Student/pupil

[Theyreeatingthedogs]

When did we start referring to children at school as students? I absolutely hate it. They were always pupils in my day, which I'll admit wasn't yesterday. It doesn't improve anything just causes confusion. There was a post on MN where someone said they had taught a student. I automatically thought of college or uni. Someone asked if it was a schoolchild or an adult. If we didn't refer to school children as students the world would be a much easier place to navigate.

Pupil at primary and student at secondary has always been the case in my area (I was born in the 80s!)

Oh LOL! Didn’t see it was Pedant’s corner :D

FWIW, always pupils in primary and a mix for secondary plus x

When we started calling the sixth form ‘college’ instead of school.

I've also noticed that children have become 'young people'.
(Unless they commit a crime and then they're children again.)

My younger sister has a school aged child and she goes out of her way to refer to them as pupils. For some reason the teachers don't like it!!!!

Children in nursery and reception class

Pupils for all other year groups up to Y11

Students for 16+

That’s how the DofE refer to them