Difference between 小学 VS 小学校 and 中学 VS 中学校

[Dante404]

Hiya, I was studying these words and I've read on internet that, for example 小学and　小学校, which mean elementary school, are not used in the same contexts. That is, they mean the same, but its usege is different, they are not interchangeable. Could anyone explain me when is 小学校 instead of 小学?

And the same thing happens with 中学 and 中学校.

Thank you in advance.

[community.japanese]

dante404　さん、
Konnichiwa.

Do you have any example sentences?

I think the differences between them…

小学校 basically should be used for a building of a primary school.
For example, あれが小学校の建物です。
小学校に行きます。

Native Japanese speakers don’t say小学に行きます.

小学 should be an abbreviation of小学生.
For example, 私の妹は小学2年生です。

The usage of中学 and中学校 is similar to that above.
However, when you say ‘when I was a primary school student,…’, you should not say 小学の時.
小学生の時 would be better.
However, when you say ‘when I was a junior high school student,…’, you can say either中学の時　or 中学生の時.


I hope it could help you.
Yuki 　由紀
Team JapanesePod101.com