Dear Oz,
My kid is going to primary school next year, and there are few good (in term of NAPLAN score) public schools nearby. I have visited all of those, and there are no preference.
What else that I should look for when deciding the school? (Just in case she is accepted in more than one school). I have never done primary school in Australia, so I am not sure what to look for.
Cheers
How to know the number of teachers? 1 school got 500++ students, and the other got 600++ students, and the other one got 1000++ students.
I am outside some of catchment, but there is possibility that I will be accepted as the distance is very close.
You'd probably have to speak to the enrolment officers and find out. Or go on a school tour if they have them (maybe not for govt schools?)
Naplan site gives you teacher numbers
Just pick one, jesus it doesn't matter.
With public schools its very hard to even have a choice of which one they should go to because each school belongs to a catchment. If you live in that catchment then that is the public school they are to go to. There is such a thing as out of catchment placements, and maybe someone has experience with this scenario, but I assume this process would be very difficult to accomplish.
Exactly this. For NSW residents, a few years ago, the NSW Department of Education became very strict with out of area enrolments. In the past, there has been a chance to enrol in an out of area school but nowadays the chance is pretty much never.
If OP is in NSW, have a look at the School Finder. Enrolment depends on catchment, not proximity and this is the mistake some parents make. You might live 50m from a public school but the school will most likely decline the enrolment if your address is not in the catchment. Instead, your local school might be 500m away and that's the school you can enrol your kids at.
I am in VIC. Had few friends nearby that is able to go to school outside of catchment area. So, I will try my luck.
If the local school is equal to the others, choose the local. That way your child's school friends may be more local, making it less of a hassle with visiting school friends. This is more important than some realise.
Absolutely, for primary school the community is going to be more important than anything else so unless the local catchment school has genuine issues I'd go with that and just make sure you are an involved parent.
If they are all similar, pick the closest one to home.
The one you can walk to and don’t need a bloody massive 4WD to take a small child in
Canteen menu
there are few good (in term of NAPLAN score) public schools nearby
Anecdotally, there isn't a correlation with NAPLAN score and how good the school is (e.g. the teachers ability to "make" the students smart).
There is a greater correlation with NAPLAN score and the demographic of students in the area. (e.g. they get extra learning outside of school).
There is a greater correlation with NAPLAN score and the demographic of students in the area.
This directly correlates to how the students behave in class, better behaviour in class means more time for the teachers to actually teach, rather than discipline students etc. More time for teaching equals better results.
The one closest to home so your kids can interact with friends easily and regularly without you having to drive miles.
Suburb.
Man, one public high school at inner west is like….. man, are they from charity? From shoes to uniform to hair to everything. Jesus.
UPDATE:
School 1: high academic, not so much diversity
School 2: ok academic, diversity.
Both distance, extra curiccular, facility, teacher-student ratio are similar between those.
What is your opinion?
What do you mean diversity?
Well, I could be wrong, but I believe Diversity is an old, old wooden ship that was used during the Civil War era.
Diversity: people from a range of different social and ethnic backgrounds and of different genders, sexual orientations, etc.
sexual orientations, etc.
Not sure how this applies to primary school
That's not what diversity means. Diversity simply means "variety", hence why I asked for clarification. I assumed you meant diversity of school extras, music, theatre, sports, LOTE etc. Not sure what on earth diversity of sexual orientations, ethnicity etc has to do with primary school.
If it really is much of a muchness, take your child to the school. Which one do they feel better in? Which one has a cooler playground? Do they pick up a good or bad feeling from either? (Sometimes kids get this sense). They’re the one that will be there, not you. Let them have a say.
Wow. You got to pick a public school? We were allocated to a school in our area and that was that…
If they are fairly much the same, pick the one with better ingress/egress and parking at pick up and drop off times.
OP is making the mistake so many parents do. The two things that matter in a school are:
culture. What is the leadership like? How are students disciplined? How are all students praised or represented?
community. It needs to be local. These will be the kids that will form friendships, go through high school together, parents need to be involved
It is NOT about test scores or who is in the school
"Wow. You got to pick a public school?'
Yeah, what a concept.
I went to a lot of public schools when I was a child, the closest to where I lived. Some highly regarded and some poorly regarded. I don't think it made any difference to my results. Maybe I was a weird kid.
Meet the principal.. you get a feel for a school by how the principal interacts with parents, students
You will find all the Government Indoctrination Camps are all the same.
If you want diversity you will need to create those opportunities for your child yourself.
If you are afraid of your child coming out with a certain sexual orientation then you need to do something proactive to prevent it. Almost every public school now has something equivalent to drag queen storytime. Personally my parents were bullied when I was 8 to try and transition me. I'm glad they stood up, because although I class myself as a transgender, doing something that would mean I cannot reproduce is something I would not have been able to come out of and I would probably have suicided myself.
It's alright for Boys to like colourful anime cartoons. It's alright to have a bed sheet that is tailored for women. It's not alright to tell someone that they need to change their physical appearance because of it.
I call bullshit
Number of students (teacher to student ratio)
Extra curricular
Quality of facilities
Availability of other things like OC classes or talented / gifted program
Distance from home
.. But make sure u ACTUALLY qualify for all those schools (ie you're in the catchment area). I'd be surprised that there are so many public schools within the same catchment area