I would stay public for Primary and depending on how they were going maybe go private for high school. I like the high school here though but haven't had a child there yet so who knows
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I would stay public for Primary and depending on how they were going maybe go private for high school. I like the high school here though but haven't had a child there yet so who knows
Our kids currently attend a fantastic public primary school in Queensland - 15kms outside of Brisbane city - in a semi rural setting - surrounded by ex dairy land and acreage, etc. As far as public schools go, it is excellent in terms of its class sizes, school results, etc. It has a real community feel to it.
However - I would point out that it is certainly not as "diverse" as some folk claim public schools to be, in terms of its population, etc. Out of 360 kids, I think there might be one Asian family and one Indian family - and one family from the UK. A lot of the families are also from higher socioeconomic backgrounds.
We WILL be sending our kids off to a private school (daughter will be going next year in grade 6 - and for convenience son will be attending the junior grammar attached to that school next yr in grade 2). My husband and I both come from very "average to below average" public high schools and we were absolutely fine.
However - here in QLD - there is an emerging trend of creating these humungous high schools of 1700 kids plus, which in my opinion, is way too large. I think my kids (esp. daughter) would get lost in our local Kenmore High School (1700 kids).
So we are looking at the private school simply because it is small and has very small class sizes (17 in grade 2 classes and 19 in grade 6 classes). We are also looking at making the move next year simply to help them make a smooth transition (daughter particularly) prior to high school.
So we do not have a bent towards private vs. public in any sense whatsoever - but for us, the size of the school and the size of the classes are what counts. BTW - from going to all of the open nights and days at this Ipswich Grammar School, I can definitely say that it is more diverse than our public school in terms of multiculturalism and socioeconomic groups, etc. (Not that one can ever really be sure re the socioeconomic thing, can they?) So I concur with Bathsheba on that point.
Tracy
..............oh yeah - I forgot to mention in terms of diversity - we DID have ONE indigenous family up until a year ago at our Brisbane semi-rural public school. But HEY - that was ERNIE DINGO's kids. So there is absolutely no diversity at our school in reality.
Tracy
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.
We were actually contemplating moving to the other side of town in Brissy to go to the Montessori school at Fig Tree Pocket. I like the philosophy there & if money wasn't an option...
But we are moving to Sydney and luckily where we are moving has options. The Montessori is in our suburb but is $2300 a term, so if $$ wasn't an option thats where our girls would be going, but because it is we have found an independant school which fits our families philosophy.
Dach, often the private schools can be more racist because they tend to have less racial diversity than the public.:
... 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.
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.
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.