I have looked at dozens, literally, but I am also on both sides of the country.
She is currently on the waiting list for 6, 4 here and 2 in Melbourne, most are high schools though, the one she will most likely go to here in WA starts at grade 5, so she will go to our local Primary School down the road, then there in grade 5.
I think it depends on the type of school you are looking for, but simply due to demand I have had to put her on several waiting lists just in case!
Have not heard any bad reports about the one near you and the one near me (BH) had a good name and has a new principal who has a good name. If there is nothing between the one near you and another go with the one near you as you won't have to worry about parking which can be a real pain.
Talk to parents at kinder as they will usually give you an honest opinion.
I agree with Rivlas re talking to people. I talked to neighbours, mothers group, kinder and only actually looked at one school in the end. I am talking primary school here - My opinion is that unless you really want a particular sport, language, age, music program, there has to be a good reason to get in the car and drive to another school if you have one in walking distance but that is just me.
My main dilemna was "straight" grades vs multiage. My BF is a teacher and looooves multiage and I really wanted to send DD to a multiage school but the one nearest us had straight grades. Noone could really talk up the multiage schools around us so in the end I went for the straight grades.
The other factor is big schools vs smaller schools. Big is not necessarily bad but can be scary for a little one so the way they divide up the playground to make sure the littlies have their own area could be important.
Reading between the lines, seems you and Rivlas may be in eastern suburbs. I am also eastern so could recommend the school dd goes to. ;-)
We interviewed 4 school principals before choosing a school for DS1, and we even had to move to get him in. Some would say that's excessive (lots of our friends have in fact), but then DS1 has some special needs and it was important to us to make things as easy for him as possible. When the first principal could offer no plans or suggestions that they would use in DS's case, and instead said "kids just need to learn to be resilient" we decided that school was out on the spot.
I think that you need to do whatever you need to do to be comfortable that you have made the right decision. If that means 1 school or 10 schools it doesn't matter. It will be different for everyone. So do whatever's right for you.
GL hun - I hope one jumps out and grabs you I totally understand how you feel.
I'll probably be looking at about that many too. I've checked out the myschool website, been to an Open Day at one and will probably go to a few others. It's a little bit tricky for us because DP doesn't want DD to go to a religious school (and I kind of agree with him) but aside from the local state school, most of our other options are religious schools apart from an alternative school. I'm not sure that DD would benefit from an alternative school. If anything, she needs to be reined in rather than encouraged to be a freer spirit
rivlas we checked out BH and didnt really like it...didnt get that feeling..
the problem with asking kinder mums is taht where we go to kinder is the other side of our suburb so most kids arnt going to our local.
most around here are single grades too...! i like the small feel..extra support etc... i want a bit of everything
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I totally understand how you feel.
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