Information Request - Schools in Perth

[Guest Mark P]

What is the best State High Schools and Primary school nearby in Perth, i have been bounced about but some honest answers would not go a miss. ot chosen our location in Perth area yet, even Rockingham is an option?

 

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Thank you

[Bob1]

the top forming state schools in WA - Shenton College, Churchlands, Rossmoyne, Applecross, Duncraig, Carine, Willeton - all perform consistently well. Also worth considering Leeming High, Kelmscott, Ocean Reef. All these schools will have strict school boundaries and you'll have to live within the catchment area - that puts rent prices up. For primaries look for schools within the catchment areas.

You can check out school on the myschool web site - http://www.myschool.edu.au/ Type in either the name of the school or the suburb.

It's an unfortunate but true statistic but cheaper the area, poorer the school. Honest answer - steer clear of Rokingham, check them out on myschool -

many below the National average.

Every year in Oz Year 3/5/7/9 students take national tests in english/maths (NAPLAN tests) a bit like the SATS in the UK. You can look at any school's results on this website but it also has additional data too. At the bottom of the page for each school are a series of graphs and the one I find useful is the "results in Numbers'. Here it compares the school's results to the National average - if the school is below the average then there is a red line - if it is above the average for Australia then it is green - so ideally you would want to chose a school that is green or clear (which means 'close to' the National average). On this graph it also compares the school to others in the same socio-economic group from all over Australia - so if your chosen school has red lines in that part it means they are doing worse than similar schools which would not be good news!

 

Other things that are helpful are the attendance rates. I would be worried about any school that has an attendance rate of less than 90% - it'd means that at least one in ten kids is not turning up for school, are disinterested and school is not able to hold on to them. If school is fun, interesting and safe then you'll have high attendance. If more than 10% of the kids aren't at school then what are they up to?

 

For high school it says how many students have gone on to University. All the 'better' Govt high schools in Perth have that figure above 50% - and the top Govt schools it is over 70%. It is good reflection of the academic culture of the school.

 

These are just rough guidelines but something to consider when picking a school. They do say that some schools don't let students who are going to perform badly on the tests do them. If that is case but the school still does really badly overall then its not the best school to go to! Also keep in mind that tests results aren't everything - this is just a starting point to narrow down your search.