Hurtle

Thread Hijack!

MrsFychan, we are considering Whitby as a place to live, apart from the $15,000 a year private school , what are the others like? The Decile ratings seem generally quite low but what's the education like?

Thanks.

MrsFychan

Hi Hurtle. no idea on private education and to he honest the decile ratings by all accounts of the people on the ground just means if its a higher number then the area is more affluent so the parents are able to pay more money enabling the school to offer more amenities in theory than the lower decile schools.
Both my children go to decile 10 and seem to enjoy the structure of the day.
I am not so sure, so used to the rigid lesson structure in the UK, here its more fluent and laid back, lots of crafty type homework for daughter (11ys). Saying that her hand writing has improved no end, she could never get the joined up writing they forced on her in the UK, she could write better before she went to school in UK and despite numerous parents evening complaining about it the schools did nothing. Here she has been allowed to just write the way she feels comfortable and the joining up of the letters are coming naturally. Son who is 6 writing is lovely and his reading is great but as he had only a year and 1/2 schooling in UK who's to say it wouldn't of been anyway.

Saying all that I do know of a couple of parents who children have minor behaviour issues and the school is not performing as well as the parents would hope so I really do think it depends on the children, the teachers and how things are handled by all. I personally would have no hesitation if my children had a problem going in and discussing whereas I know some parents shy away from that sort of thing until it is sometimes to late.

sorry not much help on the school front but when you're here give me a shout and we can meet up.

Hurtle

Thanks for the reply and yes we will give you a shout once we're off the boat!

Our youngest is 14 so it's Secondary schools we are looking at and looks like where we live will depend on the school.

Our first couple of weeks there, we will be visiting schools to see what they're like.

I will be working in Lower Hutt and I don't want to spend more than about 30mins in the car each way.

skybluestu

Hi Hurtle

We live in Paraparaumu beach and our 15 year old daughter goes to Kapiti college in Raumati. She loves the school and we are very happy with it too. We moved down from Napier and the daughter has settled in really well. Quite a few expat kids to help newbies settle in. I work in lower Hutt and it takes about 35-40 mins dependent on the traffic.

Hurtle

Thanks Skybluestu, we are seriously considering Paraparaumu. We already have some friends there too. Seems a good balance of value for money property, climate, schools and distance to work.