I've never heard it either, but agree that it makes sense for all states/territories to call it the same thing. It gets confusing that some states call the first year of school kinder, where we use that term for the four year old year before school.

We never used to have a question where our kids would go to school. The local public primary and high schools were both great so they'd just go there. There was only one local private primary school and one private high school and their education programs and reputations were very comparable to the public schools.

Now we've moved, and have a choice of one public high school with a horrible reputation (and I've met quite a few of the graduates - not people I care to meet again!) and two private high schools. We've chosen a high school based on its size, cost, reputation, and acceptance. By that I mean both private schools are religious, but one appears less pushy than the other and is very accepting of all cultures and religions. We loved the tour we did.

So for primary school, we can go to the primary school on the same campus as the high school, the tiny one in our town (only two classes and 30 kids) or the small one in the next town (one class for each year level). I'm leaning towards the private one because DD can keep the same friends and campus the whole way through, her two besties from childcare are going there, and I really like their teaching style. We are checking out the small one in the next town once school goes back though.