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

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

  • I went to a private school and will send my kids to a private school

    Votes: 5 10.0%
  • I went to a private school and will send my kids to a public school

    Votes: 12 24.0%
  • I went to a public school and will send my kids to a private school

    Votes: 5 10.0%
  • I went to a public school and will send my kids to a public school

    Votes: 28 56.0%

  • Total voters
    50

tubby74

Likes Bikes and Dirt
I was public school all the way and that was enough to say my kids wouldn't do that. lead teachers who were more interested in socialising with high school girls than doing their jobs, no real way to push yourself. I was very good at maths and would spend 3/4 of lessons staring at walls with nothing to do. Come later years I struggled to get a study ethic going as I was so used to cruising.

Oldest kid just started at high school after a very good public primary. We're not worried about his academic side, he's got good habits and we help keep him on course there. He's also in sports academies and well graded in music - he likes to keep busy, and putting that all together in the private school is something we couldn't do as well by pieces. He's flat out but says he loves is. One big thing I noticed is how much more involved parents are at the private school. Some a bit too much, almost like the parents identity flows around the school, but if public schools had half that parent support in sports, fundraisers and the like it would make a huge difference
 

moorey

call me Mia
Nah mate, the kids that aren’t academic/lay about are moved on or put into unscored or Vcal (vic trade year 12) if the school offers it.. They don’t want their Atar scores pulled down..
This. Or as is more common here, asked not to re-enrol...after 4 years paying $20k+ a year.
This would be Felix. No interest in the academic side or a career requiring VCE/HSC
 

Cardy George

Piercing rural members since 1981
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.
Unfortunately I'm living this scenario. I'm not going to rag on them as they took us out of a declining primary school to get us into a better one and leveraged that to get me into a decent tech high school, which then merged with the best public high school in Southern Adelaide. But that's about the limit to their capabilities to help me. Combine that with my realisation that I had much higher moral values than they (still) do and school was just an excuse to not be in the house.

When the two schools merged, the hands on creative courses (wood and metal work) vanished, taking my engagement with them. It took a good two years to find something that kept my attention, and by then it was year 11 and too late to recover. Thankfully I landed an apprenticeship at the end of year 12.

My boys on the other hand have it made. Mrs George was brought up with education as a priority and is all over theirs. The 100 pupil country public primary school is one of the regions leaders for applying teaching technology, and has a culture of support for everyone related to the school, from the principal to the preps. My kids are a High Functioning Autistic, Probably Autistic too, and Sensory Issues and none of them are made to feel out of place. In fact it was the school which helped us get the Autism diagnosis.

They also take on the young teachers, which while they're not experienced as such, do bring with them all the new teaching techniques. The change in mindset the year 3 teacher achieved with Middle Boy is mind blowing.

TL; DR: My parents tried but failed. I wasn't engaged enough. The new generation of teachers are brilliant. Public school for us.
 

Oddjob

Merry fucking Xmas to you assholes
This. Or as is more common here, asked not to re-enrol...after 4 years paying $20k+ a year.
This is unbelievably shit, and should be a big black mark for any school.

One of the things I like about my alma mater is that they commit 100% to the kids. Somali refugee with ptsd? Indigenous kid with 6 siblings from Redfern? As long as the kid and family want to be there, they will find a way to make it work some how. It makes me misty thinking about how awesome that is.

This and some of the other things they do (non-selective, IB) drag down their HSC rank, but I'll take a school that will believe in my kid any day.

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Tim_the_Clyde

Likes Dirt
Public local schools all the way for me. Some were better than others but all played a part in who I am today. Had plenty of opportunities and took enough of them to get me what I wanted with my career.

My kids have started on the same path.

My belief is that school is about far more than learning academic skills. It’s also about learning social skills, to think independently, organise and self motivate. It’s also important to me that my kids learn to deal with all sorts of people from all walks of life. I want them to know that hard work and effort get you places not your cheque book.

The research is clear. Public / private makes no difference once socioeconomic advantage is removed at year 12. Once into tertiary education public school students outperform their private school counterparts.

The 2 biggest predictors of academic success are the education level of the mother and the number of books in the house - crazy but true!




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boyracer

Likes Dirt
I'm a teacher. I returned to uni' after 30 years on the tools and in self employment. Just started my first permanent position out of Uni at a Catholic owned school that specialises in tech studies and does not push religion or ideologies on the kids, just manners and community spirit.
I've had contract work in 5 schools in 5 years. From the 'best' private Anglican old boys club to lowest socio-economic area public schools. All had good and bad points but as mentioned a few times ^ parental engagement is where i see the biggest gains in outcomes.
I went to a Catholic boys school. Wife went to selective public high on music scholarship. I worked in my alma mater last year and was surprised to see 6 of my old teachers still there 30 years later. They all pretty much stopped caring in about the mid 90's and are now solely focussed on their super. The school is a shell of its former self with declining numbers.
We send our 3 kids to local public primary school. We are zoned for OK public high schools but the kids primary helps by giving them music and languages to allow them to get into various selective schools here in Adelaide if they/ we desire. Our kids will go public high but we will be on first name basis with their teachers from the go.
The reason i am a teacher was because i had a rad tech teacher who was as amped as i was about subject when i was a teen. Most of the older teachers i have met recently are jaded and fully believe they are overworked at 38 hours a week, 40 weeks a year...My parents were self employed and worked such long hours that i was shopping, cooking and cleaning from early teens by necessity. I was not encouraged to pursue schooling at all as a way to get ahead.
We on the other hand, sold our businesses to spend the time with the kids. The idea being we can always start another business later, but you cannot buy time with your kids.
 

moorey

call me Mia
Fully agree with everything above.
Good teachers do work hard...some too hard, trying to suck up and climb the ladder...they’re mostly multiple cat owners.
But I digress. My current ‘teaching’ job has great hours and flexibility...though emotionally gruelling and always at risk of vicarious trauma. I’ve learned how to let it go though, and not effect personal or family life.

Can’t enforce the point enough that as we’ve both said, it’s about parent/guardian involvement with the kids education. They will be fine anywhere with strong support.
 

hifiandmtb

Sphincter beanie
Does support also mean discipline? I know of a few who were supported but undisciplined and the results were less than satisfactory...
 

silentbutdeadly

has some good things to say
I honestly don't get boarding school. Maybe if I was super rich and didn't like my kids.
In rural Oz, it is often the only alternative to a public high school education...and when the nearest public high school is more than an hour away from home then what sort of alternative is that?
 

Ky1e

Likes Bikes and Dirt
I went to public schools, wife went to an all girls selective catholic school.
Two of my 3 girls go to the local public primary school on mbk.
Eldest is in year 4, doing really well overall, she lacks the mobticatiln to do her homework, but her teacher is happy otherwise. I put the homework thing down to being a moody af 9yo lol.
Miss 6 had really surprised us! She has always had attention issues, she'd drift off when youd talk yo her but she'll come home and just go to her bag and grab her homework unprompted, and again doing well in class. I couldn't be happier.
Miss 4 I expect to be a little shit at school however we shall see
 

latheboy

Likes Dirt
Thread TL;DR
I went to both, private for 10 and 11..
There are better drugs in private schools because there's is more money :)
I hated school so I left and got a job as soon as I could, I'm not a uni person. If my kids need it I'll send them but as it is its a hard nope.
 

Scotty T

Walks the walk
I believe that is it. Critical thinking.
Yep. My son surprises me sometimes with his ability to do this, he failed year 12 and for the past year has not found anything he wants to commit to except working his part time job to earn enough money to go overseas, but sometimes he comes up with some clever ideas and analysis. He's smart, but lazy.

Wife went to private, I went to public, @latheboy the bit about the drugs is spot on, pretty much the only difference.

I was at one of the worst public schools in NSW in the 80's but was largely unaffected by it's shitty-ness, bad results were down to me, my school friend who is now a quite wealthy professional wasn't affected either, he worked hard and got the marks he wanted. It wasn't down to parenting, he has three siblings who had completely different paths and now have completely different lives with the same sort of education and parental input.
 

mas2

Likes Bikes and Dirt
In rural Oz, it is often the only alternative to a public high school education...and when the nearest public high school is more than an hour away from home then what sort of alternative is that?
Home school :oops: or move. I think it seems odd to have kids then send them away for 90% of their childhood.
 

ashes_mtb

Has preferences
Home school :oops: or move. I think it seems odd to have kids then send them away for 90% of their childhood.
Have plenty of friends and family that went to boarding school (most public in regional towns, a few private in Perth). All had no choice given how far away the closest HS was from their farms. The experience of attending a public boarding school sounds absolutely brutal.
 

MasterOfReality

After forever
Both my wife and myself went to catholic schools. We have 3 kids, our oldest turns 5 towards end of this year so gotta start thinking about schools.

Where we live in Brisbane, our state (Pullenvale) and private primary schools are ok. The high schools I'm not sure but if we went private we get the choice of BBC and St Peter's.

We are going to start them off in the state school which is 15 mins walk from my house. Very convenient. If it's ok then they will stay there. We can always change.
 

clockworked

Like an orange
Have plenty of friends and family that went to boarding school (most public in regional towns, a few private in Perth). All had no choice given how far away the closest HS was from their farms. The experience of attending a public boarding school sounds absolutely brutal.
I went to a public boarding school for 11 and 12. It didn't seem all that bad at the time, but recounting the stories gets a strong reaction from people that haven't boarded. The most notable thing is that the country boarders sometimes develop a strong us-vs-them mentality. In my year it was boarders vs academia in general, in my younger brother's year it seemed to be them vs any authority figure.
 

silentbutdeadly

has some good things to say
Home school :oops: or move. I think it seems odd to have kids then send them away for 90% of their childhood.
Farm. Don't farm. I don't really care if city folk starve.

In the end, if we are lucky, we all chose to live & learn somewhere. And there's no way I would chose for my lad to grow up in the city...or go to private schooling.
 
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