“the high school” is referring to a specific school that is called Upper Nidderdale High School. A notional Upper Nidderdale Academy would be referred to as “the academy”. The generic term is “secondary school”.
My school, also in Yorkshire, is still called Selby High School. However, although you might refer to it as “the high school”, we would not say we were attending “high school” as a general name for that stage of education.
Thanks, Baron Greenback and amarone! I think the distinction is between “we never say ‘high school’” (which is how I interpreted Candyman74’s statement) and “we might say ‘high school’ to refer to a place/building, but not a specific part of one’s education” (which is most likely what he meant). 
At the end of the day, spin, playing the field. Numptie. Over the moon, all to play for, squeaky bum time. Big ask. Stonewall penalty. Keep the ball rolling.
You’re from Selby?! I grew up in Cawood!
I just posted this in another thread in Café Society, but it seems it would fir in well here:
This is more of an error or just showing differences in pronunciation between the US and UK, but in ‘Easy A’ a plot point is the protagonist getting sent to the principle for calling someone a ‘twat’ in class. Later on when she is discussing it with her parents they ask her what word. She gives them the ‘T’ and tells them to ‘Think British’, as the word is used more over there (and probably comes from there).
The thing is, Brits like me got really, really confused by what she said in class. She called someone a ‘twot’. No-one in the UK would pronounce the word that way. It is always a hard ‘a’ to rhyme with ‘cat’. The best swear words use hard consonants and short vowels; shit, fuck, twat, cunt. There’s no messing with those words. I honestly after the scene with the parents had to hit the net to see exactly what she had said as I was so confused.
Turns out it is quite common and “L Word” and “Rescue Me” were given examples of the same usage in American TV.
For Brits that want to see it, here’s a low sound quality YouTube link:
The only requirement is that you get old enough. It used to be (back when I was at that age in the nineties) that some would just forgo the idea of doing any exams.
You then do your exams and leave. The exams are marked by an external examination authority and the results all come back on the same day a couple of months later, so there’s no real good way to organise a “graduation”. So we don’t.
The most common methods, depending on how posh your school was, was to get certificates through the post or to have a speech day during the next school year, when you may no longer be at the school (I came back from University for the day) to listen to a few speeches and get your certificates. Still nothing like a US graduation ceremony with robes. They are exclusively the domain of University.
Similarly I went to “Princethorpe College” from the ages of 12 to 18. I at no point declared I was going to “college”. It was my school.
Now, Americans referring to University as school …
And rather famously, kids have been polled on it and they seem to like it too. If it wasn’t 5:56am and I was waiting for sleeping tablets to kick in I would dig our the results for you.
Actually, this will depend on where you are. I spent my school years in Northumberland, which had a three-tier school system until, um… last year (happy New Year!).
The schools I went to were:
First School: 5–8
Middle School: 9–12
High School: 13 upwards.
So in our case, we did indeed say “high school”, because that was what we had. I don’t suppose that Northumberland was unique, either.
I don’t think this has been mentioned yet: Is the item that you use to erase pencil writing still commonly called a rubber in the UK, or is that an old-fashioned word now? Is it also used in the UK to refer to condoms like in the US?
I assume what you use to erase the whiteboard is also called an eraser in the UK, correct?
To be honest, I haven’t used a pencil and/or pencil-erasing-object in many, many years. I assume they’re still called rubbers, but I’m not sure.
I’ve never used the word “rubber” to refer to a condom. But, again, I don’t know what the kids these days call things.
I’m 36, and to me a rubber still means pencil-erasing-object and “eraser” sounds very American. Perhaps some people with teenage kids could let us know what they call them?
I’m ancient (36) but the thingie to wipe the whiteboard was always called a wiper for me.
Uh uh. “Quarter of” is a regionalism mostly restricted to the northeast of the US, not something widely said in this country. It’s something you’ll see in books fairly often, though, because a great many writers come from that part of the US.
I guess you’ve missed the threads were people from other parts of the country have expressed confusion about if the “of” indicates 15 minutes before or after the hour. It seems obvious to me, but I’ve lived in the northeast my entire life and was even taught in early elementary school that “of” is the proper way of referring to the time.
When I was at school it was blackboards and they were wiped with cloths. The few white boards around were also wiped with cloths, even more so than the black boards.
My schooling bridged the chasm between the use of blackboards and whiteboards. For both it has always been a little block with some cloth on it or, if you couldn’t be arsed, your hand, clothing or a hankie.
Blackboards are wiped with a piece of wood with some felt on it.
Whiteboards are wiped with a piece of plastic with some J-cloth type material on it.
Both are called “dusters”.
One more I can think of:
US: for here/to go
UK: eat here/takeaway
Yeah, I was pre-whiteboard, too. Blackboards, and they were wiped with “dusters”.
US: One way / round trip ticket
UK: Single / return ticket