American students....?

Question

I am a little confused... i'm English and i've never understood how the american education system works. In england we start school in nursery, then reception, we then go to year 1, year 2 etc. until we get to year 11 in high school. Do you call your school years ''Grades''? How old are you in each grade?

Answer 1

We start school in 'preschool', which is ages 3-4.  Then we have 'Kindergarten', which is like your reception, only mainly age 5 instead of 4 and a half.  Then we have 1st, 2nd, 3rd grade etc...Since we're a year behind you, First Grade is like Year Two, etc.  Then at ninth grade we start high school, although you start high school, or "college" in Year 7, which is what we call sixth grade.  For us, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade is middle school.

Answer 2

Preschool is not mandatory.  Some kids do "Head Start", some do a pre-Kindergarten, while others stay home until K.

We usually start in kindergarten at age about 5.  We don't call that a "grade" usually, although sometimes it gets called Grade K. or Grade 0.  Some school systems have a later starting-age, so the K's would be almost 6 or already 6.

First grade would be the year after.  First through about sixth would be considered "elementary".  Then 7th and 8th would be "junior high" and 9th-12th would be "high school".  People generally graduate at 17, 18, or 19, depending on when their birthday falls in relation to their starting school in Kindergarten, assuming that they don't fail a grade somewhere between there and graduating.  

Sometimes, though, 5th - 8th is "middle school", and sometimes 7th - 9th is considered "junior high", with 10th - 12th being "high school".

You think that's confusing?  Sometimes these designations vary even from town to town, or school to school!

Answer 3

pre-school 3-4 yearsold

kidnergarten 5 y/o

elementary school grades 1-5 ages 5-10

middle school or junior high grades6-8 ages 11-13

highschool grades 9-12 ages 14-17

ages may vary due to birthdays and late students.