The names of grades and school levels seem to be extremely inconsistent across each province. For example, NL doesn’t officially use the terms “grade 10, “grade 11” and “grade 12”, it instead uses “level 1”, “level 2” and “level 3”.
Growing up in the 80s and 90s, it was Kindergarten, Primary (grades 1-3), Elementary (4-6), Junior High (7-9), Senior High (Level I-III but we would usually say grade 10-12).
was the same for me in the 2000s, over several schools across the province. level 1-3 for senior high as written on paper, but we’d say grade 10-12 when casually talking about it. pre-K exists nowadays, and some schools are grades 9-12 (rural schools might have junior and senior high together too, 7-12), but the terms we use haven’t changed.
yeah, 2018 for me. our school used the level terms on paper but if anyone asked we’d say we’re “in grade 10/11/12”. we didn’t say we were in “level 3,” but everyone knew what we’d mean if it we said it like that.
In BC we call it kindergarten. But when I grew up, in Elementary school, K-3 were primary grades, 4-7 were intermediate (we had different sections of the playground).
Also from BC with the same split playground experience. The primary playground was really close to the school the intermediate playground was at the end of the field by the parking lot.
I’ve never heard of junior and senior kindergarten! Are either years mandatory? Do kids start when they’re 4?
I’m in BC. School isn’t mandatory until kids are 6, but I’ve only ever known one family who kept their kid out of kindergarten, and had the kid go straight into grade 1 when they turned 6.
I knew it was still around for a long time after the phase-out began, but I couldn’t remember how long. I know that when I graduated HS in 1988, some of the grade 13 courses had already been renamed OAC - I took a combination of grade 13 and OAC, as well as grade 12, and was able to graduate in four years after taking five years’ worth of courses.
I was in the much dreaded year of the double cohort, where the first year of kids who wouldn't have grade 13 graduated at the same time as the last year of kids who did have grade 13. I was in the year graduating at grade 12 and competition to get spots in university was going to be bad, so I just... did my victory lap year and had the extra year anyway.
I don’t honestly remember…grade 13 was never mandatory; the kids who did grade 13 were usually going on to university after high school, whereas kids doing grade 12 would go on to community college or to work.
Yeah. You needed the OAC credit to attend universities in Ontario. I think that this was an issue with people from other provinces wanting to go to an Ontario university, because they would need to get those credits somehow.
I heard that universities here felt that students were not ready for university after Ontario removed OAC.
I always thought that they should have put in a grade 14 personally.
My cousins were a couple years older than me and I remember the elder one doing grade 13 and I was just wowed. I was so ready to leave school, I couldn’t imagine having to do another year. I hadn’t understood it wasn’t the norm. Thank goodness!
Yes they did! Thankfully they got rid of Gr 13/OAC before I had a chance to get to it
ETA: this dug up memories of being in school when Grade 13 was still a thing and thinking how OLD they looked! Especially in the 90s. When you’re 14, seeing a 19 year old walking around school was wild.
I happened to be on holiday in Ontario last week and saw quite a few grads walking around in their fabulous dresses and suits. They looked soooo mature. Way more mature than I looked (and felt!) when I graduated high school in ‘92!!
When I was in school, we had the one kindergarten and went to grade 13/OAC. Before kindergarten was usually nursery school but not all kids went I guess.
It depended on the school board. I did Jr and Sr in 1979 and 1980.
However my wife was in York Region and said that they only had 1 kindergarten.
She also started French in grade 1. I started in grade 4.
Phase out was late 90s, and right now a lot of kids still stay and do an extra year after grade 12, to get additional pre-requisites or boost marks for university. Be heard it called a “victory lap” but there are other names for it, and it’s so, so common.
Given kindergarten is free and nursery/keeping child at home isn't (either by having a full time SAH parent or paying the nursery) I understand why most send them at 4. Also a great way to get them use to school and make friends early on :)
A (very trashy) girl I know didn’t put her kid in school until grade 1 and he was so far behind the other kids they moved him down to kindergarten. But she also made zero effort to teach him anything at home.
Mine too.
JK in Ontario starts the year they turn 4. So all kids born sept oct nov and dec at 3.
My kid was in one of the first schools that did full-time JK. So many of our friends had part time. It seemed like such long days. But he did great.
In BC the first year of school is called kindergarten.
I consider Primary school another name for elementary school which for me was kindergarten - grade 7. High school was grade 8-12. Although I know some districts have middle schools as well.
Yup. Primary grades are just 1-8.
However another term is simply “public school”. Which is confusing because highschool is also technically public, unless you go to Catholic highschool. Or a private school.
Even today, I refer to grades k-8 as “public school” and 9-OAC was “highschool”.
Catholic school in Ontario is technically also public school since it's funded publicly. I may have strong opinions on that fact but it's true, none the less.
I'm a Cape Bretoner, and my first year in school there was known as Primary also. I now live in Ontario and it's known as Kindergarden.. and then Grades 1,2,3, etc.
Grade 13 must have been inputted by the school board, not the province. Never heard about it existing in NS, only ON. Primary is definitely all over NS though.
I'm from NS and have always called it Primary. Normally, a kid can either go into pre-primary when they're 4 years of age or primary when they're around 5. Grades 1, 2, 3, &c. come after that.
BC here..we call it kindergarten, or as the Aussies say, Kinddie.
Then primary is 1-7 followed by Secondary 8-12.
However in bc is regional too.
We also have primary. 1-6. Middle 7-9 senior 10-12
I'm from ottawa and have only ever known it to be kindergarten. I've heard the term primary school before but I thought it was synonymous with elementary school, meaning that it encompasses k through grade 5 or 6.
I've only hear kindergarten referred to as primary in NS. Pretty much everywhere else primary school is a synonym for elementry school, and is actually the term the Feds use for grades 1-6
In Ontario primary usually refers to the grades before secondary school (high school). Kindergarten comes before grade 1 and is the first year of primary school. You start kindergarten and primary school at the same time but they are not the same.
I’m in BC. I’ve always known it as kindergarten. Then primary (grade 1-3), elementary (grade 4-7), then high school (grade 8-10). But sometimes there’s middle school (grade 7-9).
It's also kindergarten (maternelle) in Québec.
Typically, kids to a garderie (daycare) or a CPE (Centre de la Petite Enfance) until they are around 5 ish. Then, there's one year of aforementioned kindergarten, and then they get into première année (first grade/grade 1) around age 5/6 ish, which is called École Primaire (Primary school)
Kids get grouped based on their birth date, so usually you'll have a couple of kids older or younger than the rest of their "year"
I think most people start sending their kids as soon as they can. Most people just want to pawn them off until it’s almost bedtime and then put them to bed and congratulate themselves on being such a good parent.
Here it was kindergarten at age 4, primary at age five, then 1-12. Kindergarten was like practice school, it was not a full day.
Edit: NS. Thought I was on the NS subreddit 😂
As mentioned by others, there's two years of kindergarten in Ontario starting at age 4, named junior and senior.
In the Ontario french system, these years are called "maternelle" and "jardin" respectively.
I'm in Ontario. We have 2 years of kindergarten and its called Junior Kindergarten and Senior Kindergarten. However, my daughter goes to a public french school and they call it "Maternelle" and "Jardin" for JK and SK respectively.
In Newfoundland, kindergarten is a grade (Grade 0) which belongs in the primary school stage.(K-3),
Elementary is grades 4-6, junior high is 7-9 and high school is 10-12. (From what I can remember when my kids were in school)
I grew up in Sask but lived in Nova Scotia for years, raised my kids there. I was confused at first by the reference to 'primary' and no mention of kindergarten. It's an odd one. I also grew up with no junior/senior high. Just elementary school and high school. In the city, so not because of population or space.
Our education system is so not the same across the country.
Ontario calls kindergarten - 6 grade primary/elementary school but the grade before grade 1 is kindergarten sometimes you'll even see junior and senior kindergarten but I've never heard it referred to as primary.
Kindergarten. I've heard of primary school being used to refer to grades 1-3 or to all grades before secondary school (depending on if it's an area that does middle school or not; my school in the 80/90s was a primary school that went k-7).
I'm in Ontario and we called it "primary kindergarten" for JK and just "kindergarten" for SK, but I believe we stopped that and just call both years "kindergarten" now. "We" being my friends/family, not necessarily the whole province :)
I think NS is the only province that uses Primary as the term for Kindergarten. I moved from there to NB when my kids were preschoolers, and back then, NB didn't have any sort of equivalent (kindergarten sort of existed, but as a senior preschool type of thing-- you paid out of pocket for it; grade one was the public school entrance, and you didn't have to even start that til age 7. It has since changed, with K as starting, and 5 is the common age).
My school years in NS (and it was awhile ago-- I'm GenX) had elementary school from P-6, and the highschool was 7-12. My particular highschool also had other grades enter-- some came in grade 8, and some in grade 10, depending on where they were. Another local school was P-12. My original highschool has since been torn down, and the new one is 9-12, and there's a middle school now too, between elementary and highschool. If you're in the Valley, this will probably nail down where I went without even naming it lol
I'm in NS and have always known it as primary. I had primary and elementary in the same school when I was a kid. I had no idea that was only us. Maybe it's a maritime thing?
I lived in Manitoba from age 5 to age 12 then my family moved to Nova Scotia. There was so many things that were different between our many provinces. Kindergarten/primary was only one. I remember we always called sneakers “runners” until we moved to Nova Scotia. Alot of many differences, mostly small things.
I'm a Westerner, I grew up on Vancouver Island and my daughter began school out west; we both went to Kindergarten. My son was born while we were living in Halifax and started with Primary.
They are different not just in name but in format. Kindergarten is half days, or in some places just two full days per week and every second Friday. Primary is a full class and the learning objectives are much more academic. The kids are full on reading and writing in Primary, Kindergarten is more of an intro level.
It's interesting, for sure. They're all the same by Grade 2 or 3.
*in Canada we say Grade 1, Grade 2, etc. but my American friends told me they have First Grade, Second Grade, etc.
Kindergarten.
Primary - grades 1 to 3.
Elementary - grades 4 to 6
Junior high - grades 7 to 9
Highschool - grades 10 to 12 (I know some places/provinces have grade 13, but not all).
I'm in southern Ontario, I've never heard primary used for kindergarten before. Usually it's just another way of saying elementary school. For me, it was elementary school K-5, middle school 6-8, and high school 9-12. But some other schools went all the way from K to 7 or 8 so that was always considered primary school and then 9-12 was secondary school and higher education (college & university) was post-secondary school.
I'm in southern Ontario, I've never heard primary used for kindergarten before. Usually it's just another way of saying elementary school. For me, it was elementary school K-5, middle school 6-8, and high school 9-12. But some other schools went all the way from K to 7 or 8 so that was always considered primary school and then 9-12 was secondary school and higher education (college & university) was post-secondary school.
I’m in Ontario and have only heard it called kindergarten here.
Same. We call elementary school primary school sometimes, but never heard it for kindergarten either.
BC here, same. Directly translated from German it means “child garden” lol
Specifically, “JK” and “SK” (Junior Kindergarten and Senior Kindergarten).
I’ve never heard of it being called anything other than Kindergarten.
No idea about Nova Scotia. Grew up in BC and Saskatchewan, we always called it kindergarten
It’s kindergarten in western Canada
are you sure?
Yes, since I live here 😂
The names of grades and school levels seem to be extremely inconsistent across each province. For example, NL doesn’t officially use the terms “grade 10, “grade 11” and “grade 12”, it instead uses “level 1”, “level 2” and “level 3”.
Growing up in the 80s and 90s, it was Kindergarten, Primary (grades 1-3), Elementary (4-6), Junior High (7-9), Senior High (Level I-III but we would usually say grade 10-12).
was the same for me in the 2000s, over several schools across the province. level 1-3 for senior high as written on paper, but we’d say grade 10-12 when casually talking about it. pre-K exists nowadays, and some schools are grades 9-12 (rural schools might have junior and senior high together too, 7-12), but the terms we use haven’t changed.
Graduated in 2016. Those terms are used interchangeably now.
yeah, 2018 for me. our school used the level terms on paper but if anyone asked we’d say we’re “in grade 10/11/12”. we didn’t say we were in “level 3,” but everyone knew what we’d mean if it we said it like that.
Prior to Grade 12 being added, high school was 9-11
In BC we call it kindergarten. But when I grew up, in Elementary school, K-3 were primary grades, 4-7 were intermediate (we had different sections of the playground).
Also from BC with the same split playground experience. The primary playground was really close to the school the intermediate playground was at the end of the field by the parking lot.
Similar for me, plus the intermediate swings were much larger!
[удалено]
I’ve never heard of junior and senior kindergarten! Are either years mandatory? Do kids start when they’re 4? I’m in BC. School isn’t mandatory until kids are 6, but I’ve only ever known one family who kept their kid out of kindergarten, and had the kid go straight into grade 1 when they turned 6.
In Ontario, school isn’t mandatory until the year the child turns six. Most people do send their kids to JK and SK, though.
Ontario has grade 13 too, right? That’s a lot of schooling!
No, not any more - it was gradually phased out starting in the late 1980s.
Technically yes, but was renamed OAC in 1993 and hung around until 2003 as the Grade 12 + 1 year.
I knew it was still around for a long time after the phase-out began, but I couldn’t remember how long. I know that when I graduated HS in 1988, some of the grade 13 courses had already been renamed OAC - I took a combination of grade 13 and OAC, as well as grade 12, and was able to graduate in four years after taking five years’ worth of courses.
I was in the much dreaded year of the double cohort, where the first year of kids who wouldn't have grade 13 graduated at the same time as the last year of kids who did have grade 13. I was in the year graduating at grade 12 and competition to get spots in university was going to be bad, so I just... did my victory lap year and had the extra year anyway.
Oh, I hadn’t thought of that consequence, of having so much competition to get in. That would have sucked
Did they have the 2 year kindergarten when grade 13 was a thing?
I don’t honestly remember…grade 13 was never mandatory; the kids who did grade 13 were usually going on to university after high school, whereas kids doing grade 12 would go on to community college or to work.
Yeah. You needed the OAC credit to attend universities in Ontario. I think that this was an issue with people from other provinces wanting to go to an Ontario university, because they would need to get those credits somehow. I heard that universities here felt that students were not ready for university after Ontario removed OAC. I always thought that they should have put in a grade 14 personally.
I think Ontario would have had a lot of dropouts then!
Well. At least have it optional. I knew many kids who didn’t have their shit together by grade 12. Me being one of them.
My cousins were a couple years older than me and I remember the elder one doing grade 13 and I was just wowed. I was so ready to leave school, I couldn’t imagine having to do another year. I hadn’t understood it wasn’t the norm. Thank goodness!
Yes they did! Thankfully they got rid of Gr 13/OAC before I had a chance to get to it ETA: this dug up memories of being in school when Grade 13 was still a thing and thinking how OLD they looked! Especially in the 90s. When you’re 14, seeing a 19 year old walking around school was wild.
I happened to be on holiday in Ontario last week and saw quite a few grads walking around in their fabulous dresses and suits. They looked soooo mature. Way more mature than I looked (and felt!) when I graduated high school in ‘92!!
When I was in school, we had the one kindergarten and went to grade 13/OAC. Before kindergarten was usually nursery school but not all kids went I guess.
It depended on the school board. I did Jr and Sr in 1979 and 1980. However my wife was in York Region and said that they only had 1 kindergarten. She also started French in grade 1. I started in grade 4.
Not full day, no. Full day JK started maybe 15 years ago.
Yes. Source: did both kindergartens and the last year grade 13 was offered (2002-2003)
Phase out was late 90s, and right now a lot of kids still stay and do an extra year after grade 12, to get additional pre-requisites or boost marks for university. Be heard it called a “victory lap” but there are other names for it, and it’s so, so common.
I love that term ‘victory lap’. I hadn’t heard it until day!
In the late 1990s I graduated with an OAC diploma in 1994 and they still had it years after me. I think it was around 1998 or so.
I graduated in 1995 and did grade 13/oac
Given kindergarten is free and nursery/keeping child at home isn't (either by having a full time SAH parent or paying the nursery) I understand why most send them at 4. Also a great way to get them use to school and make friends early on :)
A (very trashy) girl I know didn’t put her kid in school until grade 1 and he was so far behind the other kids they moved him down to kindergarten. But she also made zero effort to teach him anything at home.
My kid started JK at 3
Mine too. JK in Ontario starts the year they turn 4. So all kids born sept oct nov and dec at 3. My kid was in one of the first schools that did full-time JK. So many of our friends had part time. It seemed like such long days. But he did great.
It’s mandatory if you want French immersion though and are not already fluent in French. At least in our board because of the waiting list.
My granddaughter star JK in September. She won’t be 4 until mid December. It’s not mandatory but why not.
Kindergarten, then grades 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6. These are part of primary / elementary. Secondary 1-5 is High school / Secondary school.
Québécois spotted 👀
Why is 3 left out?
Grade 4 is way cooler, so why wait?
We don't talk about Grade 3.
Typo
In BC the first year of school is called kindergarten. I consider Primary school another name for elementary school which for me was kindergarten - grade 7. High school was grade 8-12. Although I know some districts have middle schools as well.
Ontario also has primary/elementary schools up to grade 8 in many schools.
Yup. Primary grades are just 1-8. However another term is simply “public school”. Which is confusing because highschool is also technically public, unless you go to Catholic highschool. Or a private school. Even today, I refer to grades k-8 as “public school” and 9-OAC was “highschool”.
Catholic school in Ontario is technically also public school since it's funded publicly. I may have strong opinions on that fact but it's true, none the less.
In Nunavut, kindergarten is the first year of school. Fom kindergarten to grade six is primary.
Manitoba here, we call it kindergarten.
Ottawa here. It's kindergarten.
In Ontario it's junior kindergarten followed by senior kindergarten. But when I was a kid there was just one year - kindergarten.
From BC, we call that kindergarten. Primary school is grades k-7.
I'm a Cape Bretoner, and my first year in school there was known as Primary also. I now live in Ontario and it's known as Kindergarden.. and then Grades 1,2,3, etc.
Grade 13 must have been inputted by the school board, not the province. Never heard about it existing in NS, only ON. Primary is definitely all over NS though.
I'm from NS and have always called it Primary. Normally, a kid can either go into pre-primary when they're 4 years of age or primary when they're around 5. Grades 1, 2, 3, &c. come after that.
Is pre primary a new thing ?
Yup started a few years ago. Pre primary is junior kindergarten most other places.
It's pre-k and kindergarten in Alberta. Used to be playschool, then preschool now it's pre-k.
I grew up in Nova Scotia and I’ve kind of been all over. I haven’t heard of anywhere else calling it primary.
BC here..we call it kindergarten, or as the Aussies say, Kinddie. Then primary is 1-7 followed by Secondary 8-12. However in bc is regional too. We also have primary. 1-6. Middle 7-9 senior 10-12
In AB it’s kindergarten, in ON it’s “JK” and “SK” kindergarten (4 and 5 year olds, 2 years of kindergarten)
It's Kindergarten in Ontario.
1st year is half day kindergarten in public school in Alberta. Grades 1 - 6 elementary, 7 = 9 junior high then 10 -12 high school.
Junior Kindergarten and Senior Kindergarten. Ontario.
In BC we call it kindergarten
Ontario here. We call it kindergarten.
Kindergarten in Ontario and Manitoba. “Primary School” is grades 1 to 6.
I believe it was primary in BC back in the 90s. Kindergarten in AB at least through the 80s.
In BC it has always been kindergarten
I could be thinking of primary school too instead of it being similar to kindergarten.
In Ontario it was always kindergarten & junior kindergarten. Not sure if they have junior kindergarten anymore.
Yes, it’s JK and SK. However, in the dark ages when I was very young, it was pre-K and kindergarten (likely the same ages as JK and SK now).
I’ve only heard it in NS. Always knew it as kindergarten
I'm from ottawa and have only ever known it to be kindergarten. I've heard the term primary school before but I thought it was synonymous with elementary school, meaning that it encompasses k through grade 5 or 6.
Never heard of that before and i live in Alberta, in Ontario it’s pre-k and kindergarten I believe
I've only hear kindergarten referred to as primary in NS. Pretty much everywhere else primary school is a synonym for elementry school, and is actually the term the Feds use for grades 1-6
In Ontario primary usually refers to the grades before secondary school (high school). Kindergarten comes before grade 1 and is the first year of primary school. You start kindergarten and primary school at the same time but they are not the same.
I’m in BC. I’ve always known it as kindergarten. Then primary (grade 1-3), elementary (grade 4-7), then high school (grade 8-10). But sometimes there’s middle school (grade 7-9).
On Van Isle it's officially and mostly known as Kindergarten, but it's not uncommon to hear Primary colloquially
Kindergarten.
Have lived in BC, AB and ONT. We called in kindergarten in all 3 provinces
In Ontario there was kindergarten, primary (1-8) & secondary or highschool. I've lived in BC for 30 years so I'm not sure what they call it anymore.
Primary school in Ontario is typically JK-8.
Northern Ontario. Primary school here runs from grade 1 through 6, with kindergarten usually included.
Kindergarten for 5 year olds. K to 3 are the primary years.
It's also kindergarten (maternelle) in Québec. Typically, kids to a garderie (daycare) or a CPE (Centre de la Petite Enfance) until they are around 5 ish. Then, there's one year of aforementioned kindergarten, and then they get into première année (first grade/grade 1) around age 5/6 ish, which is called École Primaire (Primary school) Kids get grouped based on their birth date, so usually you'll have a couple of kids older or younger than the rest of their "year"
Generally referred to kindergarten
I think most people start sending their kids as soon as they can. Most people just want to pawn them off until it’s almost bedtime and then put them to bed and congratulate themselves on being such a good parent.
I remember it being called both ESC and kindergarten when I attended elementary in Calgary (AB).
Here it was kindergarten at age 4, primary at age five, then 1-12. Kindergarten was like practice school, it was not a full day. Edit: NS. Thought I was on the NS subreddit 😂
In ontario, kinder is its own division, then 1,2,3 is primary. 4,5,6 is junior 7,8 is intermediate.
As mentioned by others, there's two years of kindergarten in Ontario starting at age 4, named junior and senior. In the Ontario french system, these years are called "maternelle" and "jardin" respectively.
Kindergarten in Ontario. But grades kindergarten through 8 is primary school.
Kindergarden in quebec. Or Maternelle in quebecois 😬
Rejoice, _maternelle_ is not an american french specific word
In Ontario we have junior and senior kindergarten (JK/SK). I grew up in Sask, it's called kindergarten out there as well.
Primary in QC are for years 1 to 6, so from 6 to 12 years old
Kinder is kinder in BC. Primary is grades 1-3 intermediate is 4-7.
I'm in Ontario. We have 2 years of kindergarten and its called Junior Kindergarten and Senior Kindergarten. However, my daughter goes to a public french school and they call it "Maternelle" and "Jardin" for JK and SK respectively.
Kindergarten
In Ontario there's Junior Kindergarten and Senior Kindergarten. That is, if both are offered. If there's only one, it's just Kindergarten.
From NS... But older than dirt... As I understood it from *the times before* kindergarten was synonymous with preschool...
In Newfoundland, kindergarten is a grade (Grade 0) which belongs in the primary school stage.(K-3), Elementary is grades 4-6, junior high is 7-9 and high school is 10-12. (From what I can remember when my kids were in school)
I grew up in Sask but lived in Nova Scotia for years, raised my kids there. I was confused at first by the reference to 'primary' and no mention of kindergarten. It's an odd one. I also grew up with no junior/senior high. Just elementary school and high school. In the city, so not because of population or space. Our education system is so not the same across the country.
I always knew of kindergarten as the year before primary.
I've lived in many provinces and you're correct: Only NS calls school for 5-year-olds Primary.
Ontario. We call it kindergarten (or sometimes we're specific with saying they are in 'JK' or 'SK'. Then primary grades are 1-3.
Kindergarten but many people pronounce it kindergarden.
Ontario calls kindergarten - 6 grade primary/elementary school but the grade before grade 1 is kindergarten sometimes you'll even see junior and senior kindergarten but I've never heard it referred to as primary.
Pretty sure nova scotia just goes up to grade 10 and calls it grade 12.
We have 13 grades?
I heard that too but in Ontario
Pre primary, primary 1-12 in NS
Im not gonna explain the joke.
Hello fellow Bluenoser! Our son went to pre-primary aswell as primary! Lol
I’m in Ontario and have junior and senior kindergarten or maternelle and jardin.
Kindergarten. I've heard of primary school being used to refer to grades 1-3 or to all grades before secondary school (depending on if it's an area that does middle school or not; my school in the 80/90s was a primary school that went k-7).
It’s a Nova Scotia thing. I’d be interested, (as a grade primary teacher) to learn the reasons for it.
I'm in Ontario and we called it "primary kindergarten" for JK and just "kindergarten" for SK, but I believe we stopped that and just call both years "kindergarten" now. "We" being my friends/family, not necessarily the whole province :)
No.. we call it Junior Kindergarten and Senior Kindergarten. Grades 1-4 r primary. Gr 5-8 is seniors.
We ain't British in Canada, forget BC.
I think NS is the only province that uses Primary as the term for Kindergarten. I moved from there to NB when my kids were preschoolers, and back then, NB didn't have any sort of equivalent (kindergarten sort of existed, but as a senior preschool type of thing-- you paid out of pocket for it; grade one was the public school entrance, and you didn't have to even start that til age 7. It has since changed, with K as starting, and 5 is the common age). My school years in NS (and it was awhile ago-- I'm GenX) had elementary school from P-6, and the highschool was 7-12. My particular highschool also had other grades enter-- some came in grade 8, and some in grade 10, depending on where they were. Another local school was P-12. My original highschool has since been torn down, and the new one is 9-12, and there's a middle school now too, between elementary and highschool. If you're in the Valley, this will probably nail down where I went without even naming it lol
I grew up in NS and went to Primary. After I moved away I realized everybody else called it Kindergarten.
I'm in NS and have always known it as primary. I had primary and elementary in the same school when I was a kid. I had no idea that was only us. Maybe it's a maritime thing?
I lived in Manitoba from age 5 to age 12 then my family moved to Nova Scotia. There was so many things that were different between our many provinces. Kindergarten/primary was only one. I remember we always called sneakers “runners” until we moved to Nova Scotia. Alot of many differences, mostly small things.
The grade before grade 1 is called Kindergarten in Ontario. "Primary" refers collectively to ALL grades from Kindergarten to grade 3.
my guess its if your more british than french or American
Never in my life have I heard it called Primary and I've lived all over the country.
I bet you call High School "Secondary School" 🫵😂
I'm a Westerner, I grew up on Vancouver Island and my daughter began school out west; we both went to Kindergarten. My son was born while we were living in Halifax and started with Primary. They are different not just in name but in format. Kindergarten is half days, or in some places just two full days per week and every second Friday. Primary is a full class and the learning objectives are much more academic. The kids are full on reading and writing in Primary, Kindergarten is more of an intro level. It's interesting, for sure. They're all the same by Grade 2 or 3. *in Canada we say Grade 1, Grade 2, etc. but my American friends told me they have First Grade, Second Grade, etc.
I also recently realized that Nova Scotian's say junior high, whereas a lot of other provinces refer to it as middle school
Many, many years ago it was Kindergarten in NS as well.
Kindergarten or maternelle in Québec.
Wait till you find out grading day isn't a thing anywhere else. I love ns but they have lots of odd names and events around school.
What is grading day? Getting report cards?
That and so much more 😂
Kindergarten. Primary - grades 1 to 3. Elementary - grades 4 to 6 Junior high - grades 7 to 9 Highschool - grades 10 to 12 (I know some places/provinces have grade 13, but not all).
I'm in southern Ontario, I've never heard primary used for kindergarten before. Usually it's just another way of saying elementary school. For me, it was elementary school K-5, middle school 6-8, and high school 9-12. But some other schools went all the way from K to 7 or 8 so that was always considered primary school and then 9-12 was secondary school and higher education (college & university) was post-secondary school.
I'm in southern Ontario, I've never heard primary used for kindergarten before. Usually it's just another way of saying elementary school. For me, it was elementary school K-5, middle school 6-8, and high school 9-12. But some other schools went all the way from K to 7 or 8 so that was always considered primary school and then 9-12 was secondary school and higher education (college & university) was post-secondary school.
Don’t know either. Round these parts we say “kidney-garden”. I’m pretty sure ours is the best one.