The only student at her school to walk out

[99bottles]

First grader is the only student at her school to walk out over gun violence.

I found that sentence here...
https://thehill.com/blogs/blog-brie...ly-student-at-her-school-to-walk-out-over-gun

Shouldn't it be in her school? I have heard we use in school when one is a student and at school when one is physically there. Have I got it wrong?

 

[jutfrank]

No. Yes.

 

[emsr2d2]

"at her school" works in BrE.

 

[5jj]

Right. I liked jutfrank's 'No' as a response to the question Shouldn't it be ... .

 

[emsr2d2]

Sorry, I was unclear. I wasn't disagreeing with the other responses. I should have said that I didn't know for certain if "at her school" was the best choice in other variants.

 

[Tdol]

Shouldn't it be over gun violence?

 

[emsr2d2]

Shouldn't it be over gun violence?

It certainly should be. That's even the headline. I don't know how we all missed the typo in post 1!

 

[5jj]

I I don't know how we all missed the typo in post 1!

My excuse is incompetence.

 

[99bottles]

So, are all those sentences below wrong? Also, can someone help me finally understand the difference between at school and in school?

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/p...RnaaONMAfDvWSV8SK9j7yYRRQQo-Z9NkPqlfvW9c-2i2A

http://whisper.sh/whisper/0508b548e...l-he-likes-my-best-friend-but-I-like-him-what

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwGSjOYVkO0

 

[5jj]

So, are all those sentences below wrong?

No

I think 'at' would be more common in BrE, but nobody in this thread has suggested that 'in' is wrong.

 

[Tarheel]

It's clear enough to me that people often don't distinguish between the two.

 

[99bottles]

It's clear enough to me that people often don't distinguish between the two.

Does this apply to other educational institutions? For example, in this sentence...
I learnt a lot in/at the arts academy.

 

[Rover_KE]

It's not important enough to lose any sleep over. :sleeping:

 

[99bottles]

It's not important enough to lose any sleep over. :sleeping:

I rarely manage to sleep anyway.

 

[jutfrank]

There's a girl at my school who hates my guts.

The phrase at my school shows that the girl in question is a student. I think in American English you can substitute in for at here. In fact, it may be even more natural to do so.

Without the possessive words (my/your/his/her), the phrases in school and at school have quite different uses.

 

[99bottles]

Without the possessive words (my/your/his/her), the phrases in school and at school have quite different uses.

So, was I right when I said that in school means she's a student whereas at school means she's physically there? If not, what are their different uses?

 

[emsr2d2]

So, was I right when I said that in school means she's a student whereas at school means she's physically there? If not, what are their different uses?

You're right about "at school" meaning she's physically there, but only if she's also a student there. If she's there but she's not a student, she's "at the school". We don't really use "in school" in BrE.

 

[5jj]

So, was I right when I said that in school means she's a student whereas at school means she's physically there?

Not necessarily

If not, what are their different uses?

Given the differences between BrE and AmE, and even between individuals, I don't think we can give clear examples that will satisfy everybody. My feeling is that I rarely use 'in'; I certainly would not say 'My grandson is in school' to mean that he was a student.

 

[Tdol]

I'm at school in the science classroom.

 

[jutfrank]

I wouldn't say that There's a girl at my school who ... means that the girl is 'physically there'. At least, I don't think that's a good way of explaining things. In fact, there's an extremely high chance that at the moment of utterance the girl in question is not there.

I think that if we want to clear up any confusion here, we'll have to talk about British and American usage separately.

Brits do use in school in a particular way. Consider this pair spoken by a BrE speaker and the likely interpretations:

A: She's not at school at the moment.

The first interpretation would be that she's not physically there although she is enrolled.

B: She's not in school at the moment.

The first interpretation of this I think would be that she's not enrolled at any school.