Quality of schooling vs UK

[Guest Bazinga]

Why should anyone have to pay for education? That's my issue. And Ken I think your response is ridiculous.

[Johndoe]

Why should anyone have to pay for education? That's my issue. And Ken I think your response is ridiculous.

 

Everyone pays..............even those without kids school age..................it comes out of your tax.

[Guest Ptp113]

Everyone pays..............even those without kids school age..................it comes out of your tax.

Nice reality post.

[northernbird]

It's called Naplan in Australia and you can find the results for each school at:

 

http://www.myschool.edu.au/

 

Naplan is the testing and isn't the same as Ofsted, nowhere near. Ofsted look at the running of the school as a whole.

[fish.01]

Naplan is the testing and isn't the same as Ofsted, nowhere near. Ofsted look at the running of the school as a whole.

 

Yeah, I was thinking that...though surprisingly our newsletter talked about an ofsted style review that they had recently gone through unrelated to naplan...can't remember what it was called atm....might just be a qld thing though.

[Skani]

Naplan is the testing and isn't the same as Ofsted, nowhere near. Ofsted look at the running of the school as a whole.

 

The ACARA myschool website gives a profile of each school which includes, but is not limited to, the Naplan results. So, for someone arriving from elsewhere, it does give some background, which is what the OP felt she lacked before choosing a school.

[northernbird]

The ACARA myschool website gives a profile of each school which includes, but is not limited to, the Naplan results. So, for someone arriving from elsewhere, it does give some background, which is what the OP felt she lacked before choosing a school.

 

Absolutely but your post said the equivalent of Ofsted was Naplan which it isn't and was misleading. The ACARA website give an overview but nowhere near as comprehensive as an Ofsted report.

[Bob1]

Before this deteriorated in a debate re private/public education it was about whether Aussie or UK education is the best. Well here you go -

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/dec/07/world-education-rankings-maths-science-reading

 

Aussie beats the UK hands down in terms of results. Perhaps the original poster would like to send her child to South Korea? A friend of ours in South Korea has a son who leaves the house at 6am to start school at 7.30am. He finishes school at 10pm - as the govt realised that all parents were sending their kids to cram schools after school so decided just to extend the school day. he comes home at 11.30pm. He is 15, and this is 6 days a week.

If they don't fancy South Korea then rather the expense of sending their obviously bright child back to the UK they could try Kumon - full of Koreans - where she can do daily homework to her hearts content to extend her. She could also start attending special tutoring now specifically to help with all the entrance exams she can sit in year 6 for scholarships for the $20,000 a year private schools. That's be cheaper than moving the whole family back to the UK.

[Harpodom]

Before this deteriorated in a debate re private/public education it was about whether Aussie or UK education is the best. Well here you go -

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/dec/07/world-education-rankings-maths-science-reading

 

Aussie beats the UK hands down in terms of results. Perhaps the original poster would like to send her child to South Korea? A friend of ours in South Korea has a son who leaves the house at 6am to start school at 7.30am. He finishes school at 10pm - as the govt realised that all parents were sending their kids to cram schools after school so decided just to extend the school day. he comes home at 11.30pm. He is 15, and this is 6 days a week.

If they don't fancy South Korea then rather the expense of sending their obviously bright child back to the UK they could try Kumon - full of Koreans - where she can do daily homework to her hearts content to extend her. She could also start attending special tutoring now specifically to help with all the entrance exams she can sit in year 6 for scholarships for the $20,000 a year private schools. That's be cheaper than moving the whole family back to the UK.

 

That ranking comparison certainly makes for sobering reading. I think the introduction of the National Curriculum in the UK, whilst at its heart a good idea, has stifled a lot of the magic of education. The current SATs testing sounds like a farce, if teachers are spending too much time preparing the student just to pass them rather than educating them. I suspect those two factors have brought about a slip in overall standards whereas other countries have made improvements.

 

I really dont know enough about the UK system to make a comparison with Aus, but thats never stopped me before! So from what I can gather-having a son in prep and a similar age niece in the UK-it seems the education she is receiving is more formal and didactic and she is probably already at least a year ahead in terms of numeracy and literacy.

 

But my son is happy, is progressing nicely with his reading and writing despite minimal homework (just a reader per night ATM), and he loves school, so all good as far as I'm concerned!

[Guest]

I really dont know enough about the UK system to make a comparison with Aus, but thats never stopped me before! So from what I can gather-having a son in prep and a similar age niece in the UK-it seems the education she is receiving is more formal and didactic and she is probably already at least a year ahead in terms of numeracy and literacy.

 

But my son is happy, is progressing nicely with his reading and writing despite minimal homework (just a reader per night ATM), and he loves school, so all good as far as I'm concerned!

 

I think that is the main thing and it goes a long way. If your child is happy, making good progress, doesn't matter if someone else in another country is ahead a bit on the literacy and numeracy front at the same age.

 

I do try to keep in mind that school in the UK starts earlier than for kids in Aus, age wise. Many kids start school at 4, my son will be 4 yrs and 4 months when he starts in September but would not start in Aus generally till months after turning 5 (although in SA atm it's the term after turning 5 but from 2014 will have an April 30 cut off on the intake). Starting school younger doesn't mean the kids are doing better, just they got a head start. If we followed Norway's example kids would not be in FT education till 7 or so and its documented that within a few years they have 'caught up' to kids who started school 3-4 years earlier than them elsewhere in Europe.

 

When we move our son could end up doing 2 years and one term of Reception all up! He'll complete a year here and then most likely another 5 terms in Aus to ensure he remains with his peer group. Weird thought but he should then be on the right learning path for his age group.

 

I also keep in mind that boys often don't do as well as girls in those early years so if he gets a year do over hopefully it'll give him a good foundation to build on. So long as he is happy and enjoying his learning we'll be happy plenty of time for the serious stuff once he hits senior school.

[Skani]

Absolutely but your post said the equivalent of Ofsted was Naplan which it isn't and was misleading. The ACARA website give an overview but nowhere near as comprehensive as an Ofsted report.

I didn't say Naplan was the equivalent of Ofsted.

I responded to Ken who posted

 

... they still have reports on the quality of the schools allowing comparisons.

I gave the name of the comparison test and the website where the results can be found, just in case

(a) Ken was struggling for the name/website

(b) other people who did not know of its existence might be interested.

[Guest Ptp113]

Don't forget the ACT doesn't follow the rest of the country in education (or anything else for that matter). They follow the U.S style high school to college system, then uni. It seems to work better than what the other states/territory offer.

[Wiganlad]

Before this deteriorated in a debate re private/public education it was about whether Aussie or UK education is the best. Well here you go -

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/dec/07/world-education-rankings-maths-science-reading

 

Aussie beats the UK hands down in terms of results. Perhaps the original poster would like to send her child to South Korea? A friend of ours in South Korea has a son who leaves the house at 6am to start school at 7.30am. He finishes school at 10pm - as the govt realised that all parents were sending their kids to cram schools after school so decided just to extend the school day. he comes home at 11.30pm. He is 15, and this is 6 days a week.

If they don't fancy South Korea then rather the expense of sending their obviously bright child back to the UK they could try Kumon - full of Koreans - where she can do daily homework to her hearts content to extend her. She could also start attending special tutoring now specifically to help with all the entrance exams she can sit in year 6 for scholarships for the $20,000 a year private schools. That's be cheaper than moving the whole family back to the UK.

 

Australian children have attained some impressive results based on that particular study. However, such a study could never conclusively prove that Australia provides superior education to the UK. There are numerous factors, that affect results, that are completely independent from the teaching/education that is delivered/provided.

[thechollys]

The Australian education system is different from the UK. I have friends who are established teachers in the UK and who favour the Australian education system. I feel that in the UK the system was all about results and not focussing enough on individual development. Having said that, I can't say that I didn't also have reservations about the education system here but I think you have to think of it as a different philosophy. It's like a lot of things about Australia, or indeed any country which is a new experience, it's about learning to accept the differences.

 

I have worked with many Australians in the UK who certainly didn't have any problems competing in the workplace. Ultimately, the systems are different and it's a number of factors, the education system being only one, which will influence the outcome.

[Guest SandP]

Before this deteriorated in a debate re private/public education it was about whether Aussie or UK education is the best. Well here you go -

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/dec/07/world-education-rankings-maths-science-reading

 

Aussie beats the UK hands down in terms of results. Perhaps the original poster would like to send her child to South Korea? A friend of ours in South Korea has a son who leaves the house at 6am to start school at 7.30am. He finishes school at 10pm - as the govt realised that all parents were sending their kids to cram schools after school so decided just to extend the school day. he comes home at 11.30pm. He is 15, and this is 6 days a week.

If they don't fancy South Korea then rather the expense of sending their obviously bright child back to the UK they could try Kumon - full of Koreans - where she can do daily homework to her hearts content to extend her. She could also start attending special tutoring now specifically to help with all the entrance exams she can sit in year 6 for scholarships for the $20,000 a year private schools. That's be cheaper than moving the whole family back to the UK.

 

 

The original poster thanks you for your comments :biggrin:. We won't be moving back to the UK for schooling as we moved here for the whole life package and schooling is one part of that. I feel for your friends kids in South Korea though that it a lot of work, when I said I wanted more for ours I didn't mean to wipe all extra curricular activities out.

 

Alas I still can't afford the $20k a year private schools so we will persevere with the school we are at and adapt our way of working to fit around that. We have met with the school and agreed that we will extend the work in the areas we feel the need but in line with the subject matter set by the school.

 

Thank you everyone for your interest and comments on this post - when I put it up I was a bit cross but have chilled a little having reada some of the comments. I didn't realise there were so many who had opinions but it has been a good exercise for me and I have learnt from it.