Secondary school

A secondary school or a high school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both lower secondary education (ages 11 to 14) and upper secondary education (ages 14 to 18), i.e., both levels 2 and 3 of the ISCED scale, but these can also be provided in separate schools. In the US, most local secondary education systems have separate middle schools and high schools. In the UK, most state schools and privately funded schools accommodate pupils between the ages of 11–16 or 11–18; some UK private schools, i.e. public schools, admit pupils between the ages of 13 and 18. Secondary schools follow on from primary schools and prepare for vocational or tertiary education. Attendance is usually compulsory for students until age 16. The organisations, buildings, and terminology are more or less unique in each country. In the ISCED 2011 education scale levels 2 and 3 correspond to secondary education which are as follows: Lower secondary education First stage of secondary education building on primary education, typically with a more subject-oriented curriculum. Students are generally around 11–16 years old. Upper secondary education Second stage of secondary education and final stage of formal education for students typically aged 16–18, preparing for tertiary/adult education or providing skills relevant to employment, usually with an increased range of subject options and streams. Within the English-speaking world, there are three widely used systems to describe the age of the child. The first is the 'equivalent ages'; then countries that base their education systems on the 'English model' use one of two methods to identify the year group, while countries that base their systems on the 'American K–12 model' refer to their year groups as 'grades'. The Irish model is structured similarly to the English model, but differs significantly in terms of labels. This terminology extends into the research literature.