ABCDiamond

My reason for saying that private schools are worth it, is based mainly on my daughters experience going from a Church linked private school, then to a state school, and then to a non-church linked private school. During her time at the state school, she seemed to go downhill. Homework did not get checked, or even noticed if she didnt do it. The teachers didnt seem interested when we went to discuss things, saying, "she will be OK".

The attitude in the private schools is a marked difference, and her levels have built back up, she likes going to school again, and her confidence has really increased.

The other thing that I have noticed is that a large number of children, especially in my area, go to private schools.

Some links to give more info for you are:

Public versus private school

ABC Report Dec 10 2003 on Private v Public Schools

Australian Schools Directory

Hope some of this helps.

Olibeneli

Thanks for these links.

Can anyone put some reality on schools they are happy with ?

Information on all areas would be nice........

cheers

The GoodbyeGirl

My brother-in-law has two children (primary) who go to Sheldon College in Brisbane. They are very happy with the school. The school website is www.sheldoncollege.com

Olibeneli

Looks a nice school - but is this a state school or private.

I see it charges for overseas students but wasn't clear if I would have to pay if I emigrate to Oz.

Any ideas on this ?

cheers

The GoodbyeGirl

This is a private school, and school fees are around $5,000 per year.

What are you looking for (State or private, primary or high etc.??).
We are thinking of trying state for my daughter who is 10, but putting her name down with the private school for her to go there when she starts high school.

Olibeneli

At the moment I am looking at all possibilities. By the time we get to Oz, my eldest will be about 11, his brothers 9 or 10 so I guess we are looking at High Schools - what age do High schools start in Oz?

This probably means if we want a private school we'd better get their names down now!.............if only we knew where we were going to go to !.

My wife is set on Perth as she thinks East Australia is full of spiders.

So, $5000 sounds like £2000 in Uk money, which means I am staring £6000 per year in the face if all three go!
Thanks for your help.

Badge

forgetting the FX rate for a minute, as a proportion of the average Aussie salary, or a good one, 5k is actually pretty cheap.

Badge

ABCDiamond

My daughter (7) goes to Sheldon college, and I feel it is well worth the cost. She always wants to go to school, not like when she was in the local state school. The children are all taught to be polite at all times, and all the children there appear to be very happy. The school does concentrate a lot on Music and singing, but not to the detriment of standard education.

What years are your brother in laws children in ? (as from next year that is) (School year starts here end of January )

We didn't need to go on a waiting list with Sheldon college, we were fortunate that they had some vacancies in year 2 when we applied last July. However we were on a waiting list since January 2003 with another local private school, Faith Lutheren, and they rang yesterday to say they would have a vacancy, so thats almost 1 year on the list. However they have just increased the size of that school. Our neighbours children go there, and are also very happy with that school. That one is only $2,500 per year.

The GoodbyeGirl

Grade 1 and 2 (Geesh, I think!!)

Please let me know what state school your child was in!!:scared:We were thinking of Mount Cotton state for mine...do you know anything about it?

ABCDiamond

Victoria Point State Primary, NOT recommended.

I'll ask around about Mount Cotton state. One of my daughters class mates has just left Sheldon and starts at Mt Cotton State next year. I will try to find out from her, but not till next week, as my daughter is in Sydney for a few days now. Can you remind me again on Wednesday or Thursday.

I've just looked at the class lists for years 1 and 2, checking for same surnames You have got me curious now, but there are quite a few with brothers and sisters.

Jirrupin

Depending on what your earning power is, and you need a reasonable income to comfortably support a family of 5. $15k will be a significant annual commitment.

ABCDiamond

QLD State government has committed to reducing Class sizes in years 4 to 10, to a maximum of 28 per class by the year 2007.

My daughter is in a class of 19 at the moment.
That might explain why I feel her current schooling is extremely good.

NickyC

I have two sons (14 and 16) who have always been at private schools in Sydney.

Not sure if you're interested in Sydney schools but I'm an expert in Eastern Suburbs schools - my sons were at Claremont College, Randwick (anglican primary school) and are now at Scots College, Bellevue Hill (presbyterian high school) and both schools are excellent but definitely not cheap. We chose Claremont for their first school because it reminded us of schools in England (polite, uniformed, happy children) whereas the local State primary school most definitely did not.

Every suburb of Sydney is serviced by Catholic schools (both primary and High). Most of these are run by the Catholic Education Office (systemic) and they are not expensive at all (around $2,000 a year). The general perception is that Catholic schools have a better level of discipline than State schools and they all take non-catholic children if they have room.

The Anglican church does not have the coverage that the Catholic schools offer but they are currently building many new schools, mainly in the western suburbs of sydney, offering a similarly inexpensive private education to that of the Catholic schools.

The longer established private schools tend to be considerably more expensive than those above (usually $10-15,000 a year for high school). They're usually closer to the city, have fantastic facilities and plenty of discipline. Most of them require a pretty big commitment (apart from money) in the way of compulsory Saturday sport, attendance at camps, after-school activities etc. The teachers put in long hours 6-days a week - whereas at a lot of state schools, the teachers are out of the doors at 3.15pm ahead of the kids.

We found that because so many kids do attend private schools of some kind, in lots of suburbs the State schools often consist of kids from poorer families or from recently-arrived non-english-speaking backgrounds. It's not like England where a huge majority of kids go to state schools, in Sydney it's a much smaller proportion.

We chose private schools for insurance purposes. You only get one go at educating your children and we never wanted to say in the future 'I wish we'd paid the money, after all'.

ABCDiamond

Thats a good post Nickyc, very well explaiined, and quite accurate comments from what I have seen aswell.

NickyC

Thanks for that ABCDiamond!

We researched the public/private schools subject pretty thoroughly years ago and have never regretted our decision - despite the expense.

I'm sure that there are some State schools that are just as good as their private counterparts - but not where we live.

Bob Carr has recently closed two State High Schools in our area - not because the number of school kids has reduced, but because so many parents have moved their kids to private schools. One of the closed High School sites was immediately sold to a private school.

I'd recommend that anyone moving to Australia research all their local schools. They may be lucky and find that the best school around is the State one, but - this being Australia - I wouldn't count on it!

Going back to one of the original questions. A lot of the old established private schools will have waiting lists but despite the church connections, none that I know of actually insist that the families attend that church. They'd have very few pupils if that was the case. My sons' school is Presbyterian and has about 1500 boys in total - of all shapes, sizes, races, colours and religions. The only criteria is that you can afford the fees!