Mel Gibson

l read somewhere that there are more drugs in private schools
in Australia because the kids have more money to buy drugs. l went to a posh private school for 2 years and there were alot
of kids l knew who were expelled for using drugs, their rich
parents gave them as much pocket money each week as the average wage, most of which they spent on drugs. Just look
at Prince Harry and his pot problem.

MSB

As a teacher I appreciate that drugs are a growing problem in schools. I work in a state school and drugs are prevelent. Some kids definately have that glazed look after the lunch time break. Its well recognised among the staff that kids are smoking dope at lunch times.

My kids are at a private school and dope is just as much a problem there as in the schools that i work in. However, whilst there are 'rich' kids there, the majority of kids are not 'rich.' This is a very old belief.

A lot of parents today are just looking for something different than state schools offer. I work full time to pay for my kids education and we go without decent cars, holidays etc. to do so. Many of my kids friends are in the same position. Private schools don't just cater for the rich and famous anymore, but the drug problems are similar in all schools in my experience.

Laura

tinaj

That sounds about right. We were told much the same in defence of the ads at my children's school. It is another political campaign written without any explanation for the figuers, which sets out to cause uproar with State school parents.

tinaj

Any idea where they get those distorted figures they show on the ads from?

NickyC

You have to read the ads very carefully. Most private school funding comes from the Federal government and public school funding comes from the States.

You often hear the Public school brigade complaining that private schools get more funding from the Federal government than public schools. This is probably true, but they neglect to mention that the states provide the bulk of the public school funding.

It would cost the taxpayer much, much more if all children went to public schools. The governments actully prefer the multitude of private schools - it works out cheaper for them.

ACE

Hi andrew,
I am really pleased you started this thread, i started a similar one a week or so ago but it dissapeared.

Hi Laura,
My eldest, aged 8, goes to a lovely private school here in the UK. We are very happy with the private system which he has been in since he was 2 1/2.

As you can imagine we are very keen to try and find something as close to his current school as we can in Perth. Frederick Erwin looks and sounds a lot like Rhys' present school but from what I can make out they have a very long waiting list. I plan to put Rhys' name down as well as the 1 year old when we go out at Christmas. Hopefully a place will be available when we move at the end of 2006.

For those of you living south of Perth I have also loked at:
Mandurah Catholic College
Tranby College
Living Waters Lutheran College
I have been trying to research Mandurah Baptist College but it has been difficult as they are not quite open yet (next year, I think???) and do not have a website.

Please could you give me some feedback on these schools or any other private schools.

We will have a good look at the schools when we are out there (we didn't get round to it in 2001 or last Christmas) will post findings when we get back.

By the way, please excuse any silly mistakes as I have just sat my final degree exam and am full of champagne and chocolate cake:lecture:

Kind Regards
ACE

MSB

hi ace

We went to perth in april and are hoping to move july august time pending house sale.

We are hoping to settle in Hilary's Ocean Reef area so looked at school north Perth.

Lots of schools were full with big waiting lists.

Most Catholic schools asked us if we were practicing Catholics and then politely showed us the door!

Lots of other schools ask for your priest to fill in the application form asking how often you attend church and what you do for your community etc.

We looked at Newman College which has a good name but we felt wouldnt be the right school for our youngest aged 12.

Scotch college is THE school to go to according to our friends from Perth, but has a waiting list of about 60 for Jan 05 so didnt pursue this any further.

We liked St Peters (I think) but this was full and they were keen to sell us their new campus near Joondalup, but we didnt get as far as looking at it on our last trip.

Christchurch Grammar was able to offer my son a place for next year, maybe because the fees are quite high. We didnt get a good look around the school as we arrived at 4pm on a Friday but the general air was very good. We were shown the music and ict suites which were very well equiped.

The prospectus we received from Christchurch seems to point towards a very academic focus within the school, more so than my kids school here.

Finally we were recommended by a past pupil to try Hale again $12000.00 a year. We applied from the Uk so haven't seen the school, but they choose their intake every July so just waiting to hear. Again a big downside for my kids is a single sex school.

Have heard very good stuff about Joondalup Baptist College which accepts students of all denominations practising or not. Did not get to visit this school but will do so when we return. I see Renth is visiting for his kids id really like to know your thoughts about the school and what other schools you have thought about around the area.


Laura

wmoore

ACE

Laura [/QUOTE]
Hi Laura,
Thanks for all the info, unfortunately we are hoping to settle in the south (between Warnboro and Mandurah) as hubbys job will be based in Kwinana. Still it is interesting to hear about the schools up north too, I'll look out for your updates on the school situation.

Hope it all goes smoothly for you in August.

Kind Regards
ACE

ABCDiamond

Yes. They are "just" quoting the Federal Governments contribution.

The Fed Government provides only $5.4 billion towards education
$3.6b to Private schools
$1.8b to State Schools

The State Governments provide the larger figure of $19.9 billion.
$ 1.4b to Private schools
$18.5b to State Schools

Total Government funding is:
$ 5.0b to Private schools
$20.3b to State Schools

It is estimated that another $5.0 billion is contributed directly to schools by parents, who have also already paid their share of the Governments contributions in taxation.

Peter

According to a mate of mine in Brisbane who attended Brisbane Boy's Grammar, the only difference between public and private is that going to a private school may get you into rowing clubs.

renth

Just got back from visit to LJBC.

It's a good school, lots of facilites, very modern. We know 4 kids who go there and they are really nice kids.

The high school library was worryingly small though, smaller than the kids primary school library.

tinaj

Thanks for clarifying that. I often hear people talking about this issue and have not been able to challenge it with them. I thought the figures were manipulated. Some things never change.
Ta.

darkless

For what it is worth the following are my observations on the schools we visited in April in the Northern Suberbs of Perth area.

First a brief background. My stepson is 11 (12 in October) and as we live in Essex, had the opportunity to sit his 11+. He did this in February and did extremely well and secured a place at Grammar school. He has just sat his SATS and has come out with level 5s in all subject and a reading age of 15+ My point here is to highlight that we are naturally concerned about his education as he seems to be academically talented. Hence during our visit to schools this was one of our main focuses, as we recognise that generally at this age UK kids are ahead of OZ kids and we dont want him to get bored and let it slip.

We visited the following schools
Woodvale Senior High (state)
Duncraig Senior High (state)
Christchurch Grammar (private)
Lake Joondalup Baptist College (private)
Wanneroo High (state)

We also wanted to visit St Stephens but were basically told there was no point as they had a waiting list as long at the Great Wall of China

Woodvale - not overly impressed - lack of enthusiasm from the staff - I had arranged to meet the principle, but he wasnt even there - they had to phone around trying to find someone to show me around. School was well equiped for a variety of non-academic subjects (sorry the proper word has gone out of my head). Said approx 30-35% of kids go onto uni

Duncraig - Principle was excellent - enthusiastic and interested about Nathan. They are one of the few schools in WA which offer the Gifted and Talented programme for both Maths and English. Unfortunately we missed out on the application into this program by a couple of days, but Duncraig offer a school based academic extension programme, which if kid excel in they can interchange into the state run program. They were very helpful and said they would send the entrance exams to Nathans school for him to sit (which he did last week). 50% of kids go onto uni (percentage higher in the gifted and talented programme i am sure)

ChristChurch Grammar School - Wonderful facilities (but that is what you would expect for $12,000pa). They do seem fairly focused an academic as well as sporty subjects. They dont however have an entrance exam, so the term Grammar School should be taken with a pinch of salt. The obviously do a good job though as 85% of kids go onto uni. They have a lot of overseas students who have wealthy parents - There is a definate 'my dad earns more than your dad' air to the place, but if that is your thing..

Lake Joondalup Baptist College - Again good facilities - nice school with modern buildings. Our major concern with this place was their seeming lack of academic focus. They were not comfortable telling me what % of kids went onto uni - but when pushed eventually said 18 from 53 last year (33%). There is a long waiting list also, so if you are not already on the list, then put your kids on it now if this is where you want them to go. People are putting their kids on prvte school waiting lists as soon as they are born.

Waneroo High School - Appauling - You know that you are not going to send your child to a school when one of the library staff takes you to one side and tells you not to send your kid their under any circumstance!!


Some general points:

I was amazed at how well the kids seemed to be behaving - maybe I saw too much of that program about an OZ high school that used to be on tele (something High) but in lessons, in the library, even changing classes, the general level of noise, running, etc was far better than i envisaged

Private schools do have much better facilities (air con etc), but if you have an academic kid, dont just assume that a private school (at least the LJBC, St Stephens etc level 3Kpa) offers more for them academically, because that is not something which we found.

If money is no object then perhaps Christchurch Grammar or Hale would be the best option, but at $12,000 pa and no jobs lined up, this is not an option open to us immediately. However if Nathan didnt get what he needed from the school we first put him in, then we would look to move him once we had jobs sorted.

Personally the whole waiting list thing seems to me to be a self-fulfilling proficy. in that people assume that because there is a waiting list it must be the best, so they add their kids to the waiting list, so the waiting list gets bigger and the school seems even more desirable!!

We have decided that the best option for Nathan is Duncraig and he has sat the entrance exams to the academic extension program and hopefully he will get onto this. Nathan came with us to all schools but Wanneroo (he was all schooled out) and he said that the only one which felt right to him was Duncraig, so that too was an important part of our decision. That said he had got it into his head that we would send him to board at Christchurch Grammar and walked around with a real attitude and strop on!! Bless!!

These are just my thoughts following a productive two weeks in Perth in April. We believe that for Nathan who is academic rather than sporty, this is the best option. I am sure this is not the right option for everyone.

Hope this helps - sorry for rambling!!

Dave, Helen & Nathan

MSB

Thanks David and Helen for this post its got lots of interesting info in as we are in the same boat.

Hope you dont mind me asking but did you look at Hale?

We have also been asked for $3000.00 from Christchurch to secure a place for next year, which we have to pay by the end of the month. Like you we dont have jobs etc to go to so keen to commit to $12k a year, especially having not had a good look round the school.

Did you think Christchurch would be good value for money? Is there a balance between academic subjects and the arts? Your views would be very appreciated before we write off $3K.

Thanks

laura