Tag:amenity=school
![]() |
Description |
---|
A primary or secondary school (pupils typically aged 6 to 18) ![]() |
Rendering in openstreetmap-carto |
![]() |
Group: Education features |
Used on these elements |
Useful combination |
|
See also |
Status: de facto |
|
Tools for this tag |
|
Wikidata |
Q3914 |
Use amenity=school to identify a place where pupils, normally between the ages of about 6 and 18 are taught under the supervision of teachers. This includes primary and secondary schools. See amenity=kindergarten, amenity=college, amenity=university for other educational establishments.
How to map
Mark the boundary of the school using an Area or place a Node
in the middle of the site if you are in a hurry (or don't have access to information about the boundary and it is not obvious from aerial imagery).
This area should envelop the full grounds of the school including all the buildings, sports facilities and grounds. For schools with multiple sites the multipolygon relation can be used. Tag the element with amenity=school and name=* for the name of school. Suggested additional tags include:
- operator=* - Name of operator, often the local education authority.
- operator:type=* - type of operator, e.g. community / religious / private / government
- Address, phone, website and other contact details
- capacity=*, the maximum number of pupils the school can accept
- isced:level=*, for the educational level according to the ISCED scale
- grades=* - Which grades the school provides, can be used in conjunction with isced:level=*
- min_age=* and max_age=* to indicate age range of children that attend the school
- fee=yes if the school requires a direct charge for core services.
- religion=*, if the school is associated with a particular religion (also denomination=*)
- ref=*, if school has a reference number
Campus details
Several details can be added when drawing the complete school campus.
- building=school is used for purpose-built school buildings (reused buildings keep their building type).
- appropriate additional tags can be added to the building, for example amenity=swimming_pool.
- entrance=* and if appropriate barrier=gate can be considered for the points where roads, paths or other access routes into the school grounds cross the boundary of the school. Building entrances can be mapped with a node on the building outline, with one of the following tags:
- leisure=pitch is used for individual sports pitches. Where an individual sport can be identified, sport=* and surface=grass/asphalt/... can be added.
- leisure=sports_hall is used for indoor sports facilities, if purpose-built with building=sports_hall.
- landuse=grass is used for areas of grass, possibly covering multiple pitches or used for other purposes.
- leisure=schoolyard is an open space in schools, specifically for recreation but usually without playground infrastructure.
- leisure=playground is often found on primary school grounds with infrastructure such as playground=climbingframe etc.
Disambiguation
Typical facilities outside the scope of amenity=school are:
- amenity=college - Institute of Further Education (similar to Continuing Education). Not the same as a "college" in American English.
- amenity=university - Institute of Higher Education
- amenity=kindergarten - Kindergarten, play group or preschool
amenity=preschool- deprecated; use amenity=kindergarten or amenity=childcare- Specialty schools:
- amenity=dancing_school - also see leisure=dance dance:teaching=yes
- amenity=driving_school - Motor vehicle driving lessons
- amenity=flight_school - Proposed. Training to fly an aircraft. Also see amenity=college
- amenity=language_school - an educational institution where one studies a foreign language
- amenity=music_school - Music school
- amenity=prep_school – Standardized test preparation school, other than a British preparatory school (which nominally prepares for the w:Common Entrance Examination), or an American college-preparatory school (for which, use amenity=school).
- amenity=ski_school
Landuse
Tagging an area with amenity=school is the established way to tag the campus. Thus, a landuse tag is typically not needed. There are some landuse=school tags in the database, please make sure they also carry the amenity tag.