How does your school system work?

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I'm curious as to how the school systems work in everbody's countries, mainly because I read about the clusterfuck that is the German school system the other day. So, how does your school system work?

Here in the US, you have twelve mandatory years of school called grades, and most parents take their kids to preschool and kindergarten as well. Typically, the twelve required years start when you're 5, 6, or 7, and end when you're 17, 18 or 19.

Typically, the twelve grades are split up into three different sections depending on the school district: Elementary, Middle or Junior High, and High or Senior High school.

Elementary: First through Fourth or Fifth Grade

Middle/Junior High: Sixth or Seventh through Eighth or Ninth Grade

High/Senior High: Ninth or Tenth through Twelth

After the twelve mandatory years, most people go to college or university for 2-6 years. If memory serves, it's 2 years for an Associate's Degree, 4 years for a Bachelor's Degree, and 6 years for a Master's Degree.

For anything beyond that (Doctorate, Ph. D.), you go to Graduate School for I think four or so years after college.

If I left anything out about the American school system, please tell me!
 
Pretty much the same over here in Canada.

Except we use different terms, such as:

Forgot the first grouping -.-

Junior: Grades 3-6.
Intermediate: Grades 7-8.

Then High school for 9-12.

Thanks.
 
My school system is the same as the one in the US, but where I live, it starts at June and ends in March (I don't take that system). The grades are different:
-Primary school (grade 1-6)
-Secondary school (1st year to fourth year)
-College/university (4-year degree courses that have 2 semsters a year)
 
Oh... I hate my school district.

K-1 in one building

2-3 in another

4-5 in another

6-8 is middle school in another building

9-12 is high school in another building

And then there's the Running Start Program that's a whole nother ball game.
 
We have 5 Elementary Schools....even though I live in a village with less than 10,000 people -___- all of them are K-4, but one of them is K-6.
The ones that are K-4 go to the Intermediate School, grades 5-6.
Then they all bunch together for Middle School, 7-8.
Then they go to High School, 9-12 :3

I won't even mention the 2 other school systems we have here -____-
 
I live in Long Island
but I have 4 K-4 Schools than a random School which is 5-6 and than 7-8 and 9-12
 
here in ontario, we've got twevle grades.

elementary - grade 1 to grade 6
intermediate/middle - grade 7 to grade 8
secondary - grade 9 to grade 12

in some cases, if the elementary school you go to is far away and not so close to a secondary school, they include grade 7 and grade 8 students. some secondary schools have grade 7 and grade 8 students too. it depends where you go, really.

also, it is illegal to not go to school, which means that you HAVE to go to school. if you don't register your child, you will have to pay a fine. i've been through this back in 2008. the school board told us that we'd have to pay $2000 if i didn't go back to school. the reason why i didn't want to go back to school is because i was being bullied. that's not the only reason, but i'm not gonna talk about it in this thread; it's very complex. so yeah, you have to go to school, otherwise you have to pay a fee. that's RIDICULOUS. you shouldn't have to pay a fee if your child doesn't want to go to school. if they decide not to go, they must deal with the consequence, which is failing at life. you can't just tell someone that because their child refuses to go to school, they have to pay $2000. and if you decide to confront the school board about it (which is what we did), your family will have to waste thousands of dollars on a lawyer and go to court. it's an unpleasant situation, trust me.

you need 30 credits to get your diploma. there are 18 credits that you need no matter what. they're called compulsory credits. here they are:

• 4 credits in english
• 3 credits in mathematics
• 2 credits in science
• 1 credit in canadian history
• 1 credit in canadian geography
• 1 credit in the arts
• 1 credit in health and physical education
• 1 credit in french as a second language
• 0.5 credit in career studies
• 0.5 credit in civics

so you need all of these ones, plus 12 optional credits. so 18 + 12 = 30. optional credits vary from school to school... in my school, they offer many things such as:

• anthropology
• world religions
• independent living
• parenting
• foods/nutrition
• law
• native studies
• physics
• chemistry
• biology

and LOTS more.

you also need to complete 40 hours of community involvement activities, as well as the the provincial literacy test. and that's pretty much it. that's all you need to get your diploma.
 
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Mine's relatively the same as most of the others. Sorta.

Kindergarten and preschool are the same and then we have:

Elementary- 1 to 4
Middle school- 5 to 8
High School- 9 to 12

Then there's university but I don't really know much about that. For a good degree you have to study for 5 years that much I know for certain.
 
In mine:
Elementary School: K-5
Middle School: 6-8
High School: 9-12.

Unless you go to a catholic/private school. Then it is:
Elementary School: K-8
High School: 9-12.
 
Here in Maryland, Pre-K is unnecessary, Kindergarden is it's own class, Elementary is grades 1-5, Middle is grades 6-8, and High School is grades 9-12. I can't think of any place that has both a Middle and High school in the same building, but it's very popular for K-8 to have the same building, if not two buildings side by side.
 
Elementary - 1-5
Middle - 6-8
High - 9-12

Thats how my school works
 
Instead of grades, we had year groups(I'm speaking in past tense, as I've moved along to University...)

The new school year starts around early February and ends around December(Or November for the later year groups, cause of exams)

First there was kindergarten(not compulsory, but higly recommended). I apparently got in trouble a few times in kindy, lol. Then when you turn 5 you get sent to "big kid's school"

Primary school was from Year 1 to Year 6(You had to do new entrants if you were born in the second half of the year, as once you turn 5, you go straight to school and wait to be put into Year one when the new year starts. The oldest kids in the year group are born around July, and the youngest are almost a year younger(June babies)).

Then there's 2 years of Intermediate school(Years 7 & 8, some primary schools actually have intermediate level included)

Then there's 5 years of Secondary school. Students from Year 11 - 13(I assume this is the equivalent to 12th grade, perhaps) sit the National exams, where you just have to get the required amount of credits to get into uni(most of you guys on here call it college). And the drop out age is 15. So you basically start Primary school at 5, and finish High school(if you choose to stay) around 17 - 18.
 
In Malaysia, we start things off at the usual Kindergarten, which is not mandatory, but still, this is attended by the young ones from ages 4 to 6.

Then, at the age of usually 7, which I found out is later than the average school systems (like America, for instance), we kick things off at the start of the year (because the place is near the equator) in Primary School with the equivalent of Year 1, Standard 1. Then, the next year, we go to Standard 2, then Standard 3 the following year. Now this is the part that the past had, but the present doesn't. There is a test that allows students to skip to Standard 5 on the following year if they are intelligent enough, otherwise Standard 4 is the way to go. Fast-forward to Standard 6: there is a compulsory test. This will determine your path to the nest level, Secondary School.

Typically, failing the national language Malay from a Chinese or Indian Primary School in the test mentioned will lead the student to what is known as the "Transition Year", where students from those school will catch up with their Malay, which will help them in the following years. Those who passed or are from Malay Primary Schools will go straight to Form 1 (basically Year 1 in Secondary School). Transition Year students go to Form 1 later. During the Form 3 time, then students will take another compulsory test, which will determine the future field (Science, Commerce and Arts). Normally Science is the sought-after field because it is basically the "Intelligent" type.

Form 4 is when the students got to divide in the field of interest. This is the only year it got to be done, because after that things become hard. Form 5 is the big year for everyone, because the most important compulsory test is held at the end of the year when the school holidays are on.

After all those years of schooling, everyone gets to choose their own field of education at this point. They could go to Form 6, which is divided to Lower and Upper, with the Lower starting at the middle of the year. Form 6 focuses on the field of your study in a hard and challenging way. Or, the student could go straight to University and/or College and go to Pre-U, or if lucky, go foreign. At this point, I think everyone is familiar because tertiary education is universal.

Well, to summarise:

Kindergarten ->
Primary School
​
Standard 1 ->
​
Standard 2 ->
​
Standard 3 ->
​
Standard 4 ->
​
Standard 5 ->
​
Standard 6 ->
Secondary School
​
if (Failed Malay and Chinese or Indian student)
​
{ Transition Year } ->
​
Form 1 ->
​
Form 2 ->
​
Form 3 ->
​
Form 4 ->
​
Form 5 ->
Own Path (Form 6 or tertiary education)
 
Here, where I reside, we have a crappy school system. (Note I live in America.) School in inclement weather and whatnot. Ahh, it's just way too much to explain. Instead, I'll keep it short and sweet.

So elementary school goes from 1st grade to 5th grade. Elementary schools also have prekindergarden (or whatever it's called; I didn't go, so I wouldn't know) and kindergarden as well.

Middle school houses grades 6 through 8. We can also start taking high school level classes starting in 7th grade (as far as I'm aware anyways; they're supposed to be changing things). Some of the middle schools also have block scheduling, which I'll explain in the next paragraph.

High school is grades 9 through 12. Here, students go through block scheduling. It's an alternate day schedule, if you will. They're called A days and B days here. Basically, on an A day, you'll take 3 to 4 classes. On a B day, you'll take another 3 to 4 classes. So like on A days you have English, science, math, and lunch. Then on B days, you have history, band, independent living, and psychology. (I used the first things that came to my head, mkays?) You'd have English, science, math, & lunch on your A days and history, band, independent living, & psychology on your B days. It's fairly simple, really. We also have nice, fancy names for the different grade levels. 9th graders are freshmen, 10th graders are sophomores, 11th graders are juniors, & 12th graders are seniors. Advancement onto the next grade level is based on your English class or the number of credits you have, depending on the situation. After high school, it's college.

We have two types of diplomas: a standard & an advanced studies. For standard, you need a total of 22 credits, with 4 in English, 4 in history, 3 in math, 3 in science, 2 in health/PE, and 6 elective credits. For an advanced studies, you need a total of 24 credits, with 4 in English, 4 in history, 4 in math, 4 in science, 2 in health/PE, 3 foreign language (which can be obtained by taking 3 years of the same foreign language or 2 years of 2 different languages), 1 fine arts, & 2 electives.

Ahh, I love my insane school system. Only 2 more years left in it & I'm free. :)
 
I live in Australia and here's our system:

Primary School - Kindergarden, Pre-Primary, Years 1-6
High School - Years 7-12

The school year runs from Febraury to December with three breaks in between and a summer break in later December, and January
 
This is the Finnish school system. A better version available in Wikipedia.

* Six years old kids can go optionally to a esikoulu (lit. preschool).
* In the age of seven (in some cases, most notably when one would become seven soon after starting in the school, in the age of six), kids start in the ala-aste (lit. lower degree). It lasts for six years and is compulsory.

The first year concentrates on learning to read, writing letters and numbers, and basic maths. More subjects are added on further years; most subjects start on the second or third (can't remember which) year. The first secondary language, usually English, is started on the third year, at least. Chemistry and Physics start on fourth year, an optional additional secondary language (e.g. German or French) can be started on fifth year.
​
* After that, they move on to yläaste (lit. higher degree). It lasts for three years and is also compulsory.
* When the compulsory studies are over, there is a choice between lukio (upper secondary school) and ammattikoulu (vocational school, lit. occupation school). They can take anywhere from two to four years, depending on how hard one studies.
* By completing lukio, one can apply to a university or a polytechnic. Usually one is at least 18 years old at this point.
 
Starts in August, ends in June, including spring break and Christmas vacation.

Primary: Kindergarten and 1st
Elementary: 2nd-5th
Middle School: 6th-8th
High School: 9th-12th

Then college, don't know much about that. In a few weeks I'm going into 8th grade.

That's in my school, an American school, different from other schools. Here's the typical Guatemalan school system:

Kinder (Kindergarten)
Preparatoria (1st)
1 (2nd)
2 (3rd)
3 (4th)
4 (5th)
5 (6th)
6 (7th)
1 Basico (8th)
2 Basico (9th)
3 Bachillerato (10th)
4 Bachillerato (11th)
5 Bachillerato (12th)
 
School system of Slovenia:

Before the age of 6, kids can go to vrtec(kindergarten) optionally. There used to be a mandatory mala šola at age of 6, but now it no longer exists.

At the age of 6, children enter primary school and usually finish it at around 14. There are 9 grades. Each grade is divided in two terms.

There are four holidays for children in a school year: autumn holidays in late October, Christmas holidays, winter holidays in mid-to-late February (it depends on the region), and May first holidays. Each holiday lasts for a week. The school year starts on September 1 and ends on June 24.

Primary school is divided into three periods; each has 3 grades. At the end of each period state tests are taken by students.

Secondary education is optional in Slovenia, but the vast majority continues with schooling anyway.

In general, there are two main types of secondary schools: gimnazija (gymnasium or upper secondary school) and poklicna srednja šola (technical high schools). Both last for 4 years.
- Gymnasiums are more difficult and offer a wide variety of knowledge instead of focusing on just one profession. They end with an examination called matura. Students usually choose to continue schooling with university education.
- Technical high schools, however, is where people go to obtain a profession. A school therefore focuses on one area. There is a vocational exam at the end of the fourth year. Students may usually then study at professional colleges, futher educating in their area.

There is also higher education, to obtain a masters degree or a doctorate.

EDIT: There is an article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Slovenia, but it has a few mistakes and is a bit outdated.
 
Better info here. The image wíll help you. Now about the Dutch school systems:

Optional is a school for under 4 year olds, which can work as a daycare.

then we get elementary school, exisiting of 8 grades. Grade 1 and 2 are the equivalent of kindergarten, where we can find 4 and 5 year olds (and possibly 6 year olds too). Then we get grade 3 to 8 (1 to 6 in US norms). After this kids go to high school, after which the countdown starts over again, starting with grade 1 (7th grade in US norms), to grade 4, 5 or 6. The lowest form of high school education, VMBO, only has 4 years, HAVO has 5, and VWO (the highest) and Gymnasium (VWO with Latin or Greek) both have 6 years. To which one you go, VMBO, HAVO or VWO is decided by your elementary school teachers, who know how intellegent you are.

After that you can go to Collage for I believe 4 years, it being MBO if you completed VMBO-T, it being HBO if you did HAVO, and it being University if you did VWO or Gymnasium.



I myself am currently going to 6 Gymnasium, the last class of high school, and most likely to University the year after that.
 
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