School info
 

I've been looking at schools in Hornsby and Mirnada to try and get an idea of the quality of the schools.

The web sites are poor to say the least, is there any way of finding out how the schools are performing compared to other schools like you can in the UK?

Anyone living in these areas that have kids going to school?

We have a 6 year old girl and are looking at the public schools (cant afford private education! :ohmy:) and we are thinking of Hornsby or Miranda (and surrounding areas).

How did you decide? We're hoping that they will let us go and visit when we are over to get an idea. Hoping to spend a couple of week in each area to get a feel and then make our mind up and look for a rental

Re: School info
 

Nope, no league tables (that's not PC!!!). The eyeball and backyard gossip tests are as good as you will find I'm afraid.

Schools are usually quite good about having people to visit but you will need your permanent address before you can enrol - some schools are very particular about only taking kids from their catchment area, especially the "good" ones. Systemic Catholic schools arent that expensive if you do want to go private, only $2k - $3k pa usually.

Re: School info
 

Thanks.

How do people decide which school to send their kids to then?!:huh:

We dont have anyone over there to help us out. Can anyone in Miranda or Hornsby offer any advice?:confused:

Re: School info
 

Go and look at the schools, talk to the teachers, watch the kids come out of school in the afternoon, ask the lady who rents you a house etc. The general rule of thumb is that if you wouldnt want to live in a suburb you wouldnt want your kid to go to the local school - the schools mirror the socio economic standing of the local community. Schools are much of a muchness really especially primaries.

Re: School info
 

They do what your parents would have done in the UK when deciding which school to send you to. They ask around. Everyone with school-age children knows which are the better schools in the local area. :)

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So I just need to find people with primary school age girls in Miranda n Hornsby:)

Re: School info
 

I'm assuming you're coming with PR? Otherwise you would be paying $4,700 a year to send your daughter to a public school in which case it might not cost much more to go private.

We're ten minutes from Hornsby. My kids don't go to school locally so I have no direct experience but from hearsay:

Waitara Public - mixed reports. A friend with very bright kids was happy with it academically (it has an AIM class) but a lot of the children come from backgrounds where they are more likely to go to kumon maths/be tutored after school than hang out with friends so her children found it limiting socially. Another friend moved to the area and was told it wasn't great.

Wahroonga Public, commonly known as "The Bush School". Very popular locally, people move to the area to get in, a friend (came from the UK) pulled her three kids after a few terms as she found it vey unfriendly and the school refused to deal with bullying.

St. Ives North. Have never heard anything bad about it. Is supposed to cater well to all abilities, socialble parents, a fair amount of rental property nearby to get you in catchment. My 6 year old daughter has friends who go there who are nice, polite, happy kids. Most expats will be South African rather than British.

St. Ives Public. Very good reputation academically, has had a lot of people moving to the area recently to get in so strictly takes from it's very small catchment (you can view it's catchment area online). I visited the school a couple of years back, liked the head, parents seem friendly. Only around 10% of pupils go on to St. Ives High next door though (a lot of people around here do public primary, private high).

St. Ives Park. We used to live on the same road but I was never inspired to look at it. Small school - a nighbour with 4 kids was pleased with some teachers, unhappy with others. An expat friend visited it and said it looked deathly dull.

North Turramurra. Just up the road from us now, kids seem happy and friendly. Have heard good things about it though a lot of our neighbours send their kids to the Bush School!!!

Not sure how useful that is, but if you have any other questions feel free to PM me.

Re: School info
 

OOOOOOH you are in the know.....what can you tell me about Roseville Public?

Re: School info
 

We are indeed coming on PR.

Daughter has had very good reports and is well ahead of her peers academically, but she also likes the social aspect!

Thanks for the info.

Re: School info
 

WW - have you checked out which year she will be in here (will depend on birthday), you may find that she goes "back a year" which you may not be very happy with, especially if you say she's ahead of her peers academically. I know a few people who arrived assuming that because their child was already in x year the school would put them in the same year but they flatly refused. If you give me her birthday I can work it out for you.

Plantpot - I don't know anything about Roseville Public I'm afraid, except to say that it's a very nice suburb (are you living there already?) so I would expect the school to be fairly good. I find things here quite similar to where we were in the UK, Brighton, in that most of the primary schools in decent areas are absolutely fine as long as your child doesn't need learning support. There are a lot of private schools around on the North Shore so a lot of parents send their children locally (part of the community, can walk to school, local friends etc.) for primary, then move them to private for high school so they get involved and support their local primary. I know Roseville College is supposed to be lovely if you have girls and fancy spending the money!

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She is 7 on the 2nd Nov, just about to go into the last year of infants (yr 3?)

Re: School info
 

In theory, the cost of private education (for a temp visa holder in NSW & ACT) would be the normal private cost PLUS the government contribution part.

ie: Normally a private school would receive the parent contribution (say $6,000), plus the Government contribution, (say $5,000) totalling $11,000.

However, on a temp Visa, the NSW or ACT school does not get the Government contribution, and would therefore need to charge the full $11,000 cost to the family.

I have heard of schools that have missed this, and only charged the parent contribution (ie: only receiving $6,000 in the above example), but these are errors and should not be considered as guaranteed to happen for anyone.

Having said that though, there are some expensive schools, especially Melbourne and Sydney, that get very little in the way of Government funding, (as the % is calculated on socio economic areas), and they may end up not being much different to normal rates. These would include such schools as Geelong Grammar in Victoria, with $29,000 annual parents fees :eek:

Re: School info
 

I think yours would be starting year 2 (the 3rd year of primary school) in 2010. However, if she was born before 31 July it would be year 3 (4th year of school).

Some children are allowed to go up a year, depending on how this is interpreted:

Re: School info
 

ABC,

Would appreciate it if you could pls give me an idea of where my daughter will be school-wise next year. She starts Yr 6 in September and will be 11 when we move early next year. I know the academic year starts in Jan and am wondering if she'll have to start Yr 6 again or if she can slot in in the first year of secondary school?

Many thanks,
rae

Re: School info
 

When exactly is her birthday? And which state will you be going to?