cogitator

Hi there everybody

I am considering Somerset College for my kids. Wanted some feedback comparing the school with others, in particular IGCSE or IB based international schools.

Cheers!

Pollyana

Just to save any confusion, do you mean Somerset College on the Gold Coast? Compared with other Gold Cast schools?

cogitator

Thanks for your prompt reply, Pollyanna!

Yes, Somerset College on the Gold Coast. Interested in the MYP and DP years (Year 7 onwards).

Was looking at a comparison with:
> International schools - IGCSE / A level or IB based curriculum
> Interstate schools - based on the IB curriculum or selective schools based on state curricula
> QLD school - QASMT.

Thanks!

neil248

Where the rich kids go so good for your children's social networking and great facilities on a large campus. My own daughter goes to QAHS sister school to QASMT which definitely captures private school students including Somerset which may say something. Have heard Somerset parents described as tattooed Ferrari drivers but it is the Gold Coast after all and probably not completely accurate.

cogitator

@neil248, could you kindly compare QAHS to previous schools your daughter has attended - both pros and cons so as to give a balanced view.

neil248

Hi, I am not politically correct so please take what I write with a pinch of salt and can only give our experience as I see it. We are working class and had no intention of private schools etc when we arrived in Australia. My daughter is academic with a high IQ and a thirst for knowledge so maybe not that typical. She attended the state primary school next to Somerset in a class which had a large number of socially challenged pupils and had an extremely disrupted year, with the school management either unwilling or more likely unable to deal with the issues. Her teacher who took the decision to leave basically said get her out of here and put her over there pointing at Somerset. Somerset being out of our league re school fees we enrolled her at Hillcrest Christian College still fee paying which has what they call the ECHO program for gifted students. She thrived there with the extended school work and homework and again not politically correct but the friends she made were somewhat different to the previous school in a positive way. The issue with Hillcrest was that the religious emphasis eventually became rather over bearing so my daughter began to resent the place somewhat. The move to QAHS came about partly from another parent who is very much anti the OP system in QLD which has many flaws mainly as far as I can understand your cohort can bring down the OP score of an individual student which Hillcrest had in place. QAHS of course has the IB curriculum. Hillcrest lost four pupils to QAHS that year and it did make efforts to keep them offering at least one of them concessions to stay. My daughter has been at QAHS for over a year and the pressure of work has been hard at times. It is a selective state school so does not take any prisoners. There is no school bell, nobody locks their lockers, microwaves for the use of, the kids are there to learn and the facilities are there to do that and the place does not have an overwhelming number of students.

cogitator

Thank you so much for the detailed feedback.

I have reservations about the OP system, which I find to be less academically rigorous than the NSW curriculum, which in turn I found to be at least a year and a half behind the British curriculum.

To be fair, one thing that the private IB counterpart offers (the downsides of a private school aside), is an opportunity for a more rounded development. Besides, until a child commences Year 10, the Academies are not even an option.