Which should I say ?

September 25th, 2005

I have been confused...

My eldest son is a 12-years-old elementary school student.
I have said "He is sixth-grade elementary school student." before.
But one of my English teachers said to me...

You should say "My son is a grade sixth student".
When I(the teacher) hear the word "sixth grade", I imagine low level school student.

After that, I checked my dictionary...
I saw the word "sixth-grade" as a correct language for my eldest son.
Also I saw the word "sixth grader" in my dictionary.


Which should I say "sixth-grade student" , "grade sixth student" or "sixth grader" ????
I've been confused....(@_@)

Of course I'm not a native English speaker and not looked like so.
I guess most native English speakers would be able to imagine what I want to say if I said such wrong words.
That's a small thing, isn't it ? :D