I am a huge fan of public schools. I went to 2 different co-ed catholic primary school, then an all girl catholic school up until the end of year 10, and then moved to a co-ed public school for year 11 and 12.

I had the same kinds of issues at my Catholic school as Roryrory mentioned and this was one of the big reasons I felt that I could not stay there. Once I moved to a public school, I felt that I was able to express myself more and that I was more free to have my own opinions on issues without getting told off for not agreeing with my teacher.

I found at the catholic school we were pretty much taught only one viewpoint (on everything, not just religious issues) and I dont feel that this would make for a very well rounded person, if you get what I mean. If you were to have an opinion differnt to that of a teachers, you would be told you were wrong. At my public school, I had friends from different cultural backgrounds and I leanred alot about customs/traditions in other countries (where my peers were from) and about religious traditions in faiths other than christianity. There were people from varying socio economic backgrounds from all over sydney including the blue mountains, but at the catholic school everyone seemed to be on the same level and were all from "the north shore" or "northern beaches" (the 2 schools were in the same suburb) and there was nowhere near as many differnt nationalities represented. There were also openly gay people (whereas I know of a few girls in my grade at the other school who felt they were unable to 'come out' until much later, even though they knew they were gay at the time.. girls were told off if they were seen holding hands, so I dont blame them for feeling that they could not tell anyone).

So, for me, I felt I had a better experience and was able to grow more as a person in a public school. I felt I was also given more opportunities at my public school. With private schools, (correct me if I'm incoreect) it seems like they're pretty much all catholic, anglican or aimed towards some other faith. We're not religious so we dont want to have Claire attend a religious type school and have those views forced upon her.

DH is also dead-against private schools. He is a teacher is a very good public school. You get crap teachers in any school, public or private, unfortunately. I think we probably will look for a good single sex school for high school, basically becauses boys and girls learn differently. We will have her attend a co-ed primary school though. We have a few more years to think about that though, but I plan on doing some research to find a school that best suits her prsonality and abilities.