Meaning & use
remedial school
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountableold-fashioned
A school once set up to teach children who had fallen far behind in basic reading, writing or arithmetic.
Grammar: Countable: a remedial school, two remedial schools.
Patterns
- go to a remedial school
- be sent to a remedial school
My grandfather was sent to a remedial school because nobody realized he was dyslexic.
The council closed the last remedial school in the district in the 1980s.
Reformers argued that a remedial school only stigmatized children instead of helping them catch up.
nounsingularinformaldisapprovingfigurative
Used insultingly, a place or group seen as full of people who are slow to learn or poor at something.
Grammar: Usually used with a: that office is a remedial school for managers.
Patterns
- treat something like a remedial school
He joked that the training course was a remedial school for people who couldn't use email.
Calling the program a remedial school was unfair to the students working hard to improve.
Word forms
| plural | remedial schools |
|---|
Common combinations
- attend a remedial school
- She attended a remedial school until she was eleven.
- remedial school pupil
- A former remedial school pupil, he later became a professor.
- close a remedial school
- The authority voted to close the remedial school to save money.
- transfer to a remedial school
- His parents refused to let the teacher transfer him to a remedial school.
Synonyms and how they differ
- special school
- A special school is the modern, neutral term and covers many kinds of need, while remedial school suggests only academic lagging.
- learning support unit
- This is usually a section inside an ordinary school rather than a separate institution as a remedial school was.
- catch-up class
- A catch-up class is a short-term lesson, whereas a remedial school meant a whole separate school.
Opposites
Word family
- remedial adjective
- intended to fix a weakness
- remedy noun
- a way of putting something right
- remediation noun
- the process of correcting a problem
Commonly confused: remedial school or reform school?
remedial school vs reform school
A reform school was for young offenders, not for pupils who were academically behind.
Practice
Today, which term would most schools prefer instead of the dated 'remedial school'?
Choose one answer.
Special school is the modern neutral term. A reform school was for offenders, and boarding and night schools are about living arrangements and hours.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “remedial school”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.