My oldest went to Public school (lots of different ones, in different states, we moved around a lot).

When DS started school we lived in the Country - one public school, one private catholic school, we picked the private one.

We have since moved to a bigger country town and enrolled them in the closest public school, they lasted 5 weeks and we enrolled them back into a Private Catholic school.

There were many reasons but the biggest one was that DS#2 turns 5 three weeks into term 2. The public school would not take him until term 3. He had completed four terms of Kindy, so the kindy would not take him either. What was I going to do with a 5 year old that is ready for school for a whole term!!!!!!! Private Catholic school will take him no worries, he has been for two school visits and his teacher thinks he is more than ready to start school.

Also DS#1 is advanced in his reading (year two level in reception) but he was behind in his fine motor skills (writing, cutting etc) The private school identified this and encouraged his reading to higher levels and put him in the LAP program for his fine motor skills. The public school did not even acknowledge his reading skills - instead they put him down and made him read easier books (which he got bored with). They also never acknowledged whether or not he still needed extra help with his fine motor skills. His whole attitude seemed to improve when he went back to Catholic school!!!!!!

I like the idea of proper uniform, which can be expensive at first, but usually it lasts for years and years and they are not wrecking their own clothes.