Choosing a school for prep 2014

Gah this decision will effect the next 14 years of our lives!
I'm considering two main options:
Local public for primary then private high
Private from Prep.

The private schools:
I have been looking at a few and making this decision is so hard. I have ordered a prospectus from one school and will try to talk DH into doing a tour. The website has a nice feel and from what I've seen driving past, the grounds are nice.

A second school I looked at is slightly closer but I'm just not sure if it's worth looking into more. Is it silly to dismiss a school because I don't like their website lol! Also it's a bit more expensive. I get a general feeling of exclusivity and snobbishness. It seems so silly to have that feeling haven't not talked to the school ITMS. I have met people who went there when I was at uni and I think that might have influenced my thoughts.

There are others but the cost factor is prohibitive.

Then there's the local public school. My reservations about this have more to do with the transition to high school. The local public high school is a definite no. I went there myself and won't subject my kids to it if I possibly can avoid it. We are not in the catchment area for the other nearby public high school and it is a very large school so they limit enrollments quite strictly to the catchment area and siblings/already enrolled kids. All the private schools in the area seem to be P-12 so it would mean trying to fit into an already established social structure. Is this something I should worry about? It would bother me (having done it several times during my schooling) but my own feelings may not reflect how my kids deal with it. I have not heard anything negative about this primary school. DH went there for year 7. Another positive is it's walking distance from our house.

Then I can't help but feeling silly & irrational for even worrying about it at all as anything could crop up in the next 15 years. We might decide to move elsewhere. Unlikely as we like where we are and are pretty settled. But anything's possible.

If it was up to DH, they would go to public for both primary & high school. He's never experienced anything else so he thinks that it's fine. Also he's a cheapskate lol! So he's no help. I need to make the decision myself then sell it to DH.

Any advice?

I hear you its hard to know whats right.

We have Primary school end off our street so most likely going to send kids there, as others we are not zones for and not wanting a catholic school.

As for high school we have NONE close by and the 1 that we would be zones for has a bad rep! There is not even private near us what ever school will involve public transport and changes to get there.

So so hard and stressful

I wouldn't worry about swapping from public primary to private high from the kids' perspective. It can be a good thing.

Apparently, there's research to indicate that children in the same environment for all their schooling struggle at university as they're not used to dealing with different dynamics whereas those who dealt with a change of school take it more in their stride. From a personal perspective, I can certainly vouch for that. I was with the same group of kids throughout my schooling and I think, in retrospect, as nice as it was it actually did me a disservice.

I know a lot of people who send their kids to public primary and private high


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Although a lot of private schools have a primary school you will find most are a lot smaller than the high school because this is very, very common. Both my brother and I went from a public primary to private high school with no issue, at least 80% of students entering the first year of high school were new.

i'm going to go against the grain here and say that i love the idea of a p-12 school. i think it is awesome to go through that long with the same bunch of kids and not to have to go through such a huge transition at such a difficult stage of puberty. we are sending our kids to a p-12, and about 70 new kids will enter the school at year 7 level, so they will have lots of opportunity to make new friends and social circles, but will still have their established friendships.

I agree with Ginger. My girls are going to a private school that goes from kindy to Yr 12 and I love that they will have a stable environment. I moved around schools a lot s a kid and I absolutely hated it. The school has only two streams the whole way from kindy to Yr 6, and then there is a larger in take, which is something I also like about it.

Having seen the difference between what my kids are taught and what the kids at the local public schools are taught, I'm very very pleased with our decision.

While judging on the website might not be a fair assessment, I think judging on how you feel as you walk around the school itself is a good idea.

FWIW, I had to "fight" my DH to send the girls to private school from kindy, but now that he's seeing the results he is completely on board.

I think school requirements also change in relation to the individual child. Some kids will do really well no matter what school they go to, but others maybe won't fair so well in either the public or private system.

I went to public primary and private secondary. Many kids start in year 7 so your kids wouldn't be odd. The friendship groups always change dramatically at this time. It's not something that I would worry about to be honest.

Feeb, I am exactly he same as you. It sucks.

Just my experience... but I went to the same school from P-12 and if anything, that was problematic for me socially. I was a pretty shy, anxious child in primary school and I felt that by year 6, I'd been pigeon-holed. This is who you are and this is your status in the social hierarchy. I always wished I'd gotten a chance to reinvent myself in year 7 like all the other newbies did. They just got to rock up and declare their hand as they saw it then. Nobody had any preconceptions and they tended to be more popular in many cases because they were new and interesting!

As a kid I went to a few different schools due to moving house and then went to the local school for high school (by then we were living in the country). My entire education was in the public sector.

I am now a teacher in a public school, so I can see things from that perspective too.

If it were me, I wouldn't recommend going to the same school all the way through. I agree with some of the above posters that changing schools at least once during schooling can be a good chance to 're invent' yourself. I see so many kids these days who can really benefit from a change after finishing primary school. This is especially true for those kids who seem to be given a hard time from others, they get a chance to start somewhere new and make new friendships.

It's a hard decision.

Something to keep in mind is the time frame and as you said a lot changes over that time.

The primary school we are zoned to had quite a bad rep for the first 5 years but is now getting great reviews however I want my dd to have religious studies (preferably all religions but that just doesn't happen in school) so I'm looking at catholic school and then transferring to a non catholic high most likely.

Same thing with my high school, my aunts and uncle went there and liked it, I went 10 years later and hated it, I was bullied (inside and outside school grounds by kids who lived close by and went to our school) and a blind eye was turned to it and I was sent to counselling..... In saying that there were some good programs at our school but I swore if I sent dd to a high school I went to it would be my first one (in a different suburb) but its interesting to see that my school is now ranked fairly highly internationally for its programs and is the most wanted school this side of the city (minus private schools).

I was also warned of the uni issues when I first started uni. They found that a great majority of drop outs were private sector schools because there was such a push at high school to do well additional services would be offered however you were basically on your own come uni.... I'm not sure how true that is, though studying a minor in social science we learnt kids from private high school tend to have more options as they get to uni because they have better marks and the reputation of the school by their side.


For me it frustrates me a bit because I'm a smart cookie and it was far from thanks to high school, if I couldn't be bothered putting in the time my marks reflected it, however the frustrating part is the emphasis on high school being more important than primary!!! I think the opposite. Australia is facing a literacy crisis.

Primary school is the place we learn to read, write, behave and do basic maths. Importantly IF the foundations are laid in primary school where children hate it, don't get the help and support (of parents and teachers) then it won't matter which high school you send them to, most often the damage is done. So for me I will pick my primary school after i meet teachers and see their programs but if I see problems (particularly if my dd seems to be having trouble with kids or teacher support - seeing as I spend time each day with her learning to read or doing simple maths, learning the alphabet) I will not hesitate to try her somewhere else. What works for one child won't work for another, regardless of private, public or religious status of the school.

Good luck!! We are facing the same with less choice, zoning (including the catholic schools) and while we can afford the local private Christian school we may not be able to afford 2 or 3 kids as well as school :)




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Thanks for all your responses. Your views have given me a lot to think about.
I'm still in two minds about it but I think most likely we will be going down the public primary then private high school route.
Benefits
Cost saving. We will struggle to keep paying the fees for the next 15 years unless our income increases significantly.
Opportunity to start again socially/avoid getting pigeon-holed
Location is far more convenient
Negatives
Potentially good friends being lost
Depending on the number of new students, difficulty fitting into established social groups (question to ask when we see them!)
Better academic result for private school compared to public. I do think this depends a lot on the student though so I don't place a high importance on NAPLAN results.

I believe that kids will achieve their best if they are happy. If they are being bullied and hate going to school their results will suffer regardless of where they go. I can see the benefit of changing schools to remove the influence of bullies. I have my own experience to back it up. Years 5-7 for me were the worst of my life - a group of 4 girls who were consistent serial emotional bullies. The worst type IMO. At least 2 girls changed schools because of them. Going to high school was great for me because I got away from them - I went from public primary to private secondary and they went to public high schools. But everyone was in the same boat. That particular school started at year 8 so everyone there was new and came from a large variety of schools and even out of town as it was a boarding school. I wouldn't hesitate to change schools in this situation.

I spoke to DH and he has agreed to look at the private school that I'm favouring. I will ask about how many new students start in year 7/8 and reconsider then. I will also visit the public primary school so I can get a good feel of the culture of both schools so I can compare.

It is such a hard decision. I wish I had a crystal ball so I could see the future lol!

How important are languages? I personally really enjoyed learning languages and did german, french and japanese at school at different times. The private school I'm looking at doesn't offer any! Is that odd? I've added it to my list of questions. Maybe it is something they will introduce in time. The public school has Japanese. Far too many things to consider. One of the other private schools I was considering for 8-12 has italian, but the location is a bit of a PITA and will only get worse (one of those areas with dozens of new estates going in but limited infrastructure).

My girls' school teaches French from pre-primary, which is great from the point of view of learning a language and about another country, but I would have thought Indonesian, Mandarin or Japanese would be more useful languages to learn. I was quite surprised they didn't choose a more relevant language for Australia as opposed to sticking with tradition

We went to tour the private school today. I really really like it. I want to go there myself lol! It just felt right. Seriously the only thing stopping me from filling in the forms today is the cost. The woman who showed us around told us that she has worked there for 7 years. She has sent both her daughters there from prep and the youngest is now graduating from year 12 this month. She also attended the school herself. That's a pretty good reference lol! The staff and students that we met all seemed very happy. The grounds were very well maintained and the classrooms were all neat and tidy. The facilities were excellent. DH was even impressed. He seemed pretty keen to enrol DS too. I kinda think bugger the cost. It's worth it to have the kids in an environment that is happy and nurturing, that can provide the kinds of opportunities we would like to give our kids. The cost is affordable as it is only a little bit more than daycare fees but it is tight now. The other option is to enrol them later in say year 7 and save the money we would have spent so that we can have a bit extra to spare for extracurricular activities later on. I will have to way up the pros and cons and revisit our budget.

That sounds fantastic Rowellen. The fees are a major pain in the whatsit, so having the year 7 option is definitely worth considering. FWIW, I really think the money we're spending going from kindy is so worth it, at least for our kids and given the public schools in our area

I think we have made our decision. Public school then change to private at year 5 maybe year 7 depending how they go.

I'm a bit sad as my heart loves this private school, but my head knows that the public school is really good too and much much cheaper and more convenient. If it doesn't work out, we can reconsider at any time. If anything I think the universe was sending me a sign today. I logged onto Gumtree and clicked on the Baby & Children section for our area. Third from the top was a listing for uniforms for the public school. Girls uniforms not boys but both kids would be going there. This way gives us a few years to save up so that we can send them private later without having to sacrifice as much other activities (due to lack of money) or time (due to working to pay for school).

Such a hard decision. Thanks everyone for your advice & listening "ears" :)

An update. We have made a definite decision now. I have now been to the local public school and met a few teachers and the deputy principal, seen inside some of the classrooms, library, tuckshop etc. I am feeling a lot more confident in our decision now. DS is very excited. He tried on his school shirt and even though it is the smallest available size, it was too big lol. He was still very excited about it though. At his kindy, they have started a board showing various schools around the area with the kids photo's underneath for which ones they are going to. Several of his close friends already have their picture up under the one we have choosen. I wouldn't doubt that he would make new friends easily as he is very outgoing once he overcomes his initial shyness but I like the fact that he will have ready made friends. It's still several months away but I'm already getting teary about it. I'm going to be a mess next year lol. I have filled out his enrolment form, just need to hand it in :) Thanks again for your advice and for listening :)