Private school v public schools, where’d you go, where you send your youngsters?

[c3024446]

I'm a public school boy, so is the bride. Our kids go to a public school. We are engineering and health professionals respectively and gained these positions off our own hard work. I have no idea if we would be doing any better if we went to a private school.

Our plan is help the kids at home as much as we can and be active in their learning - this should push them up into the higher classes in High School, where the teaching environment, i.e both students and teachers are better - and should lead them to be able to do whatever they want careerwise. Hopefully.

Private schooling is another world to me that I’ll likely never understand. Huge investment with no guarantee on return. I have no idea how anyone in my generation could afford to send their kids to one, especially if they live in Sydney or Melbourne, and who didn't go to private school themselves.

 

[Kerplunk]

Hockey wasn't a PM. Once you include Knox, Wesley, Melbourne and Geelong Grammar thats pretty much 90% of Australian PMs went to an elite boys school. That's a bit shit. I was hoping for a bit more diversity after Gillard but we've just had three GPS boys in a row, and they've all been terrible.

Yep think you have summed up everything that is wrong with politics in this country.. Old boys club with zip real life experience.. Current liberal party policy is a great example of how completely out of touch the party room is with the general population.

 

[Oddjob]

The poll is a bit munted. It assume you have the capacity to send a kid to private school.

There are some very cheap (and pretty shit) catholic schools out there.

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[hellmansam]

Our brood went to private for most of their Primary years, but under different circumstances to what most here are considering. The public primary had the issue of restructuring the teaching staff every term because the remote town had a somewhat transient population. A change to the class numbers with families leaving or arriving would mean some teachers got shuffled around. We had taken our kids from a Catholic private school in a major WA town to a remote town NT government school and found the lack of stability detrimental. Moved them to the Christian private school which we had judged from its website as too much fire and brimstone, but had a new principal, an awesome bloke who was very down to earth and progressive (in a good way) and all our kids thrived there. We got good feedback on their progress, could easily talk to the teachers or principal. My shift work job meant I was able to go on a few school camps as a parent helper.
The fees were pretty modest in terms of private schools but more than the Catholic school. My wife is a Catholic but not a churchgoer and I don’t have much time for religion at all.
The Catholic school did better bbqs and functions because there would be alcohol and it was ok to enjoy it a bit.

 

[Calvin27]

There are some very cheap (and pretty shit) catholic schools out there.

Tell me about it. We had a few sudden resignations in the recent royal commission....

 

[Oddjob]

Tell me about it. We had a few sudden resignations in the recent royal commission....

I'm still agog the Catholoc church was shameless enough to try and get a special top up in Gonski 2.0.

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[John U]

The poll is a bit munted. It assume you have the capacity to send a kid to private school.

I can’t amend the question to add ‘assuming you can afford it’. Fair call. I tried.

 

[droenn]

I was private school until year 11 (yeah, year 12 sucked in my new public school, but mainly because of the disruption more than the school - luckily my school results are buried deeper than my undergrad these days).

Not sure I'd send my kids* to private, unless the local public school was terrible - which changes depending on where you are. I was in regional Tas for a lot of my school years, so private I guess was a clearer option. Got exposed to lots of extracurricular activities which I guess was nice, but surely with the money you save going to public you can get your kids playing winter/summer sports, learning an instrument and getting into the outdoors AND have change to buy the whole family bikes.

I would have gone to university regardless - my parents were very focused on education.. but thats a whole different story

*they will never exist, so I can't vote in this poll

 

[Calvin27]

Not sure I'd send my kids* to private, unless the local public school was terrible

Imo geographic location has a lot more to do with school performance than private/public. However there are exceptions - for example geelong grammar does quite well.

 

[slowmick]

Preference for public, will be pressured for private i think.

Public school product here. Was a small suburban high school with a bad reputation - 25 years ago - houses in its place now. had good younger teachers who cared, were engaged and tried hard. out of 60 maybe 10 students got into uni straight after high school. At last count more than 20 have finished degrees or higher and are doing well for themselves. Was a good group of students and teachers but some people just need more time to decide what they want to do before they apply themselves.

My wife wants to send our daughter to an all girls school when they time comes - she wants her to have every opportunity to do well and worries about distractions. I'm not so keen. The local high school doesn't have a great reputation but moving to the catchment area of a good school would out us deep in a hole. I like the idea of school being close to home - commuting never made anyone happier. 10 years to save up I guess.

In the end they are only 18 when it is all done and dusted. Plenty of time for changing minds and having another go.

 

[scblack]

The results of a child depends solely on that child - not on whether they went to public or private school. That is heavily influenced on the attitude and ability of the parents to assist the child too. If a parent helps and encourages the child they will likely go well. But if the parent comes home, sits their fat arse on a lounge in front of a TV, to suck on a fag and sink a VB, less hope for the childs future.

My children are both in public school and my wife and I are both products of public school. I now have the equivalent of three degrees and my wife was pushed out of school at Year 10.

Once a child reaches university generally the public school kids do better academically. This is because private schools will coach children more for the exams they face in school. Public school kids get less of that closer attention, so have to stand on their own two feet more, and are more independent academically when they finish. Thus when they get to uni and private kids have no teacher to rely on, they comparatively struggle.

If you can afford a private school, private school. Simply more opportunity.

It sucks, but it's true.

Not true these days. For many years I worked in the world where people send their kids to King's School or an elite boarding school and mortgages are not necessary. In the real world of employment ability is the only way you will gain more opportunity. Business people will only employ you if you have talent, not because you went to the same school as little johnny from next door.

Decades ago you would have been probably right, but not now.

 

[Haakon]

In the end they are only 18 when it is all done and dusted. Plenty of time for changing minds and having another go.

From my own experience, I'd suggest that 18 is a super critical time to as far ahead as possible. At least its a bad time to be behind the game...

 

[steve jobs' pancreas]

The results of a child depends solely on that child - not on whether they went to public or private school. That is heavily influenced on the attitude and ability of the parents to assist the child too. If a parent helps and encourages the child they will likely go well. But if the parent comes home, sits their fat arse on a lounge in front of a TV, to suck on a fag and sink a VB, less hope for the childs future.

now I'm really confused, so the results of a child depend soley on that child but not really ?

 

[scblack]

now I'm really confused, so the results of a child depend soley on that child but not really ?

Depends on the child - not what type of school they went to.

 

[hifiandmtb]

Nah, private school is likely to get more out of a layabout kid. That's my own uninformed opinion & I personally endorse it without reservation.

 

[droenn]

Once a child reaches university generally the public school kids do better academically. This is because private schools will coach children more for the exams they face in school. Public school kids get less of that closer attention, so have to stand on their own two feet more, and are more independent academically when they finish. Thus when they get to uni and private kids have no teacher to rely on, they comparatively struggle.

While this statement is true, the reasoning I think is wrong. You're drawing from two different populations. The private school kids at university are a larger proportion of all private school kids, than the public school kids at university as a proportion of all public school kids. e.g 6/10 vs 3/10, for example.

You'll get higher variance in the private school kids because you'll have more in that group who just went to uni for the sake of it / family expectations / the schools don't present other options - bringing overall mean performance down BUT (and here I agree a bit with you) they may have had higher opportunity to get into uni than a public school kid did in the first place due to that 'coaching'.

This only relates to undergrad - after that your school really has no meaning, its how determined you are.

I could be completely wrong though - I spent close to 10 years at sandstone Unis, so I'm just going by my experiences.

 

[slowmick]

From my own experience, I'd suggest that 18 is a super critical time to as far ahead as possible. At least its a bad time to be behind the game...

From my friends experience it seems to depend on the support you have. If the family is able and willing to support you for a second chance great things can happen. Friends who failed at school the first time through were able to have another go and night school and got on to big things. Others decided that trades were for them and now have their own businesses.

Both of my parents finished school early as getting a job was what you did in the 60s. Both were far more intelligent than their occupations might suggest. Based on this they gave us every opportunity to do our best. Both my sister and I stayed in uni when both of my parents were retrenched in the 90s. It is a debt i can never repay to my parents - i can only offer the same support to my daughter.

I'd rather go Public save the money for Plan B.

 

[Chriso_29er]

Public school for me and the missus, but her brother went to a top notch private school here in Melbourne. She turned it down as she was happy where she was.
Our kids will likely go to the local public, has a pretty good rep, but still another 4 years until my oldest goes. But the wife does keep dropping hints about the local privates.

My best mate went to an upper tier private (Caulfield boys). He went on to become a tradie and doing very well, never bothered with uni.
I ended up in the corporate world with a public background, go figure.

My wifes brother went on to now be very high up in the Army, but I doubt his private schooling had much to do with that. He is just a very driven person and focused where he wanted to go early on.

 

[Haakon]

From my friends experience it seems to depend on the support you have.

This is true. For my part, my parents were quite loving etc, but they really had no clue what to do with a son that wanted higher education - so I was very much on my own. Financially on my own too...

It was hard working out all the "you dont know what you dont know" the hard way... And now being surrounded by people in my position who are at least 10 years younger than me!

 

[fatboyonabike]

Spent most of my schooling at a Catholic private school, So now I have very strong beliefs that all religion is the downfall of society and will destroy the world!
A much more damaging force than climate change, and not so easy to rectify either!