The school story is a fiction genre centering on older pre-adolescent and adolescent school life, at its most popular in the first half of the twentieth century. While examples do exist in other countries, it is most commonly set in English boarding schools and mostly written in girls' and boys' subgenres, reflecting the separation of education by gender typical until the 1950s. It focuses largely on friendship, honor and loyalty between pupils. Plots involving sports events, bullies, romance and bravery are often used to shape the school story.

The popularity of the traditional school story declined after the second world war, but school stories have remained popular in other forms, with a focus on state run coeducational schools, and themes involving more modern concerns such as racial issues, family life, sexuality and drugs. (see Grange Hill). More recently it has seen a revival with the success of the Harry Potter series, which uses many plot motifs commonly found in the traditional school story.