Kelzomac05

Hello everyone,

I was wondering if anyone had any info good or bad on Yanchep district high school. My two sons aged 6 and 12 both started there today and both had terrible first days! I am really hoping it is just first day nerves, but I feel it's a bit more than that, esp with the 12 year old. He said all the children in his class seemed to run riot, nobody would listen to the teacher, shouting out swearing words etc etc. He has started in Year 6. We have just secured a rental up there so was hoping the kids would love the school as they seemed to really like it on the day we had an interview with the head teacher etc. They were so excited to start this morning and now the eldest is moping about the house saying he hates it and never wants to go back!!

Many thanks in advance, Kelly x

HelenTD

I'm sorry to hear that it was such a bad first day for both your boys. Could the Year 6 teacher have been a supply teacher, or is he/she the normal class teacher?

I think that I would be off to see the Principal first thing tomorrow morning. What did he tell you about the school when you had the interview?

BTW, the school's NAPLAN scores are shocking. Not the whole story about a school, but worrying nevertheless.

Kelzomac05

Hello, thanks for the quick reply

That's the actual class teacher, I spoke to her at the interview and also today and found her really nice and very approachable. My son said the teacher was really nice to him, but let the kids run riot. Apparently she was on about a crack in the side of a mountain, and one of the kids shouted out "was the mountain smoking crack?" and she never said anything to him! He had tons of stories about kids running riot and not listening to the teacher. I've never even heard my son say the words smoking crack, so to say am stunned is an understatement.

The principal was also nice at the interview, although did seem very quick and rushed and had an extremely laid back attitude but friends of ours said that most schools are laid back, and the boys seemed to love the school at the interview - that's one of the reasons we decided on that school as I wanted the boys to feel comfy and one of our friends "friends" worked at the school for a short while and said it was good! But now there all upset and am worried sick. We only moved over 3 weeks ago and thought Yanchep would be a good area for the kids to grow up, but now am not so sure.

Just looked at the NAPLAN results, actually feel like crying myself now.

Think I'll see how they get on this week and if it is still really bad by the end of the week, I'll have to rethink our whole move to Yanchep.

Thanks again, Kelly

HelenTD

Another website to look at is the Education Dept one, Schools Online. Find the school that you are interested in, then look at the links on the left, such as Priorities and Programs - if behaviour management or literacy/numeracy appear on there, it can indicate a problem with those items at that school. You can also look at the numbers in each year level and the enrolments trend - a drop-off in numbers might also hint that there is a problem. An increase in numbers can mean that there has been a new sub-division in the catchment, bringing in a lot of families - an increase does not necessarily mean that the school is good or performing better.

baileysgirl

Hi Kelly
So sorry to hear of your sons bad experience at Yanchep school, my 14 year old son is currently a year 8 student there and very happy. I had heard that there was no discipline at the school which did concern me, but have found this not to be true. Obviously there are good and bad students at every school (even private ones) and I have always believed that if a child wants to learn they will no matter what school they attend. My other son completed year 10 at Yanchep and is now attending Mindarie Senior College with the intention of going onto Uni, as are alot of the former Yanchep students so its not all bad.
Hope your sons settle down soon and begin to enjoy going to school, once they make a few friends I'm sure they will feel different

sel

My son is currently in year 10 at Yanchep and is going to Mindarie next year
He has only been there for year 10 so can only vouch for the one year, but he has loved it there !

Once your lads have had time to settle in and they have made some new friends, things will suddenly become alot more rosie.

Hang in there, you can always move them at a later date if you find things havnt improved

HelenTD

Sorry, but I just have to comment on this. Sometimes a child wants to learn but the school doesn't provide what they need.

Hope that the OP's sons settle down, though. Good to hear directly from other posters at the school.

eddie007

Is this your kids first day at an australian school? Or have they been at school in australia elsewhere first?

My kids were gobsmacked, but happy at their first experience of the australian education system ( apart from mumbles, but he is in an ed support unit now and loving it)... but their school have got the balance right between free spirited learning and unrulyness!!!

It is VERY different to uk schooling culture... Which is why I suppose so many poms choose private, which have more of a uk approach to learning...

If its their first experience of australian schools then they WILL be having a culture shock and need to adapt... They will need to learn to work i. A less ?"ordered" environment... I'm trying to put this tactfully so as not to offend anyone

if they have already been in australian schools then get down to the principals office and have a chat... Tell him that they are struggling with the percieved disruption...

itigo

So I can be a mediocre teacher then, because it won't matter how well I teach or control the class? I'm sorry but I'm with Helen on this one.........

itigo

Over here in Victoria, I was amazed how similar the schooling is to the UK and that it would be easy for me to walk into a classroom and get back to teaching. I have been into several schools.

Maybe it's WA that's more 'free spirited'?!

itigo

How did your boys go yesterday? I hope it gets better for them. It's always good to hear positives from other parents at the school. As others have said, I would leave it to the end of the week then approach the Principal if it's not any better.

The NAPLANs can be useful to look at but like all statistics they can be skewed. For example, my daughter's school's results look pretty good. It prides itself on pushing the kids and getting results (state primary).

Then I looked at the completion statistics. Nationally it was something like 97% of pupils in a school completing the NAPLANs. In her school it was 90-93% across the subjects. To me that means they haven't included certain pupils and makes me wonder whether they 'asked' them to stay at home that day so their scores didn't pull the overall scores down!

eddie007

In the uk my kids were at a very good Church School with no "catchment" area, we were lucky that before the kids came along we a, prayed the "right" way and b, were regulars, involved with church life... So when we had children it was a given they would go to the school... Other people werent so lucky insomuch as they only started attending church once their kids were getting toward school age... So sometimes didnt make it in time... Anyone know the parable about the workers in the fields? Hmmmm?

Caps/berets only became optional after Kevin started and when we left long trousers were still a year 6 priviledge... They still had ties/blazers/ summer and winter uniforms.... And shoes still had to be plain black lace ups.... And only black plimsols for sports(no trainers) in winter and white in summer

They walked into assemblies in single file in silence and walked out in single file in silence....

Getting the picture?????

So our kids found Australian schools VERY different...

They may have found some other uk schools very different too

Schooling here was VERY different for mine.

Kim67

There are heaps of schools like that in Australia.

eddie007

Most of them private tho round here...

Kim67

Private, catholic and a few state schools like that here. When we went to school in WA hardly anyone actually wore school uniform and it's been slow to catch up to the east coast where uniforms in state schools have been compulsory for decades.