Secondary school hierarchy; how widespread?

[ThreeBeeOneGee]

DS2 has now been at his (state, partially selective, single sex) secondary school for a term and a half and very happy; has settled well and not experienced any bullying or ostracism, despite being tiny, having Aspergers and being more than a bit quirky.

However, he is puzzled by the hierarchy behaviour shown by the students. Y12 & Y13 consider themselves too mature to take part, but from Y11 down to Y7, there seems to be a strict hierarchy according to year group, with older students expecting to go through doors first, be served first in the canteen despite the queue, and even shoving younger students aside in the corridors.

DS1 has also observed this phenomenon, but seems to accept it as part of the culture of the school.

When I was at school, the Y11s tended to dominate the back seat of the coach, but I don't remember any other hierarchy behaviour.

Is this something that happens in many secondary schools?
Is it a feature of boys' schools (I attended a girls' school and DH went to a mixed school so we wouldn't know).
Or is it specific to this school?

In my opinion this is something that persists in boys grammar schools more than other schools. It isn't really challenged by teachers who experienced it themselves and think it is the way it should be. Some teachers take pride in it and think it prepares you for real life. I suspect if we stopped it in schools it would also become unacceptable in the workplace.

Well in my DD's mixed Comp, my year 10 DD complains about the year 7s pushing the older ones out of their way too, and the older ones have always tried to get to the front of queues etc. if they can.
It is really just normal push and shove from a large crowd trying to get through corridors, and into lunch in a limited amount of time.

Year 10 and 11 tend to be quite a bit larger, and also have more time pressures (using breaks for getting extra help and extra-curricula stuff or even going to the library to catch up with course work), so just as anyone with stress can be a bit more single minded.

On the other hand to someone with ASD it can be quite an overwhelming, and actually the school is probably pretty calm if he hasn't complained loudly before now.

When my dd started high school she complained that the older children were fairly oblivious and just expected the younger ones to get out of her way. ds (started the same school a year before) didn't think it was an issue. I suspect that's because he is completely oblivious himself, whereas dd is a people watcher. Also dd was I think very used to being the biggest at primary (she's very tall) and so it came as a surprise to have a whole bunch of almost adults dominating the corridors. It's a good school, relaxed and with good mentoring arrangements, just very different from their smaller primary and I think a bit overwhelming at times. Plus there are way more students than it was built for.

Not the case in our co-ed independent school. In fact the Yrs 7 & 8 have lunch 5 mins before the older kids to give them time to get in first! The Year 9s complain about the Yr 7/8s hoovering up all the best food before they get there. Think it is more prevalent in all boys schools...