Around our way there are lots of private schools so the public schools tend to be where those kids who have been asked to leave end up!
DH and I want to give our kids access to the best opportunities we can so will be sending them private in secondary and taking $$ out of the house if necessary to fund it. Luckily we have an awesome public primary school and really happy there so far.
Santosha - go and see one of Kathy Walker's talks - I really enjoyed her approach!
I have been out of high school for 13 years now, but in my experiance it's not where you get your education, it's what you do with it. I know alot of people that went to either the public HS and I would say 80% are doing alot better in career and life in general than those who went to the private HS here.
I will be sending my kids to public primary and secondary schools for sure.
Good luck with your decision.
We have enrolled Bailey into a private school that is luckily in our suburb and has a wonderful reputation and good naplan scores etc etc
Initially I was of the thought process that we'd send him to public school for primary and if he was academically minded or needed support in a specific way we could always change later. I felt that senior school was more important, However then a good friend put a different spin on it and pointed out that often the foundations we start while they are young have more impact on shaping the people our little ones will be come, rather than relying on 'fixing' things later when they are older, already influenced and less likely to adapt to change with ease. This really resonated with me.
However for us, the private school fees will be no more than our current cost of childcare (even with the child care rebate etc) - so when put into context we don't actually need to find 'extra' money, but rather consider that child care costs will become schools fees.
We did a tour of this school late last year and have his name on the 'waiting' list, but wont find out until late this year if he is in, so I also plan to enroll him in another local private school I also like (yet to tour). The reason this school is so important to me is I am impressed with the culture, the curriculum and the facilities and their values are aligned to mine - not in a religious sense, but more so with regard to respect, the importance place on education and also things like Leadership, Integrity etc. Also, its a feeder school into the High School I have my eye on (right next door so most of the kids will transition there)
I'm also a fan of the Steiner methods, we have a great public steiner school here (way to far away from where we live however) that is part of a regular primary school so if the steiner methods aren't a match for your child, you can move them into the regular school system on the same campus instead. But it would mean an hour or so of travel each day which is just not practical for us with balancing work etc also.
Personally, I'd go with Option A. As a part time working Mum I also recognise that quality time with my child is very important - as opposed to quantity. I have watched DS flourish and learn so much at his wonderful child care centre 2 days a week, so I don't necessarily think that more time with Mum is the be all and end all - the old 'it takes a village to raise a child' quote is a good one, our children pick up all sorts of learnings and influences from a variety of sources, not just Mum and Dad. As parents, its our responsibility to make sure these influences are ones we are happy with.....aggghhh what am I trying to say? Just cos you need to work more to support the cost, does not necessarily have a negative impact on your kids
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