Hi everyone,
We are looking at Schools (Thornlands,Cleveland or Redlands) for our 2kiddies (7&11) to attend on our arrival to Oz.
could anyone enlighten me on the quality of the State schools over there as the term price of Private Schools is a little out of our league!
Any help/advice would be great.
Thanks in advance, Si & Ange

 

Hi Si and Ange

There is a difference between state and private education, as you would expect, but that does not mean that a child who will work hard and who is bright will not achieve excellent results in the state system.

Thornlands and Cleveland state primary schools are good schools. If you live in the correct catchment area, also look at the new Bayview school in Thornlands - that's also another option.

Love

Rudi
x

 

Thanks Rudi

 

Hi again Rudi,
Just a quick one.
My young boy will be 13 nearly 14 on our arrival. Do you know where he will fit into the education system over there. (which schools)
Thanks. Si.

 

When are you arriving? If you were to arrive tomorrow, then the correct year for your son at school would be year 9, which is the second of 5 years of high school.

Love

Rudi
x

 

Many of the top state primary schools achieve higher rankings than many private primary schools but these top state schools are not as likely to be in the suburbs you mentioned (but sometimes are). It is a bit of a catch 22 as the best performing govt schools are in the highest demographic areas with high house costs while the not as high demographic areas tend to push many into spending money on private schools due to the quality of the local state schools.

 

To an extent it depends on your kids. Our local state school is nowhere near the top of the league so to speak yet my daughter is one of the top kids in her year and when doing inter school activities ferries pretty high up there too, hence im more than happy with the state public system.

Cal x

 

I agree Cal - a bright and well motivated child will do well in any school.

Love

Rudi
x

 

I agree as well...obviously as long as the school is fairly ok without too many out of control students or excess bullying. I think the NAPLAN results are overplayed though I can understand people who have no local information relying on them...or maybe if you are hunting for the absolute very best schools or trying to narrow down areas before arriving. I guess the good thing is they have now been updated to do a true "like for like" comparison using actual parent data rather than local area so at the extremes it shows the schools with poor teachers or very good teachers + the overall trend of the school. The best guide though imo is asking the locals, visiting the school, reading the teacher turnover rates, seeing if you like the principal etc.

 

Fish you are so right, Approaching parents in the school car park is a great way of getting 'inside' information so to speak. The parents are the ones who have no need to be bias and tend to tell it as it is.

Cal x