It is the seventh full year (or eighth in Australia and England) of compulsory education and is roughly equivalent to grade 6 in the United States and Canada (or to grade 7 for the Australian Year 7).
Children entering are generally aged from 12-13, and leave around 17-18 years old.
Subjects in Year 7 include English; Mathematics; Science; Creative Arts; Humanities and Social Sciences; Languages; Personal development, Health and Physical education; and technologies.
In New South Wales, the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) lays out that Year 7 students should be able to respond and compose texts for the purpose of understanding, interpretation, analysis, expression and/or pleasure; use a range of skills, strageties and knowledge for their response or composition of texts; shape creativitly different meanings; find links between and among texts; show understanding of how texts showcase aspects of the world; identify and consider cultural expressions in texts; and assess and reflect on their skills they use for learning.
In Northern Ireland and Scotland, the seventh year of compulsory education is called Primary 7, and pupils generally start at the age of 10–11.