US English meaning of British word "Form" (school term).?

Question

I had read a sentence that said: "After the third form we were allowed to wear long pants."

Is a "form" a section of the school year?

If that's what it is talking about, here in the US the schools generally go by a six-week block of time for grading periods.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Caicos explained it well, but at least in Canada, we'd say "grade" not class. Pretty sure in the states as well--or you might say "year", especially if you say freshman, sophomore, junior, senior.

Answer 2

It's class. That's what we say for the main class you are in for the year (as opposed to individual classes you might find yourself in for various subjects with members of other forms).

We only use "form" for secondary education. i.e. from 11 to 18. We are divided into forms within the year of our age group, each one having a form teacher. My school started with the third form, going on to Lower Fourth, Upper Fourth, Shell (i.e. Upper Fifth), Lower Sixth and Upper Sixth, after which one left. A Middle Six was added between the Lower and Upper Sixths to persuade people to stay until the age of 19!

Answer 3

Here in Australia, we previously used the term "class" in Infants and Primary school, and "form" for High School,  but now use "year" across the board.  I hope the following helps:

We attend infants school in Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2(previously 1st and 2nd class).  Then we go on to primary school for Year 3, Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6(previously 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th class).  Infants and Primary are two parts of the one school.



We then go on to High School for Years 7,8,9 and 10 which we previously called 1stForm, 2nd Form, 3rd Form and 4th Form.  High School is an entirely separate school.  Some students continue on to Years 11 and 12, previously 5th and 6th Form.  We sit an exam for our School Certificate at the end of Year 10.  If we choose to stay on, we sit an exam for our Higher School Certificate at the end of Year 12.  There is currently some discussion of whether to make Years 11 and 12 compulsory for all students, and getting rid of the School Certificate.

Hope this helps, a that you're not too confused!!!

Answer 4

We say "grade."

In high school, we use freshman year, sophomore year, junior year, senior year.