Private Schools

[FRUMPY]

Parents pay top dollar for private schools so they tend to attract smarter students (those that are less intelligent don’t get sent). Unless the parents have money to burn. By VCE some schools will actually call the family up and politely suggest they may be better saving their dough (helps push up the school ATAR too).

More attractive boys get admitted to public schools due to their teachers wanting to groom them

 

[Scotland]

Parents pay top dollar for private schools so they tend to attract smarter students (those that are less intelligent don’t get sent). Unless the parents have money to burn. By VCE some schools will actually call the family up and politely suggest they may be better saving their dough (helps push up the school ATAR too).

What do rich parents with dumb children do? Isn't the whole point of having money in this instance to give your kid a better shot at an education, or failing that as many open doors as you can get for 5 years x $25k per year?

Encouraging kids not to do the ATAR happened in public schools years ago.

 

[Deliverance]

Wonder if any schools are regretting building 50m swimming pools. That money could have been handy as students drop out. Probably just ask for government handouts. They should be forced to sell playing fields.

 

[footy75]

Private schools kick out kids that don't want to learn and impact on others learning. Public schools can't.

 

[Jack Richards]

Parents pay top dollar for private schools so they tend to attract smarter students (those that are less intelligent don’t get sent). Unless the parents have money to burn. By VCE some schools will actually call the family up and politely suggest they may be better saving their dough (helps push up the school ATAR too).

Bit of a generalisation. I went to a boarding school where parents paid around $16k a year and many ended up as tradies or hospitality.

 

[rdhopkins2]

Bit of a generalisation. I went to a boarding school where parents paid around $16k a year and many ended up as tradies or hospitality.

$16k for boarding school sounds like a good deal. Where was that?

 

[Jack Richards]

$16k for boarding school sounds like a good deal. Where was that?

WA. Mazenod College at the time charged 16k for boarding (not including normal school fees). This was like 15years ago.

 

[Pyramid]

Of course judging private schools compared to public schools isn't so black and white due to how they differ whithin themselves so much. One private school might be more similarly run to a specific public school as opposed to the majority of other private schools.

 

[Present Not Past]

‘Toxic’ culture at elite school laid bare

A former student at one of Sydney’s elite boys’ private schools has laid bare the “toxic” beliefs ingrained in students, saying he would never send his own son there.

www.news.com.au

A religious private boy's school - what a wonderful institution it is.
Only attendance at these exclusive wealthy schools can give young men the confidence and belief that they are free to spit on whomever they choose.
The article also highlights that attendance at these schools is often just about buying into powerful contacts. So the old tie networks are very much still alive and well in society.

 

[darcytiger]

I went to a Catholic boys school and the big difference I see now between my mates from school and friends from outside school is that 12 years after finishing school, I still see and am very close with about 20-25 guys from my high school. All of my friends that went to public schools still see 1, 2 maybe 3 of their high school mates.

Don’t know if there’s something in that or it’s coincidental but anecdotally it seems to be somewhat common.

 

[Scotland]

I still see friends from (public) high school, but I don't just see friends from high school. Meanwhile people I know a year or two older/younger from school barely keep in contact with anyone from their year groups.

Have made a few friends over the years from the elite private schools over here and they seem a lot more cliquey/insular.

If I meet someone else in their 30s I don't really care if they went to Scotch College or Balga Senior High, but people who fit into the former category still seem preoccupied with it 15 or 20 years later. Not all of them, but weird nonetheless. You see it with some girls too, as though finding out you didn't go to one of the right half a dozen schools is an immediate permanent black mark against your name.

 

[Caesar]

Thanks to moving around a bit as a kid I went to a mix of schools, and found there were advantages to each.

In general the private schools had better-resourced learning environments, more class choices, better academic competition, and fewer problematic students. They were frankly just an all-round nicer place to be. The major weaknesses were a lack of diversity in the student population, and less requirement for self-directed and self-motivated learning. I think the top academically-selective public high schools and private schools are a lot more similar than a lot of people would care to admit.

The alumni value of those sorts of schools are a bit hard to quantify, but a lot of it boils down to going to a top private school (particularly as a border) is a pretty unique and formative experience that creates a bit of a bond with anyone else who's gone through it. I keep in touch with precisely one bloke from school, but my wife's best friends are still the girls from her boarding house.

She still asks new people she meets where they went to school (something I rib her about mercilessly) but there's nothing snobbish or malicious about it - she's just looking for common ground. Her schooldays are a really formative and fondly-remembered time of her life.

 

[utility]

I still see friends from (public) high school, but I don't just see friends from high school. Meanwhile people I know a year or two older/younger from school barely keep in contact with anyone from their year groups.

I've outsourced my friends to India and the Philippines.

I went to a mix of public and private schools. What you buy from private schools is status. But the currency in high school alumni is limited. Schools don't need to be anything special if you have decent parents.

 

[darcytiger]

I went to a Catholic private school, in the ACC. By no means at the price level of a Scotch/Xavier/Hailebury etc.
No one that I knew at my school I would really describe as being super wealthy but still, I would think the fees when I was going through 03-08 would have been somewhere around the 7-8k mark? If you’ve got a couple of kids there, gets quite expensive.

All the parents would have been around the same age ie: bought a house from 1980-1990, and their house has 10x in value since then. That is how I assume they were able to pay for those school fees. I can’t see myself or any of my mates having that extra cash lying around when it’s time for us to send our kids to high school, to be able to afford even a “cheap” Catholic school. Despite the fact I’d absolutely love to send them to the same school.

Maybe these parents just sacrificed more than I give them credit for?

Does anyone see this being out of reach for a higher percentage of the population moving forward? And/or are all these schools just going to be filled with Chinese immigrants?

 

[checkraiseulite]

think you’d be surprised by how commonly grandparents pay school fees at elite private schools

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

I went to a Catholic private school, in the ACC. By no means at the price level of a Scotch/Xavier/Hailebury etc.
No one that I knew at my school I would really describe as being super wealthy but still, I would think the fees when I was going through 03-08 would have been somewhere around the 7-8k mark? If you’ve got a couple of kids there, gets quite expensive.

All the parents would have been around the same age ie: bought a house from 1980-1990, and their house has 10x in value since then. That is how I assume they were able to pay for those school fees. I can’t see myself or any of my mates having that extra cash lying around when it’s time for us to send our kids to high school, to be able to afford even a “cheap” Catholic school. Despite the fact I’d absolutely love to send them to the same school.

Maybe these parents just sacrificed more than I give them credit for?

Does anyone see this being out of reach for a higher percentage of the population moving forward? And/or are all these schools just going to be filled with Chinese immigrants?

One thing I have noticed that is different between Vic and WA. Looking at school fees for Catholic schools, WA in every instance that I looked were 2 to 3 x more expensive than their Victorian counterparts.

I think people in this thread are just lumping all non-public in together. Fees for the schools can range from a few thousand for a Catholic school up to $70k or $80k for a full boarding top tier school.

My two girls go to a non-denominational Christian school. There is zero religious instruction involved, about all there is, is a school chaplain, I have no idea what denomination he is. For the pair of them it is $20k per year, all activities, including all excursions and camps are included in that fee. The only thing not included is overseas trips.

We were able to afford to send them there by my wife and I both quitting smoking.

The nearest public secondary school to us is an 80km return bus trip away. My father-in-law poo-poos the school and says that the public school is free and out performs my daughters' school, which it doesn't, not even close, I pointed this out to him and showed him the numbers and it shut him up but now, if there's ever any ill happening on the island, he finds a way to blame the college.

Much closer to home, much better facilities, very minimal number of ratbag students (parents are another thing), much better overall results and VCE results. Both of my daughters are thriving and love going there.

 

[Scotland]

The status thing is funny.

Talking WA here but if you live in one of the areas with a highly regarded public school like Applecross or Rossmoyne and your kids go to those schools no one bats an eyelid. If you choose to spend $20k a year to send your kid to a private school instead some people will ask why (a lot of people move to those suburbs specifically for the school zoning). If you live in the leafy Western suburbs private school belt where the local public school is also very good but the majority of kids go to a private school, there's a pressure to do likewise. Kids can get a perfectly good education, but won't graduate as a Scotch, Hale, Christchurch etc. alumni.

I thought Catholic schools were about $2-3k a year, turns out they are $6-7k+ which isn't pocket change if you live in area with a public school that has a poor reputation and want to send your kid private. MLC is $31k a year for year 12. Jee-sus.

 

[Herne Hill Hammer]

The status thing is funny.

Talking WA here but if you live in one of the areas with a highly regarded public school like Applecross or Rossmoyne and your kids go to those schools no one bats an eyelid. If you choose to spend $20k a year to send your kid to a private school instead some people will ask why (a lot of people move to those suburbs specifically for the school zoning). If you live in the leafy Western suburbs private school belt where the local public school is also very good but the majority of kids go to a private school, there's a pressure to do likewise. Kids can get a perfectly good education, but won't graduate as a Scotch, Hale, Christchurch etc. alumni.

I thought Catholic schools were about $2-3k a year, turns out they are $6-7k+ which isn't pocket change if you live in area with a public school that has a poor reputation and want to send your kid private. MLC is $31k a year for year 12. Jee-sus.

Yeah, looking at Catholic secondary schools in Vic, they tended to be under $5k, most of them below that. When looking in WA, the ones I looked at, as well as other religious schools seemed to be around the $10k mark.

 

[Deliverance]

Catholic schools in WA must be twice as good as the Victorian ones.

 

[Caesar]

Catholic schools in WA must be twice as good as the Victorian ones.

Just a lack of competition for good schools I think, the decent ones can charge more

 

[big_e]

WA. Mazenod College at the time charged 16k for boarding (not including normal school fees). This was like 15years ago.

The tradies and hospitality thing at Maza is likely a function of it being the only Catholic boys school for miles. If you want your kid to get a Catholic education, no matter their path in life or their career goals, you don't really have many other choices.

 

[FrostyDaniel69]

I feel like its a bad idea for me to have children, because currently I'm wanting to do experiments with their upbringing and see how it affects them

Like I want to send one kid to private school and the other to public school, then see what happens
Or just feed one nothing but chips and the other one brocolli. I could run multiple experiments at once and keep my recordings for research purposes.
Treat them how the parents in harry potter treated harry and the fat one. I dont know the names, my wifes obsessed with it but i get too wasted by the third movie when all the demons start showing up and sucking peoples faces.

 

[Deliverance]

I feel like its a bad idea for me to have children, because currently I'm wanting to do experiments with their upbringing and see how it affects them

Like I want to send one kid to private school and the other to public school, then see what happens
Or just feed one nothing but chips and the other one brocolli. I could run multiple experiments at once and keep my recordings for research purposes.
Treat them how the parents in harry potter treated harry and the fat one. I dont know the names, my wifes obsessed with it but i get too wasted by the third movie when all the demons start showing up and sucking peoples faces.

They've already researched the bolded. The school makes no difference.

 

[checkraiseulite]

i strongly doubt it.

 

[Deliverance]

'Bespoke education': are Australia's private schools worth the price tag?

Research points to individual school culture being more important than if a school is public or private

www.google.com

"But if you’re only interested in academic achievement, the results from most of the 30-odd Australian studies since 2000 suggest that private schools are no better at progressing students’ learning than state schools, once you’ve controlled for socioeconomic background. "