In Buckinghamshire, one of the few places in the UK which still has selective state education (ie they test children at the end of primary school for broad academic ability and then send them to different state-funded secondary schools based on the results‡) they call most mixed or girl-only schools that you'd get to if you did "well" on those tests High Schools, with boy-only schools often named Grammar Schools although other combinations do happen.

‡ This causes an interesting phenomenon. Suppose you're a pair of moderately successful young parents, you _could_ afford to send your children to get privately educated but it'd mean money was tight and also you'd get called on it all the time because you're socially liberal and theoretically don't agree with private education. Well, Bucks Grammar Schools and High Schools have an excellent reputation, but the state pays for them. So, when the kids approach school age maybe you move to, say, Beaconsfield, a very nice town in Buckinghamshire where your kids would qualify (if they pass selection) for these schools. So immediately this drives up housing prices in Bucks.

But then later at selection age the options are all _terrible_. Unless you got very lucky your kid isn't smart enough to be 100% certain of getting in anywhere they want. Do you pay tutors to try to get your "not quite bright enough" kid over the line and pay off on this investment? Imagine if they spend the rest of their school life being the slowest kid in every class. That's not going to be a lot of fun, or a good psychological experience. Or maybe you decide to stick by your beliefs, and let them "fail" into a non-selective school, now they'll resent you. Perhaps you decide to spend money on private school if they "fail" - now they're the kid who was so dumb they're only at this school because they failed a test AND you're still out the cash.

And this choice comes up for each kid, if you are inconsistent they absolutely will know about it. And they're probably _all_ going to resent you both for it. And then you can argue among yourselves about whose fault this all is. Brilliant.

In my bit of Lancashire our secondary schools are usually officially called xxx high school and everyone says high school rather than secondary.

Same in Worcestershire when I was growing up there. It seems to vary regionally.

I've also seen High School used in Scotland

Cane here to say the same thing, e.g. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverkeithing_High_School

Although, there's a subtle difference vs US usage: in Scotland High School is only used in the context of the name of a specific school, not as a term for the generic concept. E.g. "What secondary school did you attend?"; "I went to The High School" (meaning the Royal High School in Edinburgh). You'd never say "What high school did you attend?".

Even that point varies regionally. Where I grew up, in Glasgow, it's really common to talk about primary school kids going off to high school or talk about which high school you attended.

Agreed. I'm in my 50's and even back in the late 70's in Scotland you'd hear folks use "secondary school" and "high school" interchangeably. I myself went to a Scottish "High School" for my secondary education in the 70's/80's.

Interesting, was this when the High school (Glasgow High) was closed? I’m not clear on the dates, but the secondary must of reopened in the early 70s.