If money wasnt an issue

[mrsmac]

I've been thinking about diversity in schools lately because we're hoping to move to the Blue Mountains soon. The two towns we're looking at buying in both have great schools but I'm a little bit worried that my children will be a target for bullies and discrimination. Their cousin will be at one of the schools but his Mum's not a raghead like me so he will be able to slip under the radar.
TBH at this point I'm thinking that although I prefer public schooling if my boys come home and say that they're having assues with racism I might just suck it up and enroll them in a private school.
It's so sad that in this day and age we still have to worry about such stuff.

Dach, often the private schools can be more racist because they tend to have less racial diversity than the public.

[Bathsheba]

... however from my experience private schools (the ones in my areas) tend to have a better "zero tolerance" for bullying than the public ones. When i was a staff member at a girls' school this was drummed into us all the time: not to allow any bullying... and to notice the more discreet forms of bullying eg exclusion from playground games etc. Whereas from what I hear kids who attend the local public schools have had their bullying experiences over looked by the staff.

[Phteven]

Dach, often the private schools can be more racist because they tend to have less racial diversity than the public.

I know but I guess that I suspect that they might be more concerned about a parent voting with their feet than a public school.
I guess I'm just a bit nervous all round about moving to an area that is so much less multicultural than our current 'hood. At the moment we're in walking distance of 3 public schools so if one doesn't fit we can just move on but if the local school up there doesn't fit it's a matter of driving to the next town.

AFAIK all the private schools up there are church affiliated which is a bit of a problem for me - we wouldn't send our schools to a church affiliated private school.

[Bathsheba]

Sounds tricky Dach. However my DD attends an Anglican school and has at least had the opportunity to study a bit about all the world's main religions. She does a subject called "Beliefs, Behaviours and Questions" in which she has studied monothestic religions: Christianity, Judaism, Islam. Eastern religions: Hinduism and Buddhism. And covers general "Existence of God", "Suffereing and Evil" and "Origins of the Universe"... from memory. She has been taught a bit about all the world's religions since grade prep. I'm very focussed on this aspect of her education (it's one of the main reasons we send her to a private school.... so at least she gets some spiritual guidance... most public schools seem to prefer to pretend that spirituality doesn't exist Don't want to spark debate... this has just been my own experience.