22-592: Watercliffe Meadow Community Primary School is a primary school in Sheffield , South Yorkshire , England . It is notable for changing its name from a " school " to "A place of learning" in January 2009, with staff at Watercliffe Meadow claiming that this was because, "the word school may have negative connotations for pupils and parents." The change was attacked for being too politically correct . The criticised "change" of name from "school" to "A place for learning"
44-652: A board of governors, the pressure group, or the owner. The United Kingdom allows elementary education to be delivered in church schools , whereas in France this is illegal as there is strict separation of church and state . 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. Thirteenth grade Thirteenth grade , grade thirteen , or super senior year
66-407: A place for family learning, where anyone can come. We were able to start from scratch and create a new type of learning experience. There are no whistles or bells or locked doors. We wanted to deinstitutionalise the place and bring the school closer to real life." The name on the sign was criticised, with people arguing that the change is too politically correct. Whilst this was exaggerated by dint of
88-457: A school, we consider it a school and that's how we refer to it. How a school chooses to manage and refer to itself is a matter for the board of governors and the community it serves and we're relaxed about that." The school is usually referred to simply as "Watercliffe Meadow" by staff and pupils, including on its official website. Primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India,
110-500: 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. 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
132-448: A synonym, "elementary school" has specific meanings in different locations. School building design does not happen in isolation. The building (or school campus) needs to accommodate: Each country will have a different education system and priorities. Schools need to accommodate students, staff, storage, mechanical and electrical systems, support staff, ancillary staff and administration. The number of rooms required can be determined from
154-537: 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 . 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
176-443: 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 required but may be a prerequisite to enrolling in certain post-secondary institutions . Students who are in thirteenth grade are usually 18–19 years old. The Ontario Academic Credit (OAC) ( French : Cours préuniversitaire de l'Ontario or CPO)
198-484: The Member of Parliament for Sheffield Central commented that: "I'm always open to new ideas, but the reality is education is about preparing young people to live in the real world. I just don't think the case has been made to drop the word school to a place of learning. I don't know why they have done it." Andrew Sangar, Sheffield city council's cabinet member for children's services and lifelong learning said that, "It's
220-578: The "English model" use one of two methods to identify the year group; while countries that base their systems on the "American K–12 model" refer to their year groups as "grades". Canada also follows the American model, although its names for year groups are put as a number after the grade: For instance, "Grade 1" in Canada, rather than "First Grade" in the United States. This terminology extends into
242-589: The United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore ), elementary school , or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary education of children who are 4 to 10 years of age (and in many cases, 11 years of age). Primary schooling follows preschool and precedes secondary schooling . The International Standard Classification of Education considers primary education as
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#1732801670536264-402: 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
286-486: The fact that the tabloid media reported, inaccurately, that the word school had been banned (and in fact it merely didn't appear on the sign and continues to be used daily by staff, parents and pupils) the slogan itself opened the school up to ridicule. There was also press emphasis on the name "change", when in fact the subtitle to the School (Watercliffe Meadow) has been fixed since before the material completion or opening of
308-400: The floor area should be 350 m + 4.1 m /pupil place. The external finishes were to be downgraded to meet a build cost of £1113/m . There are several main ways of funding a school: by the state through general taxation, by a pressure group such as a mosque or church, by a charity, by contributions from parents, or by a combination of these methods. Day-to-day oversight of the school can through
330-492: The minimum conditions and will have: 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
352-466: 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 m , or 55 m 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. The building providing
374-498: The premises. Further to this misrepresentation, Sheffield Star contacted Marie Clair from Plain English Campaign who said: "It's laughable. Do they think by changing the name they will change the environment? We all know what the building is. There is this whole political correctness agenda. Using unfamiliar words instead of a simple one, like 'school', will get in the way of children's ability to learn." Richard Caborn ,
396-495: The research literature. In Canada, education is a provincial, not a federal responsibility. For example, the province of Ontario also had a " Grade 13 ", designed to help students enter the workforce or post-secondary education, but this was phased out in the year 2003. 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
418-568: 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. In some parts of the United States, "primary school" refers to a school covering kindergarten 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." Though often used as
440-538: Was replaced in 1984 by the OAC for students starting high school ( grade 9 ). The OAC continued to act as a fifth year of secondary education until it was phased out in 2003. Most jurisdictions in the United States require or offer only twelfth grade as the final year of secondary school. Some school districts in Oregon offer a thirteenth grade. In North Carolina , early college high schools may provide 5 years, providing
462-467: Was reported with varying degrees of inaccuracy as being an early decision when the new school was formed as a merge between three former primary schools: Shirecliffe, Busk Meadow and Watermead infant and junior schools, at a cost of £4.7 million. Linda Kingdon, the head teacher said: "This is Watercliffe Meadow, a place for learning. One reason was many of the parents of the children here had very negative connotations of school. Instead, we want this to be
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#1732801670536484-583: Was the fifth year of secondary school education designed for students preparing for post-secondary education that existed in the province of Ontario , Canada . The OAC curriculum was codified by the Ontario Ministry of Education in Ontario Schools: ; Intermediate and Senior (OS: IS) and its revisions. The Ontario education system had five years of secondary education, the fifth year known as "grade 13" from 1921 to 1988. Grade 13
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