they have middle schools which you go to after primary.

My town has 3 comprehensive schools (town name) High (town name) Grammar and (Town name) Academy. They serve different catchment/feeder primary schools, but apart from that are the same. There is also a catholic comprehensive called (saint's name) High.

We don't have middle, upper and lower. I don't know what these are. We have primary school and secondary school and the secondary school name may be High or Academy etc, but they are all comprehensive schools. I am in Scotland.

The private system is obviously different, but I don't know anything about that.

yes, but I really doubt that's particularly widespread. It also sounds very shambolic!

Lots of High Schools, Secondaries, Grammars and Academies in Scotland - none of which are selective, grammars (there is no 11+ in Scotland and there hasn't been for over 40 years) or in the English sense parts of "Academy groups". All of them have 6 years at secondary, from 11/12 to 17/18 (depending on when your birthday falls)

It's just the historical name for the school.

Mine was called "st xxxx roman Catholic high school". My parents would refer to it as primary and secondary school though. I moved from one end of England to the other and people here seem surprised when I say high school

That's the Op high schooled.

Mine was a High School - South London - when I went in 1983, I thought it was just a name for a Comp? Whereas my husband in East Anglia went to a ‘Village College’ - also a Comp. I guess it depends on where you are?

I think I generally refer to schools from year 7-11 or year 7-13 as secondary schools.

When I was at school, people would talk about going to senior school.

When I went to High school in the 1980's almost every school in my city was called High School in its title and my mum tells me that it was the same in the 60's/70's.

They have mostly been renamed to Academy now but ds's school still retains the High School name

My son's school is actually called High School, and there's another secondary locally with High School in its name as well.

You refer to schools how you choose and let the schools and populations decide themselves. Dd will be in yr7 next year and has the choice between an all girls fee paying high, a co-Ed non selective high or a co-Ed non selective secondary school. These are the names of the schools. All offer excellent education.

Will the OP come back and concede it’s not an Awful Americanism spreading through the UK but something that actually originated from Scotland (that top part of the UK?)