Splash77 Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 After recently hearing about the standard dropping in the schools in australia, I didn't take too much notice, until my 14 year old son came home from school yestaday and coulden't understand why his music teacher argued with him that ringo star was dead ( had been for a number of years)...and paul mcartney was the only remaining beatle alive. NOW I understand what they meant on the tv about australia slipping so far behind the rest of the world in education... Come on aussie's...there is life after kylie! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harpodom Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 now now larson, don't damn the whole Aussie education system on one bad teacher. You need at least 2 to do that.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronS Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 I'm seriously considering taking my kids out of the school system here and home schooling them via a US program...since, as Ken put it, we are just lowly visitors here not worthy of being treated as equals. Taxes paid, $4500 a kid ($9000 total) paid and now we get a bomb dropped on us that we have to pay another $400 a term for "voluntary contributions" and other things like photocopies? What??? Another $1600 a year? They've got to be kidding me. So what I'm going to do is apply Ken's logic on this. He says we pay $4500 a kid (on top of taxes) because NSW doesn't want to invest in our education as "visitors".....well, I don't want to invest in the school system with a "voluntary contribution" because we are "visitors". Then, my kids are supposed to do online homework they get via email. We've asked almost daily for the link and login information to get that email and have yet to get any correct information. Seems very disorganized to me. All that being said, other than the school situation and housing prices being out of whack it is great here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicolaj Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Had to re-read your post! I mean Lennon has been dead for 30 years!! Oh well, just wait for Geography when the teacher will insist the world is still flat! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harpodom Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 but I can see the teacher's point, Ringo does sound a bit dead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronS Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 but I can see the teacher's point, Ringo does sound a bit dead. Maybe it's just wishfull thinking? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronS Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 Horrible joke.... The Beatles need to reunite.....just need two more bullets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest famousfive Posted February 22, 2012 Share Posted February 22, 2012 After 3yrs and experience of 3 schools here in Aus I have to say I am not overly impressed with the education our girls have received.Some aspects have been good and other aspects have just left me scratching my head wondering why? Some teachers certainly left me wondering which cereal box they gained their qualifications from......like the one who graded my daughters project on family history,she crossed out the drawing of the irish flag and insisted ireland was a part of the uk and therefore would have the union jack as its flag??!!?? Or the one who repeatedly marked my youngest daughters spelling tests as 50% incorrect when they were obviously correct....when questioned on this she told me she may have misunderstood her because of her accent........they were written tests for gods sake!!! And then of course the teacher who called me in to school to inform me my eldest needed to really improve her reading skills,when tested she had a reading age of 16 1/2yrs and she is only 12yrs!!!What more could the child do?.The same child was awarded Dux of School at a new school 6mts later. We head back to ireland in a few months and due to this fact and the fact that school is less than impressive in our area I have been homeschooling our eldest since the start of the year rather than wasting time starting her off in high school here.I am using online irish teaching resourses and to say we have been shocked at the difference in curriculum would be an understatement. History and geography are the main differences......they learn very little here about the wider world whereas in ireland they learn about the world from a very young age.Math is another one....my girls are all top of the class here in maths but are finding it a challenge to catch up with their counterparts back home. My view of the australian education system is this.....kids here get a decent education but I feel it is not very broad compared to some other countries.The system here will equip kids to move on to uni,get jobs etc...but will it equip them with an understanding and an appreciation of the greater world we live in? I fear not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nicolaj Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 Blimey, I've heard somethings, but insisting Ireland is part of the UK is bonkers! Okay I get the fact that people out here may not know all the ins and outs of Europe and the UK etc, but at least show some respect to your pupil who comes from the country in question and therefore should know! This is what annoys me about schools and teachers so much. I didn't know we write with an accent of our home country! I'll bet those Irish 'reading' (rather than sounding) words are so damned hard to understand! Chap OH works with, his wife is doing a teaching course at a Catholic University so all the lessons have to have a sort of religious/Christian theme going on with them. Interesting when you are teaching biology or astro physics or something! Try putting a religious slant on the big bang theory! So God didn't make the universe in 7 days then? Erm well sort of but.... Makes me pleased we don't have kids to educate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boganbear Posted February 23, 2012 Share Posted February 23, 2012 I used to work in educational research. Australia has been doing much better than the UK in international league tables. however, standards are slipping here as well and Australia is not as good as it was but from speaking to Aussie friends and my OH it is a more rounded education than the UK but you still get rubbish schools too. I was in the University of Melbourne Law Library looking for law reports last week and they had parliamentary debates from the Irish parliament in the UK section. I did point out their error but they simply could not understand than Ireland is independent country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest haunted1234 Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 my kids school is awesome....yeah we have to pay a little of a contribution for text books and buy all their exercise books but their school is far superior to the ones they went to back home. Standard of the work pushes them that little bit harder and if your kids are bright they get pushed on....not dragged back.....we live in Cairns and i have nothing but good things to say about the schooling in my experience it's second to none....well the parking is a nightmare :oD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LKC Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 I think it must depend hugely on the school. I have had nothing but positive experiences with our eldests schooling so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johndoe Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 Very Positive. The school even kept him on as an aide when he fisnished grade 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freckleface Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 I really think it depends on the teacher you get wherever you are in the world. I know several teachers - half are very dedicated and go the extra mile all the time. The others seem to be warn out and just go through the motions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NowPerth Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 I like the fact that the all children at the high school my children are at (Perth) do Economics. You can go right through the UK system without ever doing any Economics. My son is not 'soccer' crazy, so he's chuffed to be doing Surf Lifeguarding in PE instead. You don't get that in Manchester! :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fashionably Late Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 Definitely depends on the schools. My three kids schools are brilliant and far better than their British ones (and American one that my eldest also attended). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleabo Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 Ireland is part of the British Isles. Not the UK. Everyone knows that, surely? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freckleface Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 Ireland is part of the British Isles. Not the UK. Everyone knows that, surely? Ireland isn't a player on the world stage so I'm not sure why you would expect people on the other side of the world to know unless they were studying geography or planning a holiday there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fleabo Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 They were under Jackie Charlton!:wink: Ireland isn't a player on the world stage so I'm not sure why you would expect people on the other side of the world to know unless they were studying geography or planning a holiday there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WeegieDave Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 I don't think its necessarily the Australian Education system thats bad. Its the same here in the UK.. Some schools are awful and their results are awful whereas some are fantastic and in turn achieve fantastic results. I know of someone who moved house and probably spent a way above their means to get the mortgage just so that they were in the catchment area for a very good school because the high school that was in the catchment area of their previous address had a very bad reputation and bad results. Schools can be a lottery depending on what area you reside in! David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johndoe Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 I like the fact that the all children at the high school my children are at (Perth) do Economics. You can go right through the UK system without ever doing any Economics. My son is not 'soccer' crazy, so he's chuffed to be doing Surf Lifeguarding in PE instead. You don't get that in Manchester! :laugh: My younger son is in yr 12. One of his subjects is Marine Studies. So far this yr he's been on a two night (boating) camp and gained his boating licence and is now learning sailing one day a week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pintpot Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 I like the fact that the all children at the high school my children are at (Perth) do Economics. You can go right through the UK system without ever doing any Economics. Great subject, and hugely useful. It gives you a ton of insight into all aspects of business and finance, AND gets you thinking in a "systems" way rather than a linear scientific "action-reaction" one. Which is also really useful I can't believe how little this is taught in the UK. I only did it by accident at A level because I hated Chemistry and didn't want to go down the standard track of "Maths-Physics-Chemistry"; the first two were a given as they just seemed obvious to me, but I was looking for an alternative third and Economics was the most interesting one that fit with the timetable. Ended up doing a part degree in it and later an MBA, and it's the subject I still use more of in daily life than anything else I learnt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skani Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 Ireland is part of the British Isles. Not the UK. Everyone knows that, surely? I think there's probably confusion between Ireland and Northern Ireland. Still, I would expect a teacher to know the difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skani Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 After recently hearing about the standard dropping in the schools in australia, I didn't take too much notice, until my 14 year old son came home from school yestaday and coulden't understand why his music teacher argued with him that ringo star was dead ( had been for a number of years)...and paul mcartney was the only remaining beatle alive. NOW I understand what they meant on the tv about australia slipping so far behind the rest of the world in education...Come on aussie's...there is life after kylie! I wouldn't say ignorance of Ringo Starr's dead or alive status is any indication of educational standards: it just shows interest (or not) in pop music trivia. Most music teachers have come from a classical music background and may not be interested in pop music at all. But knowledge of spelling and grammar...that's a different matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ghost Posted February 24, 2012 Share Posted February 24, 2012 I have to say I too have not been impressed by the education system here either. PE on the beach consisted of the teacher taking his surfboard and bunking off whilst the kids watched. My daughter is complaining its too easy and says the standard of work she had to turn in was much better than here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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