Brisbane public high school - The Gap vs Mansfield

[dilsymanoj@hotmail.com]

We are moving to Brisbane and would like to buy house in a good school catchment area, we have narrowed down to The Gap state High school and Mansfield state high school ( have 2 girls going to high school) . The NAPLAN score has Mansfield ahead of The Gap but the OP ( Overall position) scoring over the last few years has The Gap school ahead of Mansfield.

We are health professionals and if were to choose Mansfield school and buy a house at Wishart/Mansfield/Mount Gravatt catchment area we could either work at South Metro Hospital or Redland hospital. If it were to be The Gap the only option for us would be Royal Brisbane and Prince Charles hospitals.

Would be great if someone would shed light on both The Gap and Mansfield state high school, about their education which one would be better, buying a house at Gap would be bit cheaper compared to Mansfield.

We are also in a dilemma where to buy the house as well ( The gap or Mansfield school catchment area), we have never visited these places and are doing our exploration.

[Loopylu]

I would say that The Gap is ahead of the suburbs around Mansfield in terms of demographics and this probably explains why The Gap got better OP scores.  I believe that Naplan results may be adjusted to take into account factors such as demographics. 

I know Australians who have sent kids to both schools and they have been happy with the results from those schools and their kids have thrived (which to my mind is more important than academic results).  My advice would be to rent somewhere fairly close to the CBD so that it is easy to commute to wherever you end up working (north or south).  You can then have a look at the schools and suburbs and work out which you prefer. As all Qld public schools follow a national curriculum, when you decide where to live, you can then move your girls to the local catchment school.  In Qld, if you live in catchment they have to find a place for your child, unlike the UK where they can turn you away if the school is full.  We started out in Clayfield but after 9 months moved to just north of Brisbane (20km to the CBD).  We just ferried the kids to their Clayfield school until the end of the academic year and then moved them to the school in our suburb at the start of the next academic year.

If your girls are gifted academically or in sport or the arts, you could look to see if they can get into Brisbane State High which is a  predominantly selective state school that enrols students from outside of its small West End catchment if they pass the relevant exams etc. This public school tends to be the highest performing academically in Brisbane.

We thought about getting our two eldest (twins) to sit the BSH exam but decided not to in case one got in and the other didn't.  We didn't send our kids to the nearest state high school but to one a bit further away which we selected because of its dlversity (racial and social class) and wide subject range which we considered more important to assist our children to develop life skills than choosing  a school that hot-houses to get high academic results.  Our twins are both now at QUT studying the subjects they are passionate about.

Hope this helps.