Private schools or State schools

Hi

We are currently living in Perth been here for 2 1/2 years, not really settled here:sad: we now feel the need to move on, but before we head back to the UK we have decided to try Brisbane or Melbourne.

Would anyone know what the schools or Private schools are like, only we were told that schools in Perth were the best or better than the eastern states, and if what I have seen/heard about Perth state schools so far I am a little worried, although the private schools are fantastic ??

Cheers Sauce

Hello Sauce

Welcome to Poms in Oz.

Do you already have the lists of independent schools for both states?

If not, please see here:

AISV - School Locator

About Independent Schools

With regard to schools in the Melbourne area, Alan Collett lives in Geelong. He might well be able to help with independent schools around Melbourne. I would suggest sending him a pM via Poms in Oz:

PomsInOz Forum - View Profile: Alan Collett

Obviously he does not act in a professional capacity when helping with a parent-to-parent query like yours. Alan is 45, and I know he has children but I do not know their ages.

On a Poms in Oz thread not long ago, Ormiston College in QLD was mentioned. The thread is here:

http://www.pomsinoz.com/forum/education/24598-school-fees-457-visa.html

Sheerluck is now in QLD, so he might be able to help you some more.

PomsInOz Forum - View Profile: Sheerluck

You can just click under the person's user name, to the ledt of their posts, and the option to view their public profile and/or contact them privately should come up.

Additionally, we have a member called Quoll. (Quolls are cute little creatures, about the size of cats, but they are marsupials like kangaroos and carry their young in a pouch. I don't think they are mini-roos. I think they are probably distant cousins.)

Anyway, Quoll lives in Canberra but she has been in Oz for nearly 30 years, brought her own children up there etc. Quoll may have some professional involvement with education - I'm not sure. However, she is the Poms in Oz Member who always seems to be able to come up with solid information about anything related to education:

PomsInOz Forum - View Profile: Quoll

Best wishes

Gill

Hi Sauce,

Sorry to hear that you've not settled in Perth - where abouts are you? Good to know you're giving it a go somewhere else.

Ali

Hi

 

We are currently living in Perth been here for 2 1/2 years, not really settled here:sad: we now feel the need to move on, but before we head back to the UK we have decided to try Brisbane or Melbourne.

Would anyone know what the schools or Private schools are like, only we were told that schools in Perth were the best or better than the eastern states, and if what I have seen/heard about Perth state schools so far I am a little worried, although the private schools are fantastic ??

 

Cheers Sauce

Hi sauce,

We have also been living here in Perth for 2 years and are also not feeling as settled as we would have hoped, and are also considering a move to brisbane (going to visit in May).

We have 3 children, 2 of which are in school, our eldest is in yr6 at the moment so state/private schools is something that we too have to consider, its a very difficult decision to make as i personally do not like moving the kids around too much and would rather they are settled permanently.

Not to sure about the schools over there, although i have a friend who lives in Ormeau, Brisbane and her children go to a private school of which she is more than happy with.

for what reasons are you not feeling settled??? If you don't mind me asking.....

jen x

To be fair EVERY school is different, the better the area ordinarily the better the school and I guess that is true of anywhere.

This sort of thing 'we were told that schools in Perth were the best or better than the eastern states,' I would put down the the absurd state rivalry and nothing else. We have friends who had to take their kids out of the school our boys go to and struggle financially to put them into a private school whereas our kids are doing well. All schools don't suit all kids and honestly it would be impossible to say what schools were like generally. There are a few in our area I wouldn't send ours to and then there are others I would.

I think there is a Government website that rates schools performance but I don't know the web address I'm afraid.

Melbourne has a lot of private schools and some of them are very expensive and highly sought after, names down at birth etc. Lots and lots of private and a lot of schools affiliated to religion. There are also excellent state schools here as well.

Melbourne is so much bigger than Perth and has four million people so it really depends where you settle which schools you would have access to.

Hi, we did the same went to perth to start with and then went back to the uk for 3 years. We are now back on the Gold Coast this time and although it is still hard at times, and i could do with meeting more friends ( which will happen with time) we like it better as there is so much more to do. The hills and country if you want quiet or surfers and the beach suburbs if you want some life.

As for the schools private fees are alot of money and there are loads to choose from here on the coast. My daughter goes to a public school (varsity college) and is doing extremely well and my son just left having obtained a good OP result and is now at uni doin Law. Areas where you live as someone said before affect the standards in the schools.

There are pretty big differences between Melbourne & QLD other than just schools.

If you dont mind the weather in Perth, then Melbourne might be a bit of a shock to the system. It gets quite a bit colder in the winter, and much more extreme in summer. 24c one day, 43c the next.

Brissy in general similar to WA, warmer & more consistent.

I can only speak from experience regarding private schools in East Melbourne, but reports in general very good. Around here, its a mix of all boys/girls or mixed, and mostly Catholic education. My boys are at St Josephs in Ferntree gully and I am very impressed with the school. Australian schools are definitely of a lower standard than European schools (my boys where born & grew up in Holland) but both of my boys are following maths courses 1-2 years ahead of many of the other kids.

School fee's after books/excursions/bus etc etc you wont get much change from $7000 , and can be as high as $12,000+. Inner city schools get even dearer.

State schools seem to have been revamped a lot as well in our area, and a couple of the "rougher" schools have improved immensly. They do definitely vary from school to school, but many public schools have improved so much that exam results aren't far behind many of the private schools.

The most important think you need to think about if you have boys, is what hope have they got of playing a decent game of footy if you move to QLD. It has to be Melly. :wink: