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A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both lower secondary education (ages 11 to 14) and upper secondary education (ages 14 to 18), i.e., both levels 2 and 3 of the ISCED scale, but these can also be provided in separate schools. There may be other variations in the provision: for example, children in Australia, Hong Kong, and Spain change from the primary to secondary systems a year later at the age of 12, with the ISCED's first year of lower secondary being the last year of primary provision.
In the United States, most local secondary education systems have separate middle schools and high schools. Middle schools are usually from grades 6–8 or 7–8, and high schools are typically from grades 9–12. In the United Kingdom, most and Private school accommodate pupils between the ages of 11 and 16 or between 11 and 18; some UK private schools, i.e. public schools, admit pupils between the ages of 13 and 18.
Secondary schools follow on from primary school and prepare for vocational or tertiary education. In high and middle income countries, attendance is usually compulsory for students at least until age 16. The organisations, buildings, and terminology are more or less unique in each country.
| +Secondary cohorts | |||||||
| Grouping | Junior high school | Senior high school | |||||
| Grouping | Junior secondary | Senior secondary | |||||
| SMA Kelas 12 | |||||||
| Class & year | 6th Class | 1st Year | 2nd Year | 3rd Year | 4th Year | 5th Year | 6th Year |
| Year | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| Grouping | Lower School | Upper School | Sixth Form Programme | ||||
| Grouping | Junior high school | Senior high school | |||||
| 13 | |||||||
| Senior | |||||||
| Grouping | Middle School | High School | |||||
| Grouping | ESO (Mandatory Secondary Education) | Bachillerato | |||||
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 the predicted roll of the school and the area needed.
According to standards used in the United Kingdom, a general classroom for 30 students needs to be 55 m2, or more generously 62 m2. A general art room for 30 students needs to be 83 m2, but 104 m2 for 3D textile work. A drama studio or a specialist science laboratory for 30 needs to be 90 m2. Examples are given on how this can be configured for a 1,200 place secondary (practical specialism). and 1,850 place secondary school.
Arguments in favor of smaller schools include having a shared experience of school (e.g., everyone takes the same classes, because the school is too small to offer alternatives), higher average academic achievement, and lower educational inequality.Lee, Valerie E. (2000) "School Size and the Organization of Secondary Schools." In Handbook of the Sociology of Education. Springer Nature. p. 327–332.
Arguments in favor of larger schools tend to focus on economy of scale. For example, a single basketball court could serve a school with 200 students just as well as a school with 500 students, so construction and maintenance costs, on a per-student basis, can be lower for larger schools. However, cost savings from larger schools have generally not materialized, as larger schools require more administrative support staff, and rural areas see the potential savings offset by increased transportation costs.
Larger schools can also support more specialization, such as splitting students into advanced, average, and basic tracks, offering a greater variety of classes, or sponsoring a greater number of extra-curricular activities. (Some of these benefits can also be achieved through smaller but specialized schools, such as a dedicated special school for students with disabilities or a magnet school for students with a particular subject-matter interest.)
In terms of structure, organization, and relationships, larger schools tend to be more hierarchical and bureaucratic, with fewer and weaker personal connections and more rigidly defined, unvarying roles for all staff. Teachers find that large schools result in more information to process in the larger environment (e.g., announcements about 100 programs instead of just 10) and that as individuals they form fewer relationships with teachers outside of their primary subject area. Smaller schools have less social isolation and more engagement. These effects cannot be entirely overcome through implementation of a house system or "school within a school" programs.
A secondary school may have a Cafeteria, serving a set of foods to students, and storage where the equipment of a school is kept.
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 in 2014. It said the floor area should be 1050 m2 (+ 350 m2 if there is a sixth form) + 6.3 m2/pupil place for 11- to 15-year-olds + 7 m2/pupil place for students above 16 years old. The external finishes were to be downgraded to meet a build cost of £1113/m2.
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