I went to many different schools - we moved a lot. A public primary, then I did school of the air for a while (due to moving to a remote area), then into a private Catholic school for year 7, then for high school it was all private - three different Catholic schools, one of which was a boarding school (once again due to my parents living in a remote area). I would have done well whatever school I went to - I had/have that drive. I am very good at motivating myself and committing to things, and I liked school. But I am still glad I went to private schools. The ones I went to were not ridiculously expensive, nor were they "snooty". They accepted students from all different backgrounds and you didn't have to be Catholic, or even Christian, to go there. But of course you did have to accept the Catholic ethos of the school, which included compulsory religious education classes.

Anyway, I want our children to go to a private high school. I would like to get them into the local Catholic primary, but they are full atm. I don't want to go into debt however - I have made sure that we could afford the fees (which are quite reasonable really) if our kids were enrolled there. DS's current primary school is ok, he is doing really well and the school itself works hard to make sure they foster the right environment for the children - which is hard considering how under-resourced state schools in QLD are (the govt really needs to pick up it's act in this area - there is something badly wrong when a teacher has to use their own funds to resource their classrooms adequately, even to buy hand soap for the children to use) and so I have no problem continuing to send him there (and his sisters) if we don't get offered a place at the Catholic school. But the public high schools in our area leave a lot to be desired. In fact, our local state high has such a bad reputation that many parents send their children to state highs in the next suburb or even further (if they can get them in) rather than send them to the local school. I would rather pay for them to go to the Catholic school.