earlneath

We are looking to move from Melbourne to Sydney next March (career reasons) and live in the Upper North Shore. I have seen plenty of info here about the suburbs themselves and about secondary schools. Primary schools is another matter. We have done a recce on the different suburbs and are flexible about where to live in the upper north shore. Schooling is the next major factor we want to understand and so we intend going up again in a few weeks to do some school visits. We have an 8-year old girl and a 2-year old boy (who obviously isn't in school yet). Want to know about any of your experiences, good and bad, with the primary schools up there, state, church and private sector.

Rachel69

When we first arrived in Australia our children went to Lindfield Public school. They were very unhappy there and we moved them eventually. It was a huge school to what they were used to in UK, and they were so many incidents, bullying, being forced to do things they were not comfortable in doing etc and we were not happy with how the teachers handled things. They were very unsympathetic to the childrens feelings, and very rude in the way they spoke to them as well.

emigratingherberts

Oh dear thats now a worry for me. We are looking to live in the Lindfield area (moving at end of December) and the school looked really good on the website. Just goes to show that what you see on line doesn't always reflect reality. Hope you don't mind me asking (pm me if you like) but what schools did you eventually decide on and are your kids happy there now?

earlneath

Thanks for that Rachel69. Doesn't sound good at all - hope your kids ended up somewhere better after Lindfield.

Rachel69

Im sorry if ive put you off! (i feel bad now!!!) Didnt expect you to say you were going to Lindfield!

Have a look at it for yourself and see what you think, its got a good reputation and gets good results etc, and obviously there are kids there that are happy and enjoy it , but im just telling you our experience, and also another family who joined there at the same time (also from UK) had similar problems and took hers out as well. If your kids are really sporty they will probably love it. Mine are not at all and are quiet and shy, so that didnt help them at all!!

Also the head teacher changed a couple of weeks before we left so things may be different now!

We moved out of the area in the end to the Hills District so I cant help you with other local schools, Sorry!! Good Luck though!

liverpool girl

When we moved to Wahroonga 18 months ago we put our then 5 year old daughter into Wahroonga Public (known locally as the Bush School). It has an excellent reputation and very good BST results (above average compared to other North Shore schools). It also has great facilities. However the school is massive we were not happy with it after a term. There were a whole load of issues such as bullying (which was promptly sorted), we felt that it was not a very nurturing environment (probably because the school was so big) and unfortunately our daughter ended up with a bad teacher who didn't seem to know what the kids in her class were doing most of the time. So we made the decision to pull her out and sent her to a very small independent school in Wahroonga where she has been very happy. However, I think if your child is used to Australian schools and not too shy then she would probably thrive somewhere like the Bush School as lots of kids do.
Good luck in finding the right school for your children.