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

Nah. Riverview.

 

Nice oval there. I'm not far from Riverview... in North Sydney ATM ... daughters synchronised swimming

 

1st weekend of sports.

 

I agree, good company is important, their peers will influence them and their perceptions of hard work, respect and manners. While we all need to be able to work collaboratively with others, mixing with other children who have such expectations on them makes a difference.
A state school in such an area would be fine however they can be harder to find.

 

That is great! A lot of people pay a premium to buy houses in the catchment of good public schools.

 

Done.
Filling out the paperwork and sending it off today to enrol in the private school. Also have to pay the $9k once off enrolment fee, which does not go towards the school fees :/

 

A 9k enrolment fee?

I'm in the wrong business lol.

 

Tell me about it. The other school we were considering asked us to pay the enrolment fee 3 years in advance! wtf.

 

Great thread, look forward to reading through it as we are expecting our first soon and some private schools need enrolments at birth (e.g. SCEGGS won't accept kindy enrolments if the child is already 3 months old)

I see a lot of posts here about how private schools are academically ranked no better than good public schools, however I agree with the numerous counter-posts that academia is not the be-all-end-all. My friend and I are both smart cookies (near top of James Ruse, 1st class honours in uni) but we both see a lot of value in private schools that develop more well-rounded, well-spoken, well-connected individuals.

 

Nothing unusual - we paid a deposit to get into yr 5 credited against yr 7 term 2 does.

 

Big call and well done on starting this thread. Very thought provokinhg indeed!!

 

Independent and private schools are going to lose 'extra' funding due to Gonski Mk II

• what does that mean to you now?
• will it affect your decision?
• how much more will you be paying?
• has the school considered this in their fee projections?
• how does the school manage this risk?

We won't know until later tonight in the budget

 

In your case, does enrolling in year 5 with a deposit secure you a spot, or is an interview still needed? My friend was adamant on enrolling his kid in private from Kindy as later entry wasn't guaranteed.

 

@chylld - first there's the application fee. Then comes interview a year or two out. Followed by the offer of a place and request for your hard earned.

 

Thanks. Have been told that entry is more and more selective as you go up the grades, as kids are expected to be more and more accomplished wrt both academics and extracurricular activities.

I remember sitting a test at William Clarke College around year 4-5. I blitzed the test and was called into an interview with the principal but for some reason unbeknownst to me (checking with my dad atm) a decision was made to try to get into James Ruse instead. I now wonder if I was chasing an academic goal, or instead, running away from a risky culture change for which I simply lacked the strength of character.

 

@chylld - I attended a P&F meeting last night (albeit pre-budget announcment) but the topic of the night was NAPLAN and changes to the HSC.

The interesting thing was the change between K-10 where kids are taught life skills vs current yr 11-12 teaching to an exam (HSC). This is going to change with less emphasis on exams and greater focus on the ability to reason and think rather than regurgitate (this becomes more aligned to the IB apparently). Scaling will also be more advantageous to the harder subjects ie extension vs general subject level.

 

Sounds like a great step forward. Most of my time in James Ruse HSC prep was learning how to regurgitate info we didn't have the slightest proper clue about. In terms of real life economics I've learned more from SS/PC than school

Not sure how subjects are scaled currently. Back when I was sitting my HSC the scaling was already quite extreme, a raw mark of 54% in 4-unit maths was scaled up to 91%. I achieved a scaled mark of 98.5% in it and I didn't even answer all the questions!

 

I recently watched a very disturbing multi part documentary on a private school in the uk.

They didnt teach math or science or english, etc... etc... and they have the highest mortality rates for both students and teachers... and they plant murderous trees and have monsters hidden about the school and their staircases didn't pass health and safety standards. They don't even have internet access for students. Sending all correspondence via owl.

 

Does it have a title? Netflix? Linky? Or is it being distributed by owl as well?

 

I forget the title. I think it was actually named after the whistle blower who was an orphan boy at the school for several years. "Harry" something.