Pick a decent suburb to live and you won't need private education at primary education. All they need to know by the time they leave primary school is times tables, how to read, write and spell.

I was paying $2500pa per child for primary, Catholic education in Ivanhoe East and quite frankly it was a waste of money. But the sports (read wine) evenings were good fun

Melbourne is very much run by an old boys network. Hence private schooling at senior school is much more important. Whether it is worth it is another matter

HTH

If you stay around long enough you'll understand that wasn't a grilling, just a light toasting.

You can take or leave this, but it would be a good idea to remember that members here are just ordinary people like you, sharing experiences, ideas and advice. It's not an executive meeting with you as CEO and you're not paying for advice. Every member who uses their time and effort to try to assist you deserves the courtesy of a response. Let a bit of your personality in, have a bit of a smile and a laugh, and take the responses you get with a sense of genuine appreciation - not so much judging what does and doesn't constitute your idea of 'adequate information' - and you'll probably get a good dialogue going.

It depends on what you expect and what standard of schools you are used to. All primary schools in Bayside will be relatively similar, better (so I'm led to believe) than many others. Some people believe the schools are better than the UK, some believe worse.

Our children benefited from the development of their social skills but by year 4 we found that they were a little bored and not being challenged enough. We were also dismayed at the lack of homework, the quality of homework provided and the lack of reviews of the homework. In the end we paid extra for a tutor and both kids went private in year 5.

My daughter is now in year 7 and she loves it and she's thriving.

Plenty of people choose to let the kids stay at primary until year 7 and then move them private. If money is less of an issue for you then I would suggest private from an earlier age - especially if you ever intend returning home.

Hope that was adequate

this is interesting, thanks

fair enough apologies. so many replies and opinions I didnt realise each person needed a response. Thanks

Yes, thankyou. I have a good understanding of the city now and hopefully we'll be ok.

Ok... Sorry... I put the popcorn down....


No one has mentioned Deepdene has it fallen out of favour?

popcorn?

My first... Rather unhelpful.... Post on this thread was the smilie...

Commonly used to indicate you're waiting for the "show" to begin....

Initially you sounded like a bit of a .... Well.... Nuffield said....

Turns out you may be genuine...

Deepdene's only been around 5 mins...not sure anyone even realises it exists!

Ok... So what's it like then?

The kid is at camberwell grammer? Is that any good?

I'm intrigued....

I believe it is a small area that used to form part of Balwyn North (or something like that) having previously been its own suburb. The residents then fought for it to be returned to its former name and it was. A couple of years ago it was the most expensive suburb in Melbourne - this was probably due to is size and limited housing stock - not sure of its 'status' now

Don't know about Camberwell Grammar

Realised when posted how it sounded, yes they are but you can get multi denominational Christian schools, but Catholic schools are purely that.

If you can afford it Armadale is very nice

Williamstown is west and is very pretty with beaches etc and a short commute to the city depending on the side of the city you work. From Williamstown you can go under the bridge and miss the traffic.

you really need to work out where you will be working and look at the areas around there as some commutes are long due to traffic.
If you can find somewhere with trams or a train station nearby that would help.
Port Melbourne is a great place to live too