Japanese school years [more information inside]?

Question:

I'm sorry if my sentence is a little confusing, I didn't know how else to word it. What I mean is; for example, in the UK we have nursery, reception, primary school, secondary school and (optional) sixth-form. Then, also optional, college and university.

We go by years, too. Primary school is year 1 to year 6. Secondary school is year 7 to year 11. Sixth form is year 12 and year 13.

Nursery students - I don't know, I think they're around 3 to 5 years
Reception students - I don't know, I think they're around 4 to 5 years
Year 1 - 5 to 7 years
Year 2 - 6 to 7 years
Year 3 - 7 to 9 years
Year 4 - 8 to 10 years
Year 5 - 9 to 11 years
Year 6 - 10 to 12 years
Year 7 - 11 to 13 years
Year 8 - 12 to 14 years
Year 9 - 13 to 15 years
Year 10 - 14 to 16 years
Year 11 - 15 to 17 years
Sixth-form - I think around 17 to 19.

I hope you understand that. It all depends on when your birth-date is.

SO, can someone tell me, now I've explained it properly haha, how does all that kind of stuff work in Japan? ^_^ I'm curious about all things Japanese, so I was just wondering. :)

Answer:

There is an option for nursery/pre-school, but my understanding is that it is not mandatory.

Following that would be primary/elementary school. It lasts for 6 years, from about age 6 to 12. The years are labelled 1-6 and correspond roughly to the years 1-6 you listed. Junior high school lasts for three years and is roughly equivalent to your years 7-9, but in the Japanese system the counting starts over from 1 again when you enter the next level of schooling. So students in junior high school are labelled as being in year 1, 2, or 3 (equivalent to years 7, 8, and 9 in the UK and grades 7, 8, and 9 in the US). Junior high school students are generally age 12-15. Elementary and junior high school are compulsory.

High school lasts three years, again with the years labelled 1-3. I guess that would be roughly equivalent to year 10, year 11, and the first year of sixth form in the UK, but not quite (I haven't heard of anything like sixth form in Japan). A better comparison would be with grades 10-12 in high school in the USA. Students are usually age 16-18 or so. High school is not compulsory, but most kids go to high school.

And then there would be college, for those who choose to go to college.

The school year runs from April-March in Japan.