mattmc

Do you know if this is based on state education? Are the comaprisons fair?I am interested to know.
Private schools are more accessible here in Oz and in my experience better as my kids did 1 year in local state school and that was enough for me thank you very much.

deryans

She went to a superb pre-school for two years from 3 to 5, she came out of that wonderful challenging environment with the confidence of a spitfire pilot, only to be completely undermined by a 2nd rate teacher and a poor school environment.

It is now a struggle to get her interested in any form of school-related work, she hates it so much, she is now 6.

To be honest, I did not expect problems this early on...........

NKSK version 2

Certainly agree with this - on very general terms. (Although I haven't been to the rough suburbs!)

northernbird

I can understand your frustration particularly if your child was keen at one stage. However she is only 6 and perhaps the challenging environment just became all too much for her.

The Crow

Did you not notice that her learning and confidence were going backwards during that year? I work with my daughter at home (as she enjoys it - no pushing from me) and would recognise the signs, I would hope.

Hope you have changed schools now, and complained to the Principal, as that is unacceptable.

DadAgain

I have no idea what methodology was used in that study. As far as private vs state is concerned, yes there are more private school - but close analysis of the academic results of schools (at least in Brisbane) shows that achievments in the 'decent' state high schools are better than many of the private schools.

In fact our local high school was only 'beaten' in the recently published wank-fest of tables by 4 or 5 private schools - all of which are in teh scarey $15k/yr range...

John Howard did his best to try and privatise education in Australia and to large extent the Australian people followed like sheep and sold themselves down the river by putting their kids into private schools (around 45% of kids now). Having said that when I talk to my colleagues (all well educated, many with kids) they are mainly confident that public schooling is the way to go and is by no means a 'last resort' for drop-outs as the neo-liberal right-wing press would have us believe. Hopefully some of the damage done in the last decade can be reversed and a lively healthy inclusive public education system can re-built?

(... this is where I start dreaming of a world where everyone goes to their local school, traffic jams become a thing of the past since everyone walks to school and those students with uninspiring parents are lifted to academic excellence by the good-natured encouragement of their fellow social-minded peers... )

rabsody

Wouldn't that be wonderful, but until they stop the heavy subsidies going to private schools (K Rudd reviewing in 2012 I believe) it is not going to happen.

moneypenny20

Top of his agenda then

rabsody

He probably didn't want to scare off "middle Australia" by putting it top of the agenda If 45% of kids are in private, that's a lot of voters!

mattmc

What I was getting at was were the figures/stats based on a state education v state education. I think this may be a fairer study because I do not doubt for one moment that there a good state schools in QLD but the difference between the the good ones and bad ones may be vast and the private schools which are more accessible are keeping the figures for Oz high.
Interesting subject and I may go google some info later.
Thanks for your response.

DadAgain

[caution: baseless excessively political postulating ahead]

Trouble is that 'the public' (damn fools) always answer this question wrong:

Which education system would you like:

a) System where YOUR child is guaranteed excellence, can chose between being a doctor, lawyer, rocket scientist or whatever - but 80% of society cant add up.

or

b) System where YOUR child could do moderately well, - but so can everyone else. Everyone else will be literate and numerate and competition for those 'lawyer/doctor/rocket scientist' roles will be more fierce so your child is less likely to 'rise above'.

They all pick 'A'.... Of course the question isnt explicitly posed in that manner - but I get the feeling that if it were FAAR too many people would pick the selfish option.

[end of postulating ]

mattmc

The thing is where I live and in some other areas they are not offered a b. If I had know it I would not have moved here.
I would like to listen to each parents reason for sending their kids to private school and if they have ever stopped for one moment to think if it is good for society as a whole.

shiftdelete

middle australia have only moved to private because the government schools are in such bad shape,-- all part of previous governments to unburden themselves of the responsibility.

peer pressure in government schools is indecently slanted towards total rebellion! but then maybe this is in part a result of the neglected environment too.

Very few have decent sporting facilities, lack of respect for teachers, parents interfere too much.

Ned Kelly is alive and well.

Fix the system, support the teachers and spend money on infrastructure...and middle class will swing back, I'm certain of it. I think people are tired of working 2 jobs, mortgaged to the hilt just to get 'conceited spoilt brat' into a private school.

rabsody

I agree, my best friend sent her girls private because her local state school was so awful. She felt she had no choice and it has cost them a fortune. I am very lucky in that I have two very good state schools near me to chose from (Kenmore High and Indooroopilly High) but I feel for those that don't have that option.

Even so, we were still considering sending ours private because in my experience, the school you go to still "matters" in Brisbane. Have now decided to spend the money on travelling instead, taking them to Europe etc, as that is just as educational and, besides, I hope they will have the get up and go to leave Brisbane once they are old enough and no-one OS is going to give a toss what school they went to in little old Brisbane. It only matters if you stay here.

deryans

Regarding the Assesment, this seemed to be nowhere near being on the radar until the final term when quite alot (relatively speaking for 5 year olds) of pressure came down in the last term to perform, of course quite a few of these children crumbled under that pressure, which in my opnion is unacceptable. No interim reports of progress for any child were given, we assumed incorrectly that she was maintaining status quo with the "average" in the class when infact she was left with another 8-9 kids to sit and look at the ceiling...:curse:

On the part of the School, It shows poor planning, poor management and poor foresight in failure to account for something you knew was going to happen, and then to apply all this pressure in the last term on 5 year olds is hardly professional.

As regards confidence, we had bullying incidents where the poor thing would cope with it all alone and it was only another child mentioned it to their mum, who then informed us. We then had a meeting with the Teacher in who was blissfully unaware that this was going on, this ties in with the teachers "management" of her time, she was clearly only focusing on the top 10 percent of the class.

Not equitable and not acceptable. I can see why people flock to Private education. However, I am still in favour of a strong State system (eg Irish or French Model)



as regards Dadagains question to which system I want for my children, it is clearly and unequivically system "B" .