Secondary school

A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both lower secondary education and upper secondary education ie levels 2 and 3 of the ISCED scale, but these can also be provided in separate schools, as in the American middle and high school system. In the UK, elite public schools typically admit pupils between 13 and 18 years of age. UK state schools accommodate pupils between 11 and 18 years of age.
Secondary schools follow on from primary schools and prepare for vocational or tertiary education. Attendance is usually compulsory for students until the age of 16. The [|organisations, buildings, and terminology] are more or less unique in each country.

Levels of education

In the ISCED 2011 education scale levels 2 and 3 correspond to secondary education which are as follows:

Lower secondary education- First stage of secondary education building on primary education, typically with a more subject-oriented curriculum. Students are generally around 12-15 years old
Upper secondary education- Second stage of secondary education and final stage of formal education for students typically aged 16–18, preparing for tertiary/adult education or providing skills relevant to employment. Usually with an increased range of subject options and streams.
Terminology: descriptions of cohorts

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 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'. The Irish model is structured similarly to the English model, but have significant differences in terms of labels. This terminology extends into research literature. Below is a convenient comparison

Equivalent ages	11–12	12–13	13–14	14–15	15–16	16–17	17–18
U.S.	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
U.S.				Freshman	Sophomore	Junior	Senior
England/Wales	First	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth	Lower Sixth	Upper Sixth
England/Wales	7	8	9	10	11	12	13
Ireland		Junior Cycle	Junior Cycle	Junior Cycle	Transition Year	Senior Cycle	Senior Cycle
Ireland	6th Class	1st Year	2nd Year	3rd Year	4th Year	5th Year	6th Year
Scotland	S1	S2	S3	S4	S5	S6
ISCED level	2	2	2	3	3	3	3

Theoretical framework

School building design does not happen in isolation. The building needs to accommodate:

Curriculum content
Teaching methods
Costs
Education within the political framework
Use of school building
Constraints imposed by the site
Design philosophy

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. and 1,850 place secondary school.

Building design specifications

The building providing the education has to fulfil 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 secondary school will meet the minimum conditions and will have:

adequately sized classrooms;
specialised teaching spaces;
a staff preparation room;
an administration block;
multipurpose classrooms;
a general purpose school hall;
laboratories for science, technology, mathematics and life sciences, as may be required;
adequate equipment;
a library or library stocks that are regularly renewed; and
computer rooms or media centres.

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 1050m² + 6.3m²/pupil place for 11- to 16-year-olds + 7m²/pupil place for post-16s. The external finishes were to be downgraded to meet a build cost of £1113/m².