TotemRecall
Jonty WareingYesterday I got mocked for calling my secondary school "high school".
Using DfE data I can prove that I'm not weird - I'm just from the North West.
Does anyone know why usage of "High School" in school names is so localised?
Graham Sutherland / Polynomial@jonty was talking with friends about this recently. apparently Norfolk also has middle school.
Daniel Murphy@gsuberland @jonty I love that this diagram exists to depict all the different patterns of schooling that exist in the UK https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:School_Stuctures.png
@gsuberland @jonty first school, middle school, high school. Because why not be confusing af, right?
Alephcat@jonty to be fair, "High School" is even in the name of it
Steve Marshall@jonty No data, but I’d put money on the answer being “the class system”.
Tamonten@jonty does this include historic data? Mine was in the NW and I also remember some middle schools but they might have been anywhere, I moved around a lot.
Peter 🔜 EMF@jonty I know some areas in England use the term as they have three schools, primary, middle and high school, so secondary would be confusing there.
Raj 🇬🇧🇪🇺💻🖥(🌻🇺🇦;🇵🇸)@grantpe @jonty Drifting terminology. When I was of school age, "primary school" was an umbrella term incorporating "infants" (4-7), and "junior" (7-11). In many cases two separate schools on shared grounds with shared facilities. "Secondary" meant 11 and up...
Now "primary" seems to substitute for "infants", so yeah - that's going to confuse things.
Simon Hewison@jonty it depends if the area's local education authority at the time arranged the education under their remit into primary school, middle school and high school or not.
Mine did not. Straight from leaving primary, at the age of 11,into the same secondary school until I left for an undergraduate degree at the age of 18.
Mine did not. Straight from leaving primary, at the age of 11,into the same secondary school until I left for an undergraduate degree at the age of 18.
@jonty mind you, all the secondary schools in that town have recently merged and rebranded as <town> High School, but still serves ages 11-18
Sarah Dal
Philip Heron@jonty It's what we call it in my corner of N.Ireland at least. I thought it was a common term.
Lessp@jonty I'm also from the North West and my secondary school was clearly called a High School in its name.
Gary 
@jonty I get the same from my OH (a Midlandser). I grew up in E.Yorks, and it’s quite common around there, too.
@jonty Didn't know you were from the NW !
Which part ?
Which part ?
@jonty My North West school changed from a secondary school to a high school in the 70's
Anton Piatek@jonty If the local "Belfast High" name is anything to go by, yes
John@jonty FWIW, most secondary schools I can think of in Scotland are ‘High School’.
@semanticist Yep, apparently normal in Scotland but I couldn't be bothered to find that data too
Mrs Beanbag@jonty @semanticist Scottish education system is different of course, i wonder if it's because here one studies one's "highers".
did you do your A-levels at your "high school"?
David Sullivan@jonty I got mocked for calling "First School" First school as I never realised Poole/Dorset was a bit of a standout of having three tiers of schooling (now gone) -First, Middle High/Secondary/Grammar
Chris Samuel@jonty does that data only cover England? My old high school in Cardiff is still called Fitzalan High School. http://www.fitzalan.cardiff.sch.uk/
@chris_bloke Yep, just England - apparently also common in Scotland
@jonty Thanks! Just to add confusion my high school had lower, middle and upper schools within it.
Piranhallama@jonty North Staffs, everyone called it secondary school. It had high school in the name. Started in year seven, so according to the diagram it was indeed a secondary school.
coldclimate@jonty high school for me too. Cumbria. Now renamed to a Community College but I'm ok with that
prl@coldclimate @jonty Ulverston Victoria still seems to be a High School, though I don't remember anyone using the full title when I was there. Back then it was split into two sites, Upper and Lower, which usefully described both the age range and the altitude.
@coldclimate @jonty Never knew this was a NW, and particularly Lancashire thing. Ulverston's in Furness, which was Lancashire pre-1974.
Graham Dunning@jonty ah interesting! My secondary school in Burnley was Gawthorpe County High School (now closed). Pretty sure there were other "high"s in town too.
Ruben@jonty thank you. This will one day help me proof our point.
The Secretbatcave@jonty is it related to the prevalence of middle schools vs primary?
For Norfolk middle schools only exist in big towns and Norwich/kings lynn.
Hayley