High schools in Northern beaches

[Guest suzi q]

Hi All

 

have just found out today that we are moving to Sydney before Christmas!

Haven't done anything yet re renting/selling house or arranging move etc so think I have a busy few months ahead, espeially as hubby leaves in 6 weeks !

 

Think we would like to live in Northern Beaches area really loved Avalon etc but Mona Vale and surrounds seemed more accessible for CBD schools etc when had a flying reckie trip last week?

 

My urgent question is what schools? I have 3 children 16, 14 and 12 (2 boys and a girl) who I think will be going into years 11, 10 and 8. The oldest is my immediate concern as will be commencing HSC and obviously don't have a lot of margin for getting it wrong. The intention was to have a good look at schools last week but they were all on holiday :no:

Any help for a frantic (but excited) mum very welcome.

[Guest suzi q]

still desperate for any info

have been looking on line - anyone got any opinions on or experience of ;-

 

Pit****er high school

Northern Beaches Secondary college inc Mackellar

Forrest high

Davidson

Killarney heights

 

Any info welcome including opinions of any others I haven't considered

Many thanks

Suzanne

[caramac]

Hi Suzanne - I'm afraid I don't have any experience of the schools you mention, but I do understand what you're feeling as we went through this last year (also having to do it again this year as we seem to have 'got it wrong' for at least one of our daughters!). Mine are nearly 15, 13 and 11 and I would say that you really should, if at all possible visit the schools because, as we have found, what suits one may not suit the others. I know it's difficult - we couldn't do it and went on personal recommendations and it's been an expensive learning process (they're at an independent school). I think I'm right in thinking that, if you live in the school's area, they have to give a place to your child. Is it possible to wait until you get here, so you can have a look before renting a house in the area? It's so hard to know what to do for the best and it seems that everything has to be done at once when you arrive, so sorting the school seems to be one thing you can tick off the list, but I think it maybe worth waiting.

The good thing is, there are lots of options for you here - state, catholic (fees much cheaper than most private schools) and even in the independent sector the fees vary hugely.

I have a book called 'Choosing a school for your child in nsw' which seems to have details of all the schools around - although I think the internet is just as good.

Good luck!

[Guest suzi q]

Hi Caramac

Thanks for the reply - you've confirmed what I've been feeling. I think we will have to aim to arrive before schools close in Dec, visit and make a decision from there. I have that book too and its great as a ref for specific schools however I just can't get any info/reviews on any specific schools which is so frustrating.

Getting it wrong is what I'm worried about as oldest going into HSC and don't feel we have time to make a mistake.

I'm sure it'll all be fine - just worrying about everything possible at the moment ( and I'm normally a very positive person!)

Hope you get new school sorted for your daughter and she's happy

S

[caramac]

It's normal to worry about everything - I still wake up at 3 am thinking about things! I thought I should add that a friend of mine has a son at St Ives High (after trying a few!) and seems happy with it. Not quite the Beaches I know, but near the train line to cbd. I seriously considered Mackellar for ours, but we needed to be on the train line, so it was too far away. I'd be interested to hear your opinions when you get here - December will be here in no time. Not that I want to make you more stressed!!

C

[Guest Newbridge]

Hi, we have been here since May and one of my daughters is at Mackellar - have to say i am not that impressed although she is doing well and seems to have finally settled. My husband and I are keen to move her (we have looked at Oxford Falls Grammar - a private co-ed from kindy-12 and relatively inexpensive in comparison to other private schools) but she is reluctant to move again! Not too sure about any of the others - sorry. Good luck, I know how hard it is trying to sort everything out whilst still in the UK.

[caramac]

Hi Newbridge,

 

Could you tell me what it is that you're not happy with? We're really unhappy with our girls' school and we were thinking of moving at least one of them to a govt school. i was just wondering if your concerns are the same as ours, because if they are, it may not be worth us moving her!

 

Thanks

C

[Guest Newbridge]

C

 

We have had a few problems but the main reason is that i was unhappy with the way they helped (or didnt) her to settle in. She had a bad few weeks and on one particular occasion was reluctant to go to school - i called to inform them of the situation whereupon the head of pastoral care insisted that i took her to school or she would have to call the welfare officer and that if she still didnt go to school I was to starve her until she did go! Overall she has just started to settle but feel that the class sizes are rather large, the language of some girls in class in front of the teacher is not as it should be and i just dont get the right 'feeling'. It is a rather tatty looking school and although i dont hold this against them it certainly didnt help me to feel confident about the place. Sorry i hope this rambling helps!!

[caramac]

Thank you for that. What fantastic advice from the pastoral care dept!! Seems like a similar problem to ours. Our younger two went into intake years, so were not the only new girls and have settled ok with a few problems, but our eldest started in Year 9 and has had an awful time - just left to find her own way around and work out the new 'systems' by herself. She started with 5 or 6 other new girls and 3 have left already! The school seems to care more about whether the girls have the correct hair ribbons than whether they're unhappy. I have issues with how the girls are spoken to by some teachers, but when I've spoken people who have been here a long time, they tell me it's the same in most schools. I hope this isn't true, but I really don't know where to start looking for an alternative; my daughter is in yr9 and we can't afford to keep moving her from school to school in the hope that we'll find one that suits her!

Thanks for getting back to me; it helped!

C

[Guest michelle4]

Hi, we've just moved to Avalon and really loving it. Very family orientated, thought it might be a bit far out like yourself but at the end of the day its not much further and very much worth it! It's beautiful! We are here with our 22 year old and two boys aged 11 and 14.

Good Luck and love to hear from you or meet up? x

[Guest Newbridge]

Just wanted to add that we have moved our daughter from McKellar to Oxford Falls Grammar - she was reluctant to change schools but is very happy there and although she would probably never admit it to us, i think she is glad that we moved her. Have to say that the staff at OFGS have been absolutely fantastic - they really went out of their way to help her settle quickly and I cant thank them enough.

[Guest quigs]

Hi,

 

we are doing our reccie and looking at schools on North Shore and Northern Beaches and have spent hundreds of hours on the topic.

 

I don't know if you are looking at State or Private if private we are going to see Pittwater House schools in Collaroy they cover all your age groups, I can let you know after the visit but so far their communication has been very friendly and professional.

Do any of the other Mums know what its reputation is like locally? I really want to try and get it right first time and not have to change as my child is quite sensitive and doesn't cope well with change.

 

I am also looking at Queenwood- does anyone have any feedback on it?

 

ps although there are no official league tables the newspapers do their own based on the results - if you google sydney schools league tables you should find it. If not PM me and I will give you a copy- can't find it at moment.

 

Good Luck and thanks to the others for their feedback.

[caramac]

Just wanted to add that we have moved our daughter from McKellar to Oxford Falls Grammar - she was reluctant to change schools but is very happy there and although she would probably never admit it to us, i think she is glad that we moved her. Have to say that the staff at OFGS have been absolutely fantastic - they really went out of their way to help her settle quickly and I cant thank them enough.

 

I'm glad you manged to get it sorted out and she's happy. We went to see some other schools (my middle daughter started to have problems at the present one as well as the older one). However, we were so worried that the next one might be as bad and then we'd be stuck (eldest daughter is 15 and already missed her first term of gcse's), that we've decided to go back to the uk where all three were happy and thriving at school. We have got them back into their old school and they've been allowed to choose which classes they'd like to go into. The teachers have been really supportive and have helped our eldest choose her subjects for gcse and will support her with any catching up she has to do. If she was a couple of years younger we could've tried another school to see if she was happier, but at least this way we know she'll be happy - all three are over the moon to be going back and, because we're citizens my oh and I can come back and do the 'grey nomad' thing when the girls have all left school, if we want to.

I have to add that it's not just because of school that we're going, my husband has gone back at least 10 - 15 years career wise too. If the problem had been one or the other we could perhaps have worked something out, but work and school are pretty fundamental things not to be happy with!

I'm so pleased it's worked out well for you.

[Guest suzi q]

Hi

Sounds like you've had a hard few months since your last post Caramac. Good luck and hope it all works out for you.

After living in Newport for a short time before the rest of the family arrived, my husband realised that the commute was going to be too long and so we settled for St Ives and the local high school instead.

We've been in our house for just over a week and the kids are mow in their 3rd week of school (years 7,9 &10).

On the whole they've been pretty happy although its early days and workload is minimal as its very near the end of academic year.

It has been one of the most stressful parts of the move and as our oldest is 16 we can't afford to get it wrong. Its early days but think we have done ok.

S

[Guest suzi q]

Hi Michelle

Would love to meet up ( and anyone else who wants to!)

I'll pm you my number

[Guest Sarahe]

Just wondering how Quigs reccie went.... I am particularly interested in what you thought of Pittwater school...we are hoping to make it out to Sydney by Jan 2011 and I have a 3 children 4 1/2, nearly 3 and 6 months and am trying to look at schools and suburbs and thought it sounded nice but have seen mixed reviews on here....

[Guest quigs]

Just wondering how Quigs reccie went.... I am particularly interested in what you thought of Pittwater school...we are hoping to make it out to Sydney by Jan 2011 and I have a 3 children 4 1/2, nearly 3 and 6 months and am trying to look at schools and suburbs and thought it sounded nice but have seen mixed reviews on here....

 

Hi Sarah,

 

I am on my reccie now. Once here we saw Queenwood private school at Balmoral which is a very good school and the usual good facilities. The Junior campus is older and rooms smaller, we found some of them quite warm for the kids.

We then visited St Cecilias in Balgowlah the school has been rebuilt in last two years beautiful, fabulous facilities, very large classrooms all full air-conditioned and cool . Meet with principal who runs a very tight ship, place was immaculate real pride in their small school but kids are buddyed up as are parents so you have someone to help and advise you on all the little things . Check out their NAPLAN results on Myschool.com.au they were highest in year 5 for two of the key components in NSW and has an excellent reputation locally. Came away very very impressed and they have offered us a place which we will take for our eldest.

We pay private in UK but it is true whats others have advised me that you don't need to pay private for primary . I believe in Australia they have kept the standrds high in most of their local schools. This new gov website has shown that many of the state school are out-performing the top private ones.

We also saw Our Lady of Good Council in Forestville lovely Headmaster plenty of UK students, good facilties and planning to build a new pre-school on-site this year. We aren't going to go there as we prefer the Balgowlah area.

We were suppose to go Pittwater and Sacred Heart in Mosman and another excellent school in Northbridge but cancelled as we realised we had found an excellent one in the area we wanted.

 

The Myschool website allows you to compare your school with the local schools or others with a similar socoial-economic background.

 

If your contacting schools in your area of preference I asked the registra to advise on good pre-schools as I hadn't the time to run around to them all. We saw Seaforth KIndy in panorama parade this was recommended by two schools excellent very progressive, very very good pre-school programme it is 3 minutes away from St Cecilias in the car. It is very very popular 300 on waiting list for next year but they hold 15% of places for kids from overseas as they recognise the trauma in uprooting them. You have to state in your application that your moving from overseas and there are places at present it costs $60 dollars a day for 8.30-3.30 this is too long for my daughter but they are happy for me to drop off 9.15 and pick up earlier. They separate 3 and 5 year olds. It has the highest amount of qualified teachers of any kindy.

 

Another parent on N Shore has advised me that he has his kids at different N Shore schools which has made it difficult logistically plus the kids don't know kids in their own area- food for thought.

 

Balgowlah has a new mall- excellent standard and fabulous food stores, restaurants on your doorstep.

 

Good Luck with your search.

[Guest Sarahe]

Wow so glad you have found somewhere... did your sydney settlers reports stand true to life...were they worth getting?

 

Have been trying to look at the schools on MySchool but its not working...

 

St Cecilia's seems to be a Catholic school - so do you have to be catholic to go there? Have you also lined up a private school for later?

 

We also liked the look of Balgowlah but weren't sure if we could get the garden we wanted there.... we are currently in South West London so want a little more space - particularly with 3 little ones..

 

Also - lots of questions I know but how will your OH get to work from Balgowlah - is he going to CBD?

 

Hope you are having fun out there......

 

Sarah

[Guest jooby]

 

www.myschool.edu.au is good for comparing numeracy and literacy results. When living in sydney I found the private vs public school thing the centre of most people's conversations (that and house prices). Comparing education to that back in the UK I would recommend trying to get a school close enough to where you live (I used to leave for work at 6am and would see these poor 7 year olds barely awake on the train taking the loooong journey to school) with decent educational results and a nice "feel". Unless you are in Redfern (!) kids will do well wherever they go if they are motivated and supported. There is an awful lot of snobbery - particularly on the North Shore - about which school your child is at. Certainly alot of the high end private schools and selective state high schools would not give your children the "australian" experience (more like moving your child to a school in Mumbai or Beijing). This has just been my experience and I found the ultra competitiveness a real drain on my children and moved them from private schools to government ones (after doing alot of research on the govt schools first though!). Leaving for the "good" school at 6am and getting back home at 5.30pm as it's the other side of sydney/takes two trains and bus to get there doesn't make for a very happy life for anyone, and can be isolating for kids as said by another OP.

[Guest Doreenfred]

Hi there, I have a daughter aged fifteen and we were worid about wich school. We found northern beaches Christian School. She's been there three years now and loves it. It's a kind enviroment and much cheaper than most private schools. It's out in the bush but she has no trouble from Mona vale.

[Guest Sarahe]

Thanks Jooby

 

I was state educated in the UK (and overseas as an expat in africa and Iraq) and my husband was privately educated in the UK. So we come from very different start points... I absolutely agree that my kids are not going to waste hours of their lives commuting to schools there is enough of that when you get a job... so I am trying to narrow down suburbs I like with schools I like - preferrably with the option of private too at the older end..and I have 2 girls and 1 boy so it makes it even tougher.... I have kinda assumed that the Pymbles, Knox, Abbottsleigh etc are the equivalent of the 'public' schools in the UK and that the private church schools are more like the independent private schools we have in the UK which are often not a famous known name.

 

Do you know if you have to be very religious to go to the church schools - such as Oxford Falls - as we are not at all.

 

It is such a tricky issue getting a suburb where you can afford the kinda house you want, with the right schools and that your husband can commute to the CBD from. Do you know anyone who goes to work on a motorbike that is what my husband currently does in London and it could open up some interesting suburbs.

 

Can I ask which schools you moved them from and which they are at now??

 

Thanks

 

Sarah

[Guest jooby]

From Knox and Abottsleigh - moved to WA and now in country NSW. One now at uni (with a UAI over 95 from state high school experience). I really understand why people pay for private education in Sydney, but from my own experience and that of friends I would prefer the smaller less "prestigious" schools (ie catholic etc). If you are a normal family (ie. struggling to pay for the huge fees and school trips etc) then trying to keep up is really hard, I found it was alot like "who has the newest BMW, who is going to Aspen in the holidays blah blah". Same as in the UK really, breeding hooray henrys with a sense of entitlement just with different accents lol.

 

You don't have to be religious at all to get into any private school - particularly the more expensive ones - money talks! Catholic schools and other denominations will give places to their "own" first but I have never heard of a child not getting in if there is a vacancy. Studies of religion is a compulsory subject for catholic schools and a willingness to embrace the catholic faith is expected from both students and families (I know plenty of people just do the high days and holidays mass thing and that's all).

 

On the subject of motorbikes, if your husband can ride a motorbike in London, then Sydney would be a breeze! And it would probably make his commute much quicker as motorbike (and cycle) riders over here don't appear to think road rules apply to them anyway and just find a way through!

[caramac]

Same as in the UK really, breeding hooray henrys with a sense of entitlement just with different accents lol.

 

Most of what you have written in this thread I wholly agree with. My children were at one of those 'prestigious' North Shore schools too and we had never come across so many small minded, ignorant people in our lives. So many girls saying things like, 'Why do I have to know about France/the wars/Europe/America? I live in Australia, that's all that matters.'!! Their parents seemed to share those opinions.

 

However, I take some issue with the above quote. My girls are at a private school in the UK now; they are not 'hooray henrys' and no way do they have a sense of entitlement. In fact the main reason we moved them to their present school is because we wanted them to learn that, whatever their ability, they have to work for what they get from life. They had been allowed to coast along until then because 'they can do it, we don't need to worry about them' and they were becoming lazy.

 

My children are growing up knowing that no one owes them a living and whatever they have comes from hard work. Those values come from the family, not from the type of school they go to.

[NurseAng]

I'm new to the forum but read this thread with interest as we have a 5 year old boy & 2 year old girl and are planning on moving to the North Shore / Beaches area. Our son is at a small private school in the UK at the moment but we aren't sure what to do when we're out there. We both work very hard, long hours to be able to afford the school and certainly don't want our kids growing up thinking everything will be handed to them. I had thought Abbotsleigh looked quite nice, but maybe it wouldn't work for us if it's one of the more prestigious ones? There don't seem to be as many private boys schools in the northern suburbs or am I just not looking properly?

 

Although we are very early in the process, we're trying to find a good school & preschool first as having had a bad experience with our son at his first school, that's now the most important thing for us. Once we've figured out the school we can work out if we can afford the area, which is a different topic altogether.

 

Like most people, we don't want to be spending half the day driving around picking them up from different schools that are miles away from where we live and also really want to meet people & feel part of the community. So a local coed school would be perfect and St Cecilia's sounds great - thank you Quigs. Which secondary school will you use? Hope you're having a great time, I'm very envious!

 

Gill

[caramac]

I'm new to the forum but read this thread with interest as we have a 5 year old boy & 2 year old girl and are planning on moving to the North Shore / Beaches area. Our son is at a small private school in the UK at the moment but we aren't sure what to do when we're out there. We both work very hard, long hours to be able to afford the school and certainly don't want our kids growing up thinking everything will be handed to them. I had thought Abbotsleigh looked quite nice, but maybe it wouldn't work for us if it's one of the more prestigious ones? There don't seem to be as many private boys schools in the northern suburbs or am I just not looking properly?

 

Although we are very early in the process, we're trying to find a good school & preschool first as having had a bad experience with our son at his first school, that's now the most important thing for us. Once we've figured out the school we can work out if we can afford the area, which is a different topic altogether.

 

Like most people, we don't want to be spending half the day driving around picking them up from different schools that are miles away from where we live and also really want to meet people & feel part of the community. So a local coed school would be perfect and St Cecilia's sounds great - thank you Quigs. Which secondary school will you use? Hope you're having a great time, I'm very envious!

 

Gill

 

I liked the look of Abbotsleigh too, but was warned off it by several people who had either had daughters there or had been to look at it. Pymble too - one of my friends went to have a look at it for her daughters. She asked some of the girls where the tennis courts were and how to get there. The girls asked her whether or not she was going to drive to them - it's huge!!

There are a lot of schools to choose from. We wanted girls only, so I don't know much about the co-ed ones except Pittwater House, Oxford Falls and Redlands, but I think the catholic schools are definitely worth looking at. We looked at a couple and I got a good feeling from them. The facilities can be on a par with the 'elite' schools, but the fees much lower. They were also very happy to take our girls even though we don't have any religion, although we did look at the 'private' ones, not the systemic ones, so I don't know if they have the same policy. Jooby's right in saying they do have to take part in the religious education, but that's true of most the private schools- most have a religious affiliation.

I would also look at the public schools too, some of them have really good reputations, especially in the areas you're looking at, and most Australians do send their children to one for primary school and move them to the private sector in Year 5 or for secondary. A good move financially. We are now paying three times what we were paying eight years ago and I can't see that rise stopping anytime soon!!:eek:

 

Good luck - it's a minefield!!