Grammar school

A. k. a. elementary school or primary school.

A school which encompases the first six to eight grades of a child's education (in the US, at least). The word "grammar" is used not in the sense of "the study of how words are strung together to make sentences"; but "grammar" meaning "dealing with the basic principles of knowledge".

I've always liked the term "grammar school" better than "elementary school" or "primary school" because it's got that nice, archaic Laura Ingalls Wilder/Anne of Green Gables ring to it.

Grammar school is fun. A lot funner than Junior High School or High School. I mean homework usually involves coloring with Crayons or making stuff with Play-Doh. In retrospect, the only bad thing about grammar school was that I didn't get to play with girls enough. Oh well. Priorities change.

In the UK, a secondary school taking pupils between the ages of 12 and 18. Following various educational reforms, schools called "grammar school" fall into all kind of private and state-run categories, but used generically the term refers to local-authority-run schools which operate a selective intake system, traditionally via the "eleven plus" or "twelve plus" exam, which creams off the most academic 10% or so of pupils into grammar schools and decants the rest into secondary modern schools. Since the 1970s in most parts of the UK this system has been replaced by a non-selective "comprehensive" education system which doesn't actually write off 90% of the population's life chances at age 11. Selective state schooling continues to operate throughout the counties of Kent and Buckinghamshire and in smaller areas elsewhere for a total of around 150 schools.

NB that in the UK "High School" is generally a synonym of grammar school, especially but not exclusively used for single-sex selective schools for girls; many of the oldest established boys' grammar schools had parallel girls' high schools set up this century (e.g. the independent Manchester Grammar School and Manchester High School).

1. I don't know much about these places, but from what I have heard, they are much like in the rest of the country - children sit an intelligence test. It is possible that these counties operate a system just like the rest of the country, but people just complain about these counties more. More information forthcoming as and when it comes in.

2. Northern Ireland
In the province, all children are required to take the 11+ exam, which determines whether they go to a grammar school or a secondary modern. This is an academic exam that encompasses all subjects. This system used to operate in the whole UK, but was phased out everywhere else. Secondary moderns in the rest of the UK were noted for basically being there to keep kids occupied until they were considered old enough to feed the capitalist beast. There was the option of a technical school, but these were never very prevalent, and I can't comment on how meaningful an education they offered.

3. Everywhere else
Grammar Schools in the rest of the UK are allowed by special dispensation to select their entire intake, by any means they see fit, but usually by an intelligence test.

Note also that not all grammar schools are local-authority or lea run - the UK education system allows various degrees of autonomy, and grammar schools tend to like to opt for the greatest level possible.

Grammar schools tend to be highly-desired places to send children, as they get good exam results. Some people suspect that they manage this by only taking the most intelligent children. There is reason to believe, however, that it is also caused by other factors. The fact that they can target their education at a much narrower range of ability than comprehensives, which may bring economic gains, is one such reason. The other is that those which can cream off the best pupils (and not all can) can also pick the best teachers, as teachers like to teach in these places, as discpline problems tend to be low, and the kids non-too-stupid.

Not all grammar schools can, realistically, cream off the best pupils, as in areas where there are many grammar schools, the brighter children will tend to be drawn to the school with the best results. The reason why grammar schools tend not to have discipline problems are largely that they, by their nature, select against the kinds of children who will be more problematic: Those who are turned off by education, and don't care, or who come from a background that doesn't value education, will not sit the test. These children also tend to come from a more middle-class background, with all that that implies.