Schools in Adelaide East?

Hi there! We moved from Sydney to Adelaide, and we are loving it so far, but I am not loving the school dilemma! In my former life (before kid!) I was a primary school teacher, and had lots of great inside info, as to who was coming and going in the schools I had my eye on, as well as "the real story"...here in Adelaide, I have no frame of reference!

So, basically, I think I have narrowed my choices down to three schools;

East Marden (have heard good things about this from a lady I babysat for)

Magill (I hear this is a great school, but I don't like the uniform, the location...and I also heard that, because it is becoming so popular, they are going to have to increase class sizes, because there is no more room on the grounds for demountable classrooms.)

Stradbroke

I am leaning towards these, but would soooooooo welcome any input from other Adelaide mums. Thanks in advance for your help!

Hi there,

Glad you love Adelaide!

I live in Rostrevor and I have looked into all the local schools for our children.

East Marden: my BIL has spoken well of this school (he works for DECS).

Magill: shocking position and this has put me off totally.....I am just fearfull of such a busy road. BUT, it is a great school with a lovely "feel" to it once you are in.

Stradbroke: this gets my vote every time. Friends of mine with 2 boys (age 11 and 8) attend there and LOVE IT. I love the position. I also love their philosphy toward the environment, and toward pastoral care. It is also an International Baccalaureate school, which is a benefit to us in term of international exchange of education.

Where do you live in the eastern suburbs? One other thing I have considered in relation to primary schooling is nearness to home......

HTH!

Thanks Lucy,that was awesome...Right now, we are renting in Tranmere (haven't sold our Sydney place yet, until we know for sure we are staying). If we were to buy, it would be in the Rostrevor kind of direction, as it seems a bit more affordable than where we are now!

Everyone keeps jumping up and down about Magill,but I am just really iffy about class sizes, especially in the early years.

Went to look at Stradbroke. My only concearn with that is that it is sooooooo big! It would be really easy for a reception kiddy to get "lost", both in the literal and metaphorical sence!

Anyway Lucy, thanks for your help! :)

Tranmere is lovely, but expensive: Rostrevor and Paradise and Athelstone are better value for money in my opinion, and a lot greener.......

I know what you mean about the size oand "sprawl" of Stradbroke. But it is very closely monitored.

My next step is to investigate Athelstone Primary.......I have looked on their website and it looks lovely, but I have yet to visit. It is only small: only approx 350 students across reception to grade 7.

Hi ghi,

I have just moved from Magill, we were in the area off st bernards rd oppisite the university, our son went to Magill school, I liked the school I agree with you on the position it is terrible and my biggest fear was what if my son ran out of the school grounds, as the junior primary is right on the boundry where magill rd and st bernards roads meet its very busy, I voiced my concearns to the teachers and to the principal and they were very understanding I was told that the students are never unsupervised and are taught the rules from day one about the roads etc, my son new never to go out there and after a few weels I no longer felt so worried about this.
Parking is horrid, I always parked at the tower hotel as that was easier and there is no way you will get much closer than that.
The teachers are A++++ I couldn't speak highly enough of them and the curriculum is at a very high standard, my son got alot out of the school, Peiters calss only had 18 students in it and the others had no more than 24 all of the children seemend happy. I am not sure about the upsizing of classes as I know they added another reception class last year so I beleive there are 6 rooms

My problems with this school was its size it is absolutely massive I would say they had atleast 6 classes of reception alone thats well over 100 students just for reception so there must be atleast if not more than 1000 kids with in the whole school including primary,

the position of the school as I said above.
But honestly I beleive that is all I can fault the school on, they have a fantastic library, the computer room is fantastic and top of the range.
so yeah I liked the school.

Stradbroke I think if we had to do it all over again I think this is where we would have sent Peiter, it is such a lovely school and I am the same as Lucy on this one I love their thoughts on environment, it is positioned well and from what I can tell there is a great sence of community with in the school and the parents which is lovely I have never heard a bad thing about it.

I am not to sure about the other schools as I have not had alot to do with them.

I wish you luck in the search of a school it is so hard especially when you care where your child is going and what the school stands for.
Good luck

Wow Amy! Those are great tips...thank you so much for your help!

that is no worries at all, feel freee to ask away as I am more than happy to try and answer any questions you might have.

I may be a bit bias but i loved east marden. I went to 10 differant primary schools when i was growing up and this was my favourate. They incourage students to learn a musical instrument, they have an accelerated students class. They also split up the maths classes in the older school to fit each childs ability so they are not in a class where they don't understand the work. They also have lots of really fun play equipment. I loved it.:p Plus even though i am 20 my old teacher asks my mum about me when they bump into each other shopping.

Thanks Fishy. A child psych I know recommended it, and I also know a few doctors who sent their kids there. I am going to the tour on the first of march, so I'll let you know :)

hi, We are looking at relocating from Darwin to Adelaide our son is currently attending a privately ran Steiner School I see you have a Steiner steam public school being ran at Trinity. Do any of you know any thing about this school?

Hi

I dont think I am going to be much help as I dont know much about this school other than some positve articles I have read in the paper and a couplke of news stories I have heard on the radio and TV. I am pretty sure the school you are alking about is Trinity Gardens Primary School which is on a main road but other than that is a nice looking school.

Sorry I can be of more help.

Hi Elanor- we live just around the corner from Trinity Gardens. You can find plenty of info on the school if you google its name.

My son is at a montessori pre-school, and a few older siblings from his pre-school class went into the Steiner stream when it opened. They had a first year out teacher, who apparently had alot of trouble maintaining any sence of discipline.

Of the 4 siblings who were in the stream, 3 pulled out. So, I would find out who the teacher is now. If it is the original teacher, there is no way I'd be sending them there!

Thank you both for the info. We had an experience with a first year teacher at our school last year, not one we plan to repeat!! thanks for the tip!

The teacher who I did my final Uni prac with is working at Magill again now ... she is lovely and only works two days a week but when I was at the school doing my Prac, I love it! The staff as a whole were friendly and caring ... Chris was the best teacher I had supervising my Prac and we are still in touch and now friends.

Good luck in your hunt.

Cheers

Qhi

How did you end up going with your choice/school hunt?

(I am curious as I have had a re-think on our choice for our kids!)

I've enrolled Will in East Marden, he starts term 3 next year...Magill gave me the ****s, big time, had 3 seperate bad experiences there.

Will has a buddy at Stradbroke this year, and her mum is very happy with the school. My 2 reasons for opting out of Stradbroke were the physical size of the school (buildings and grounds) really intimidated me, and I am 175 cm! and also the IB thing...I love the philosophy, but it is not as widely used in NSW, and we will probably end up back "home" at some point, and want the change over to be as easy as possible.

Which schools are you looking into?