From a personal perspective the information that relates to the 3 schools my eldest children have been to seems "as expected". No surprises... they are good schools and this website just confirms it.
It was very interesting checking out the schools that were our alternative choices. I have also checked out how the schools are performing where i went to school.
I completely understand that this website has huge limitations in terms of quantifying what is a "good" school and what schools need help. However it was interesting to note that a school i went to as a child has used it's summary to high-light achievements like government awards for excellence in certain areas that would have been invisible had you only looked at it's stats... which were VERY grim. Each school is in control of it's own summary and needs to make good use of this, I believe.
DH and I were only looking at it last night. It's SO slow to load! It is very interesting though and will be a big help when looking at high schools for our DS1. He is going the the primary school on our street (starts Monday - eek!), it has a score we are happy with. There is a school a short drive away that rates a bit better, but I just can't beat the convenience of walking the kids to school LOL!
The speed of the site was great this morning.... i had 3 tabs loaded and i flitted between three schools quite easily.
Also wanted to note that from my observation the smaller schools really do seem to rate well...
ETA: sadly any stats relating to sports/arts/non core learning isn't available. i guess everyone knows that there is no perfect school... just perfect matches... we changed schools with our DD because she was a sporty girl in a musically focussed school... both the schools she went to rate really well academically but one school was much better for HER than the other. Her first school couldn't keep their P.E teachers (sport teachers) because the facilities were so minimal and what their was was very old and tired.... but they had state-of-the-art arts facilities that weren't much use to my DD.
Last edited by Bathsheba; January 29th, 2010 at 01:42 PM.
LOL Leesa!!! Same here! Lots of red all over my old schools! But 20 - 30 years ago they were ok... things change I guess.... but I wouldn't send my children there now I have to admit.... not unless after visiting realised the culture of the school was actually fantastic despite the stats.
I did look at it yesterday, but I'm taking it with a grain of salt - I already know our school is fantastic. You can't even begin to compare one school with another because there is so much more to a great school than just results on a piece of paper. I don't think the unions should be making such a huge song and dance about it either though because at the end of the day it is just political grandstanding by Julia Gillard and will achieve nothing and isn't worth their attentions.
The My School government website
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. Doh!
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