What factors helped you pick the right school for your kids?

[mrscricket]

We ended up choosing one that was further from home - as opposed to one in walking distance - and way bigger than we ever thought we'd send him to, after going to the info night and feeling like it was a great fit for our family. There is 5 prep grades, and they all do rotations so every child works with each teacher, which I have really liked. They had lots of strategies for kids that need help in certain areas (we worried this would be DS, because we really didn't know how he would go. We didn't need to because he is loving it, but it was good to know help would of been needed if necessary). Ours has a great buddies program with the preps and Grade 6 students. In future years, there was a lot of activities that would be great for DS, like the after school sport and arts classes, and robotics club (he is hanging out to be in Grade 3 for that!) We also needed to look at a school that had more than 1 of each grade, in case we decide to put the twins in separate classes when they go to school.

[Ginger]

Just curious again, what is appealing about the pony one? I don't know much about it. Is it Steiner. Sorry for being ot, I'm just interested now.

[LionsandBears]

Just curious again, what is appealing about the pony one? I don't know much about it. Is it Steiner. Sorry for being ot, I'm just interested now.

It's not Steiner or Montessori. It's an independent school, set up by teachers who didn't like the way education was structured years ago. It provides an independent style of learning. And it has ponies

I'm not an expert on it, but have been researching it. Fees are about $7K p.a., I think.

[meow]

Can someone please message me the name of the school with ponies? I'm looking into Melbourne based, small independent schools and would love to check it out

Our criteria are different to most as our son has learning delays so most criteria are based around that.

We're most interested in the culture of the school, the acceptance of children with additional needs, the inclusive environment and how they can cater to our son's educational needs. We're looking at smaller schools for a community feel so he can be familiar and comfortable with more people. We are living in a bilingual area and so we are also making sure to choose schools that are not bilingual as he struggles enough with one language so we don't want to confuse things.

Before having my son I would have chosen the closest school and bilingual would have been a big positive. My priorities have had to change to meet his needs, not my desires, so I think everyone's criteria will be different as we meet the individual needs of our own children.

[Santosha]

Ginger, have a look at the website, it's got a very thorough explanation of the educational philosophy.

They do offer a degree of support for kids with additional needs but I will say to those with kids on the spectrum, that I've had several clients and friends with children with Spectrum kids go to this school and find that it was a really poor fit. The way the school seems to run is very unstructured and student-led which can lead to a higher degree of unpredictability, a lack of clear rules and expectations for many tasks (as each child is meeting individualized goals) and more classroom noise and movement. Obviously for kids who need / benefit from structure, routine, rules, predictability and low sensory input, this is often not ideal. I don't doubt that there are plenty of kids on the spectrum who'd love it there, and lots of NT kids it's equally not suited to... Just a heads up as I've had two families remove their child with ASD from this school within a year because they weren't coping with these factors.

Apologies for joining thread derailment. As you were....

[Olive]

Pm'd you meow.

[peanutter]

Yup, starts with V

So much to think about ...

[Traveller]

We had a choice between three. One was walking distance and large, one walking distance and small, and the last a 5 minute car journey away and tiny. The tiny one has sheep, goats etc and a great art, lote, etc program. The medium one couldn't sell itself to me in any way, and the large one had great strengths in sport, drama and sustainability as well as art, lote and the usual standard programs. In the end the extra facilities the largest school offered couldn't be outdone and we are very happy with our choice. Walking distance was a key seller but so was oshc and educational opportunities which I felt the largest (500 pupils) school was best able to offer but the tiny (40 pupils) was a very close second.

[MummyNaomi]

Local, Small and Supportive were some of our 'wants', having a decent OSHC was a 'need'

We ended up narrowing it down to two, the school I had on top of my list became second after our interview at the second school as the principal and the school ethics etc blew us away. It was important to us that the school/teachers adapt to the kids learning style and that in the early years (eg prep-year 3) it was a bit more un-structured with lots of learning around play as well as the more traditional learning. The school we chose is a religious school, but a decent number of the families are not religious but love and support the schools values. I also liked this, I have no problem with kids having a religious education, but their academic education is more important which is what I feel the school excels at.

Ooooh, and the fact that the uniforms are soooo cute is just an added bonus!! Wish they had ponies though!

[JLeigh29]

Finally got around to reading this thread...very interesting as I've just enrolled DS for kindy next year so thank you.

Our criteria included cost and value for money as a priority (having taught in public schools for 10+ years I see no point in paying for private education, as long as you're in a 'decent area'). The schools here are all based on catchment zones, but we are within the boundaries for two. After visiting both, the one we picked has newer facilities, seemed better maintained, office staff were more helpful and friendly, website was better maintained and seemed to have a greater emphasis on parent-school involvement.

I also asked around (DS's 3 yo kindy teacher, friends, DH's work colleagues) and paid close attention to kids in uniform I see out and about. Both schools seemed similar on those fronts.

All public schools have to have similar anti bullying, behaviour and values programs, so that was irrelevant. Academic scoring can be easily skewed and has a lot more to do with the child as learner (or teachers) than the school itself so that didn't come into it either. Having said that, if we lived in a different area, maybe it would have.... Technology doesn't matter (though I'd have avoided a school with too much emphasis on IT).

I'd have preferred a smaller school (this one has over 700), but there are always trade offs.

I'm hoping I've picked a school full of well-behaved and hard-working kids, caring staff and with lots of like minded parents

[JLeigh29]

*double post*

[LuluHB]

Damn I want the pony school. Too far to travel from Perth each day you think??

Many of the things mentioned were on our list of priorities, the most important for us being their bullying policy, stance on community values, facilities, extra curricular activities, additional programmes for art, music and sport, accelerated learning programmes, uniform policy and the fact that they are kindy through to year 12.

[LuluHB]

Damn I want the pony school. Too far to travel from Perth each day you think??

Many of the things mentioned were on our list of priorities, the most important for us being their bullying policy, stance on community values, facilities, extra curricular activities, additional programmes for art, music and sport, accelerated learning programmes, uniform policy and the fact that they are kindy through to year 12.

[Nai]

Ponies would just be a distraction for my kids but we do have chickens.

My priorities were
- walking distance
- non religious with no RE
- engaged and caring teachers
- bounce back program
- good community feel
- diverse student demographics
- strong sustainability and environment focus
- diverse programs and arts focus

[Astrid]

Location seems to have an affect on "wants". Down my way having chickens, sheep, goats etc is not required, as most kids are from farms or near farms.

[BellyBelly]

From the main site:

https://www.bellybelly.com.au/child/...d#.UclyPaYazCQ

[Ginger]

I also thought about where they would end up for high school, and this ended up being a huge deciding factor for me. In a way, I kind of started by working out where I wanted them to go for high school and worked my way back from there itms? I'm just wondering where the kids from the pony school would end up after grade 6?

[sangie]

I used to know one of the teachers from pony school (she was a client where I worked). I asked her (about a year ago) what high school they go to and she said quite a lot go to steiner but more recently more of them are going to the local public or private schools.

LuluHB clearly I should have mentioned pony school in my attempt to get you to move here haha!