Private schools for kids, or invest the cash for the kids?

I'm with you on this one MTR- so very true

I was a teacher for 6 years in my former career and I know that it very much depends on the school itself, the staff, the resources (or lack of) the child and the parents. Too many variables to debate if one is better than the other or draw generalisations.

I worked in both public and private systems. My husband went to a (very rough in it's day ) public school and topped the state in the HSC. I went to a private school and didn't I would consider both of us pretty well adjusted (though our children may disagree ) then again the major influences in our lives (and values held) didn't come from school. Are private schools worht the money? Only the parents can ultimately decide that for themselves and isn't it wonderful that we live in a nation where we have these choices?

 

It really depends on the child, the school and (probably most importantly) the parents.

Some kids will excel regardless of how terrible their education is, others will be average even with the best opportunities. Most fall somewhere in between. Probably the biggest influence on this is the environment the parents bring them up in. If they do or don't see the value of education, odds are the children will inherit this.

There are some great public schools available that turn out brilliant students, there are some kids that will succeed but not really take to the schooling system.

I'd suggest that the average private school achieves (on average) better results than the average public school. The question of is this a good use of the money is very subjective. If you have or don't have the money then the choice is somewhat made for you, if you've got the money but will struggle, it's a tough decision.

I believe the right sort of education is worth a lot more than $500k. The challenge is in determining what actually is the right sort of education.

 

I sincerely hope you can tell the difference between a spelling error and a typo!!

 

To be fair, you've got a typo every 2nd word in that post

 

Depends in the area you live. Some Government schools (we call them public schools in SA and we don’t have selective schools) can exceed the value of private schools. These Government schools tend to be in good areas though.

I went to a Government school with a poor reputation up until year 11. From my experience most of the teachers spent more time disciplining people than actually teaching so it was up to us to take initiative and learn. Most of the teachers also realised who was genuine about learning and if they saw you putting in effort to learn they’d be willing to stay back after class or into recess/lunch time so you can ask them questions. There were also some advanced classes e.g. they split us into groups for maths according to our abilities. Schools teach a similar curriculum and use the same textbooks for Maths and Science so I didn’t find the academic standard a lot harder or sophisticated when I went to a private school. I guess the difference I noticed was the teachers in the public school didn’t really care if people didn’t pick up the concepts. Whilst in the private school it was a lot more catered to making sure everyone understood the concepts until we moved on. That’s probably because our parents were paying 12k a year so obviously the teacher/school has an incentive to make sure people don’t fall behind. Additionally, they’ve been given kids who are there to listen and if they act like a class clown they get expelled etc. At the private school I went to people were ‘asked to leave’ if they had a poor academic record or poor attendance. At my public school people hit each other with cricket bats and baseball bats and only got suspended. You had to be pretty bad to get expelled until you were 16.

Academic wise I did fine (I was always reasonably smart) but on the social side I was like most of my school mates at the public school. Most of the girls were having sex at 14. By 15 most of my friends were all drinking and smoking weed. I started smoking cigarettes at 14 because all my friends were. By year 10 there were people in my year who were stealing cars, rolling people, doing graffiti and just a lot of petty crime etc. There were regular fights in class and fights with weapons and gangs after school. That was just the environment that it was. In year 11 I got sent to a private school and the work was harder but the main difference for me was the social aspect. I found it hard to relate to people and still kept hanging around with my public school friends so I never got the benefit of the old boy’s connections.

I’m in my mid 20s now and mainly hang around people from my footy club these days. However, I keep in contact with a few people I went to school with- Facebook makes it easy to keep track of people these days. Obviously it’s chalk and cheese as to which group of students are doing better. Yet once again that’s because I went to a rough public school. Yet if I went to a good public school (I couldn’t because I wasn’t zoned in any) it’s possible that a lot of the students would be doing even better.

 

Whiskey and keyboarss dont mix

 

I would be saving on the school fees and paying money into a share fund instead. State school was fine for me in Australia (cant get my head around calling them public schools since in the UK public schools are private schools... confusing).

Spain has schools with a mixture of private/state funding, seems to work well, so you don't have to choose one exclusively over the other. Had to choose one with specific teaching language though, mine go to a Catalan speaking school (like most kids) instead of Spanish or English (international). So that's another language I have to learn.. start next month.

 

Depends ... on so many factors

If we still lived at our previous address, then I'd have no problems with public school - high quality, good draw, excellent teachers.

Our current address - meh - low socio-economic - lots of drug/crime welfare - even the local public school teachers send their kids to the private school that junior goes to.

But the local private school only costs $5,000 year and includes ALL expenses for excursions, camps, performances and a macbook computer ... so really not much more than one would spend at a public school by the time you've got your hand in your pocket all the time.

 

When it comes down to it - that's all that many of these schools charge and you don't have to pay for raffles, walkathons, teacher's umpteenth pregnancy etc.

I prefer to have teachers who are interested in the kid's development (not equally spread across all teachers at the previous kids' schools). Now, the teachers give freely of their time - whether it be a weekend bushwalk with their mentors, arts/choral presentation nights, weekend sports, debating, science competitions etc.

Even though the previous school was good, it didn't qualify for additional government funding due to good naplan results/too few disadvantaged kids, all additional events were organised/paid/funds raised by the P&F. Current school doesn't either - we pay for it.

What's more, the private schools actually get volunteers.

 

I think the 'value' of the education has been debunked as students from private school do not do as well in the tertiary environment as the public school kids...

But in saying there (as others have mentioned) there is a lot of value in rubbing shoulders with the children of the wealthy/connected/affluent.

 

My brother in law went to a state high school in Newcastle, the wrong uni but is still very high up in the finance world in London. A friend from uni who went to Kings and the right college at Sydney Uni is only just finishing their degree after failing subject after subject.

It really comes down to the individual.

 

As a non-reproducer it isn't something I have looked into... But it was my understanding that private schools spoon feed/push the kids to do well.. So those kids struggle to adjust at uni where it is all independent study... Whereas the public school kids that make it to uni have done so because of their drive/resiliance.

Obviously going to uni isn't the only measure of success (or even a good one)... But I 100% concur it is about the individual! If it was me I would pick option 2 The kids will be fine no matter the school they attend.

 

purely on ROI? hmm... I go for an IP which will yield him cash for life and then I teach him about money and how the world is printing money; the most valuable lesson of all. Finally, he can do whatever he love to do.

 

Schooling is a 3 sided triangle - the child, the parents and the school. All sides need to work together to hold each other up otherwise it's just a straight line - usually to nowhere.

In WA we only have one selective school and it's in the CBD. I've seen some awesome examples of subject related selective schools in Melbourne (eg John Monash Science School) and I wish we had them here.

My kids go to a private school run by the Anglican School Commission who wanted to create schools which are affordable yet still offer good ethos, amenities and support. My main desire for schooling is to offer my kids the chance and the opportunity to be the best kid they can be - whether this is university entrance score, career link (combined schooling and working) or VETlink (combined schooling and TAFE).

For us is the right choice. I'm too much of a bogan to fit in to the elitist private school parents but not enamoured with the local schools. Bang for buck we get great value for the $5k a year ($15k for the 3 kids), 90% of the kids at school are awesome (10% I'm hoping natural selection will take care of) and I don't mind the Christian ethos to help round out their honour/integrity/respect side.

 

I was going to say this. Home school them (if you have the money to send them to private school, one of you can stay home to home school). They are guaranteed to get a better education (anything is better than sending them to a day prison where all they are taught is how to become obedient automatons) and you can teach them the principles of investing from a very young age.

Then, when they are old enough, get them to go into a trade. You can't outsource plumbing or carpentry to India.