Vic P12 school query

Wondering if anyone knows much about P12 schools. As we are looking at properties out of town it looks as though a P12 school will be the closest. I prefer schools to be close to home (travel, community etc), but I don't want the girls to miss out on subjects and facilities either.
The main thing that interests me is if they are just as good as separate primary and secondary schools?
Is it better to go to a dedicated secondary school especially with regards to VCE?
Is less than 300 students enrolled a good or a bad thing?

Hey hun, will tell you the little I know and think!

I prefer schools to be close to home (travel, community etc), but I don't want the girls to miss out on subjects and facilities either. The thing to do here is then to compare the programs and facilities at other schools that might be further away and see how they rate to the school you are looking at.

The main thing that interests me is if they are just as good as separate primary and secondary schools? I would say yes. The primary and secondary sections would still be run fairly independently, although in the middle years (5-9) there might be some overlap with orientation etc. however there is no reason why they wouldn't be as good as other schools. You need to check it out and compare like you would any other school, and I would initially do that with a mainly primary focus as in 7 years time things might change alot for the secondary school and in curriculum, subjects they offer etc..
Is it better to go to a dedicated secondary school especially with regards to VCE?Again, I wouldn't think so. There is no reason why this would be the case - in majority of P-12 schools, there are separate campuses etc... plus the schools are run like any other schools.

Is less than 300 students enrolled a good or a bad thing?In a P-12 sounds a little low, but it is a country town I'm assuming so I'm not sure. Best to look at numbers over previous years - say the last 5 years and see if numbers are improving or declining. Consistently declining numbers isn't great. Haivng said that, if 300 is a consistent number for them, and they provide facilities and programs in the community that other schools don't, then it shouldn't be an issue!

JMO as a teacher - albeit a suburban one.... If anyone wants to shoot me down in flames - feel free! :p

Thanks for your post. Yeah it is small country town, it has only been a p12 for 3 1/2 years, before that the schools were seperate. Have been looking into it, but it looks as though they would have more students if the bus capacity was increased or something like that.

The is no rush on this, just helpful to know about the different school types when looking at the pro and cons of a property purchase. Not much point buying near a school if the school is not good.

Kameron goes to P/12 which is right down the road from us, but we are also in suburbia. I find it practical in the fact that the majority of the kids he started school with are going to be right there beside him in Year 12 as well, they all wont split off to different schools and have to make new friends etc.

Our school seems to focus heavily on sports, but they also have other stuff like a school choir etc etc but sports seems to be the main focus in school newsletters. Having 3 boys that will go there the sports focus is totally fine by me LOL.

As for student numbers our school is over 1000, but they keep small class sizes, and least in the junior school. Don't know about middle and senior school yet. Example the reception classes can have a max of 20 students, but they usually keep it to about 15.

Love