the school number 9 vs the school 9 vs something else

[firstcalled]

Hi! I would like to know what variant naitves use when speaking about, for instance, some school that has an index number, for instance, 9. Do you day I study at school number 9, or just I study at school 9, or anything else?
Thank in advance!

 

[compaqdrew]

On this side of the pond our schools do not have numbers, so it is a hard question to answer.

It is possible, although rare, to refer to places by number. For example here our municipal political districts are numbered, so I might say "I live in District 3", but since the districts don't have any relevance beyond local elections which people don't really care about anyway, it's not a common thing to say.

Another way we might refer to place by number is in a large office complex with multiple buildings. So I might say "I work in Building 3." But this too is unusual; I would only use it when the building cannot be identified either by the name of the company or its street address, and the number of situations where that would happen is very very small in this part of the country.

 

[Cagey]

What country are you asking about, firstcalled? And what kind of schools are these?

Where I live, schools have names, not numbers.

I believe that in New York some elementary schools (schools for younger children) are known by numbers, such as PS 43, [=Public School 43]. In this case, as I understand it, people say the letters and the numbers; "pea ess forty-three."

Cross-posted.

 

[Parla]

I believe that in New York some elementary schools (schools for younger children) are known by numbers, such as PS 43, [=Public School 43]. In this case, as I understand it, people say the letters and the numbers.

I can confirm that. In fact, both public elementary schools and public middle schools are numbered here. The designation for the former (which start with kindergarten and typically go through grade 5, sometimes higher) is P (for Primary); the second sort usually cover grades 6 through 8. Both P.S. 87 and M.S. 245 (periods are used, with a space before the number) are near my home.

Some schools have names as well: P.S. 87 is also the William Tecumseh Sherman School, although no one speaks of it that way; we just use the letters and numbers. [For those unfamiliar with US history: Sherman was a general on the Northern side in our Civil War.]

 

[natkretep]

When I went to primary school (age 6 to 12), our school (which had a name) had two sessions (morning and afternoon), and each session was run as a separate school though they shared the same facilities. They were called school one and school two.

One of our universities here has numbered halls of residence - and they are called hall one, hall two, ​etc.