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A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a
school A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes comp ...
for primary education of children who are four to eleven years of age. Primary schooling follows pre-school and precedes secondary schooling. The
International Standard Classification of Education The International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) is a statistical framework for organizing information on education maintained by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It is a member of the in ...
considers primary education as a single phase where programmes are typically designed to provide fundamental skills in reading, writing, and mathematics and to establish a solid foundation for learning. This is ISCED Level 1: Primary education or first stage of basic education.Annex III in the ISCED 2011 English.pdf
Navigate to International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED)


Levels of education


Comparison of cohorts

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 K–12, from kindergarten to 12th grade, is an American English expression that indicates the range of years of publicly supported primary and secondary education found in the United States, which is similar to publicly supported school grades ...
model" refer to their year groups as "grades". Canada also follows the American model, although its names for year groups are put the number after the grade: For instance, "Grade 1" in Canada, rather than "First Grade" in the United States. This terminology extends into the research literature. In Canada, education is a Provincial, not a Federal responsibility. For example, the province of Ontario also had a "
Grade 13 Thirteenth grade, grade thirteen, or super senior year is the final year of secondary school in some jurisdictions. In some locales, receiving a high school diploma or equivalent is compulsory. In others, receiving a high school diploma is not req ...
," designed to help students enter the workforce or post-secondary education, but this was phased out in the year 2003.


Primary schools

In most parts of the world, primary education is the first stage of compulsory education, and is normally available without charge, but may also be offered by fee-paying independent schools. The term grade school is sometimes used in the US, although both this term and elementary school may refer to the first eight grades, in other words both primary education and lower
secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final pha ...
. The term ''primary school'' is derived from the French ''école primaire'', which was first used in an English text in 1802. In the United Kingdom, "elementary education" was taught in "elementary schools" until 1944, when free elementary education was proposed for students over 11: there were to be primary elementary schools and secondary elementary schools; these became known as primary schools and secondary schools. * ''Primary school'' is the preferred term in the United Kingdom, Ireland and many
Commonwealth nations The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Co ...
, and in most publications of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (
UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
). * ''Elementary school'' is still preferred in some countries, especially in the United States and Canada. In some parts of the United States, "primary school" refers to a school covering
kindergarten Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th ce ...
through to second grade or third grade (K through 2 or 3); the "elementary school" includes grade three through five or grades four to six. In Canada, "elementary school" almost everywhere refers to Grades 1 through 6; with Kindergarten being referred to as "preschool." * In South Africa, primary school starts from Grade R (age 5-6) till Grade 7 (age 12-13). It typically comes after
preschool A preschool, also known as nursery school, pre-primary school, or play school or creche, is an educational establishment or learning space offering early childhood education to children before they begin compulsory education at primary sch ...
and before secondary school.


Elementary schools

Though often used as a synonym, "elementary school" has specific meanings in different locations. *
Elementary schools A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ed ...
also known as
Board School School boards were public bodies in England and Wales between 1870 and 1902, which established and administered elementary schools. School boards were created in boroughs and parishes under the Elementary Education Act 1870 following campaigni ...
s were first established in England and Wales in 1870 by the Forster Act (Elementary Education Act 1870). Most of these schools became primary schools in the late 1940s, following the historic compromise in the 1944 Education Act. *
Elementary school (United States) An elementary school is a primary school which is the main point of delivery of primary education in the United States, for children between the ages of 5–11 and coming between pre-kindergarten and secondary education. In 2017, there were 1 ...
: were first promoted in 1647 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Today, there are currently approximately 92,858 elementary schools (68,173 public, 24,685 private). In the United States, elementary schools usually have six grades with pupils aged between 5 and 11 years old. The
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was passed by the 89th United States Congress and signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on April 11, 1965. Part of Johnson's "War on Poverty", the act has been one of the most far-re ...
was designed to fund primary and
secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final pha ...
. It also emphasized equal access to education and established high standards and accountability. *
Elementary schools in Japan in Japan is compulsory. All children begin first grade in the April after they turn six--kindergarten is growing increasingly popular, but is not mandatory—and starting school is considered a very important event in a child's life. History ...
were first established by 1875. In Japan, the age of pupils in elementary school ranges from 6 to 12, after which the pupils enter junior high school.


Theoretical framework of primary school design

School building design does not happen in isolation. The building (or school campus) needs to accommodate: * Curriculum content * Teaching methods * Costs * Education within the political framework * Use of school building (also in the community setting) * Constraints imposed by the site * Design philosophy Each country will have a different education system and priorities. Schools need to accommodate students, staff, storage, mechanical and electrical systems, storage, support staff, ancillary staff and administration. The number of rooms required can be determined from the predicted roll of the school and the area needed. According to standards used in the United Kingdom, a general classroom for 30 reception class or infant (Keystage 1) students needs to be 62 m2, or 55 m2 for juniors (Keystage 2). Examples are given on how this can be configured for a 210 place primary with attached 26 place nursery and two-storey 420 place (two form entry) primary school with attached 26 place nursery.


Building design specifications

The building providing the education has to fulfill the needs of: The students, the teachers, the non-teaching support staff, the administrators and the community. It has to meet general government building guidelines, health requirements, minimal functional requirements for classrooms, toilets and showers, electricity and services, preparation and storage of textbooks and basic teaching aids. An optimum school will meet the minimum conditions and will have: * adequately sized classrooms—where 60 m2 in considered optimum but 80 m2 for the reception class * specialised teaching spaces * a staff preparation room * staff welfare facilities * an administration block * multipurpose classrooms * student toilet facilities * a general purpose school hall * adequate equipment * storage * a library or library stocks that are regularly renewed * computer rooms or media centres * counselling, sick and medical examination rooms Government accountants having read the advice then publish minimum guidelines on schools. These enable environmental modelling and establishing building costs. Future design plans are audited to ensure that these standards are met but not exceeded. Government ministries continue to press for the 'minimum' space and cost standards to be reduced. The UK government published this downwardly revised space formula for primary schools in 2014. It said the floor area should be 350 m2 + 4.1 m2/pupil place. The external finishes were to be downgraded to meet a build cost of £1113/m2.


Governance and funding

There are three main ways of funding a school: it can funded by the state through general taxation, it can be funded by a pressure group such as the mosque or the church, it can be funded by a charity or it can be funded by contributions from the parents or a combination of these methods. Day to day oversight of the school can through a board of governors, the pressure group, or the owner. The United Kingdom allowed elementary education to be delivered in
church school A Christian school is a school run on Christian principles or by a Christian organization. The nature of Christian schools varies enormously from country to country, according to the religious, educational, and political cultures. In some countr ...
s, whereas in France this was illegal as there is strict
separation of church and state The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular sta ...
.


Accountability

This can be through informal assessment by the staff and governors such as in Finland, or by a state run testing regime such as Ofsted in the United Kingdom.


See also

*
Dame school Dame schools were small, privately run schools for young children that emerged in the British Isles and its colonies during the early modern period. These schools were taught by a “school dame,” a local woman who would educate children f ...
*
Early childhood education Early childhood education (ECE), also known as nursery education, is a branch of education theory that relates to the teaching of children (formally and informally) from birth up to the age of eight. Traditionally, this is up to the equival ...
* Educational stage * Virtual reality in primary education * Vocal school (Blab school)


Notes


References


External links


National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) (United States)

Elementary Schools with Education and Crime Statistics (United States)

Australian CensusAtSchool (Australia)

Canadian Education Statistics Council (CESC) (United States)

Office for National Statistics (ONS) (United Kingdom)

BB103_Area_Guidelines_for_Mainstream_Schools (2014) UK

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) (United States)

OECD Standardised designs (2011)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Primary School Educational stages
School A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes comp ...
School terminology School types