I went to a tiny public primary school (22-40 kids each year in total in the whole school. Two classrooms) and I absolutely loved it. I wish there was a school like that around now for when my kids start school, but the majority of them seemed to get closed down many years ago.

I went to a public high school and pretty much hated it. I'm quite academic and it just didn't give me what I needed. In year 12 the school was short of funds, so they decided to only pay my physics and chemistry teachers for 4 out of the 5 periods of class we were meant to have. So we basically missed out on 1/5 of our class time for both those subjects. I guess they figured year 12 wasn't really that important right? *sigh*

I guess that's one of the main reasons I really want my kids to go to a good school, and in my area the best school I've found so far seems to be a private school about 1/2 hour drive from us. I want to give them all the best opportunities that my parents weren't financially able to give us. Like your hubby, mine is not convinced about starting private in primary and would like to just start in highschool, but because the school is prep-year 12 I worry that unless you start in prep there is no chance of getting in later. I've even had to already do the expression of enrollment paperwork because the school told me people apply when pregnant! The fees there are expensive, but much cheaper than most private schools I've looked into in our area. They seem to range from about $3000 in early years and increase each year up to almost $7000 a year in year 12. I'm sure they offer discounts for subsequent siblings though. Well I certainly hope so because with this surprise baby on the way I'd hate for us to have to skip private school due to finances...

I haven't been much help. I guess I'm pretty much in the same boat as you at the moment.