primary school
- noun
- /ˈpraɪˌmɛri skuːl/
- Children start their formal education at a primary school by learning basic subjects like math and reading.
- primary school teacher
- primary school principal
- primary school students
So my mom, she volunteers as a reader in a primary school because she has time, right?
- So my mom, she volunteers as a reader in a primary school because she has time, right?
- Nursery, primary school, secondary school and college.
- These are like rich private primary schools.
- How was your primary school experience?
- And indeed these kids learned to read, they learned math actually better than their peers in primary school.
- So we went to West London, St Irving's Road near Ladbroke Grove, went to Bevington Primary School.
- Real quick before I end this one, that guy when he left McDonald got a job as a primary school assistant.
- So we have about half a billion, almost half a billion kids in primary school in in the poor half of the world.
Examples
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Twelve of the 32 who participated in the discussions had a primary school education.
Academic text (1999) -
Yes, on Monday, you'll go to primary school.
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So Nick comes in with all the little children from this primary school and they cook together.
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I went to the most wonderful primary school that I have such strong memories of.
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My mum was a primary school teacher.
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So my mom, she volunteers as a reader in a primary school because she has time, right?
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And you think too, of the horror of children not even being able to attend primary school in the last couple of years.
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Often, most community involvement efforts take place at the elementary or primary school level.
Academic text (1999) -
Well, look, I've known him since primary school, you know.
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Speaker, last weekend I had the pleasure of visiting a local primary school in my constituency, Mockham.
Synonyms
A school for children between five and eleven that teaches reading, writing, and basic math
A school for young children in their first years of education
How Young
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a school for young children' is directly and compositionally derived from 'primary' (first/earliest, foundational) combined with 'school' (an institution for education). This adjective+noun pattern is cross-linguistically common and follows standard English composition, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Primary school comes from the idea that primary means 'first' and school is a place to learn. So a primary school is the first school children attend to begin learning basic skills like reading and writing.