School

A school is an institution where pupils/students learn from teachers. In most systems of formal education, students progress through a series of schools: primary school, secondary school, and possibly University or vocational school. A school may also be dedicated to one particular field, such as a school of economics or a school of dance. In home schooling and online schools, teaching and learning take place outside of a traditional school building.
Regional varieties

A madrasah in the Gambia
In the United Kingdom, the term school refers primarily to pre-university institutions, and these can, for the most part, be divided into pre-schools or nursery schools, primary schools (sometimes further divided into infant school and junior school), and secondary schools which are termed 'high school', 'academy', 'comprehensive' or 'grammar'. In Scotland school performance is monitored by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education. Ofsted reports on performance in England and Wales.
In much of the Commonwealth of Nations, including Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Kenya, and Tanzania, the term school refers primarily to pre-university institutions.
In North America, the term school can refer to any institute of education, at any level, and covers all of the following: preschool (for toddlers), kindergarten, elementary school, middle school (also called intermediate school or junior high school, depending on specific age groups and geographic region), senior high school, college, university, and graduate school.
In the US, school performance through high school is monitored by each state's Department of Education. Many of the earlier public schools in the United States were one-room schools where a single teacher taught seven grades of boys and girls in the same classroom. Beginning in the 1920s, one-room schools were consolidated into multiple classroom facilities with transportation increasingly provided by kid hacks and school buses.
In much of continental Europe, the term school usually applies to primary education, with primary schools that last between six and nine years, depending on the country. It also applies to secondary education, with secondary schools often divided between Gymnasiums and vocational schools, which again depending on country and type of school take between three and six years. The term school is rarely used for tertiary education, except for some upper or high schools (German: Hochschule) which are more accurately translated as colleges

School sizes and structures

School in rural Sudan, 2002
The size and scope of schools varies depending on the resources and goals of the communities that provide for them. A school might be simply an outdoor meeting spot where one teacher comes to instruct a few students, or, alternatively, a large campus consisting of hundreds of buildings and tens of thousands of students and educators.
The basic unit of a school building is the classroom, where the act of instruction takes place. Every school will use space in a different way depending upon the design of the building and the needs of the school and the children. A combination of some of the following areas will be found in schools:
a cafeteria (Commons), dining hall or canteen where students eat lunch.
an athletic field, playground, gym, and/or track for students participating in sports or physical education.
an auditorium or hall where student theatrical or musical productions can be staged and where all-school events such as assemblies are held.
an office where the administrative work of the school is done.
a library where students consult and check out books.
specialist classrooms including laboratories for science education.
Boarding schools, where students live full-time amongst their peers, will also include dormitories.