My best friend went to Private School and I can tell you its a lot more than $1000 a year!

When they are younger it's cheaper and the excursions etc are included but as soon as they hit high school the fees go up and the excursions head overseas - all of which has to be paid for by the parents. You will also be up for additional fees for sports and extracurricular activities.

My friend went to a exclusive Melbourne school and her fees were $10K per year for tuition and if she boarded it was an additional $13K. She also did rowing as a sport which was a further $8K. That was from years 10-12.

If you like the structure of a private school then go for it - but personally I don't think it makes much of a difference if they are public. I'm not sure which way we will go yet, when the time comes. We don't want to send our kids to a religious school but we love the idea of Montessori and Rudolf Steiner - so we would be willing to pay for that kind of education.