Hi all,

Just wondering if there is a way to find out the difference between primary schools in WA?

I was wondering what the main differences were between public and private are and if there is any difference between public schools in Rockingham / Peel region and Perth.

My experience is rather limited to the one school my child has attended so far.

Thanks in advance.

Any other general observations about the school system in WA would be much appreciated.

Poppet

LOL, Australian education unions have been fighting for years to stop the introduction of league tables even though there are some places you can get the outcomes of year 12 results by ranking. If you go to http://www2.eddept.wa.edu.au/schoolprofile/home.do and check the school you want and then click on the link down the left hand side which says Student Outcomes Literacy and Numeracy then you will get a broadbrush picture of their NAPLAN scores

Hi, the high school rankings for state and private schools were released last week in The West, but we haven't had the primary school results for NAPLAN yet, and they are only for state schools. If you look at that link from quoll, you can see the percentage of students at that school in each year that pass the benchmarks. Each year there seems to be a couple of schools that have 100% results. However, you have to ask yourself how high or low are the benchmarks? Also, what does the school do about it if a child's results are close to the benchmarks, or below them?

My own feeling is that the benchmarks are ridiculously low, so most schools look like they're doing a brilliant job. What is not shown is the number of parents who are paying for private tuition for their kids in maths or English, which helps to push up the results. A lot of teachers also train the kids to pass the tests. Our school does well each year, but in reality I'm not impressed by the academic standards. There is also a lot of difference between schools on how they help kids who are struggling, or those who are excelling.

The best thing you can do is search all the threads here, plus ask anyone that you meet about schools, eg when at playground in park, when you meet the friend of friend, or eavesdrop shamelessly at the supermarket or on the train. Lots of schools look good on paper, but you really need inside knowledge. I only know a little about a couple of private schools SOR as I live NOR.

New website coming 28 Jan will fill in some of the gaps but as always you have to read between the lines:

http://www.myschool.edu.au/

The unions have done their best to prevent information about statistics etc being public knowledge, personally I shall be interested to see the new website but nothing beats looking at the school, going around on a tour, talking to other parents etc.

Sam

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...19/2795631.htm

This makes for interesting reading.

Saw something similar today, not sure why the unions are so against it. Similar information is readily available in the UK, but does not always influence what schools parents chose for their child, eg where we used to live, the nearest school did not do especially well in the recent Ofsted and SATS results, however this was our catchment school, so that's where our children went. However, knowing that the results showed a general weakness in some areas, eg numeracy, meant that we could keep a closer eye on what work the children were doing and we talked to the teachers to ensure we were helping them.

I think it is very hard to get any facts in Oz about the schools, so I'm more than happy for the new website, but I'm intelligent enough to know that good results of Naplans does not make a good school, but is just part of the picture.

Sam