Class Sizes...

[AmyBelle]

I need to have Rebekah's school enrollment in by June (I know, I havent even gotten her into a kinder im happy with yet, and im already enrolling her into school *sigh*)

Im not too sure what to do to be honest. As ive explained before, school enrollments are done quite differently in Australia, you dont have to go to the school in your region, you can pretty much go anywhere you choose provided you provide adequate reason for not wanting to go to your region's school.

Our suburb has one primary school (and no high schools, but thats not an issue yet) but as we live on predominantly farming area, the schools's current enrolment is 18. As in, there are 18 children in the entire school.
The way they run it is that they have 5-6yr olds in one class, 7-9 year olds in another and 10-11yr olds in a third. So they have three classes all with less than 10 students.
Because of its size its a little house, not an actual school building.

There are benefits, of course, more tailored learning, no uniforms (most public schools in Australia have uniforms, so that would save us money) But there are what I see as alot of downfalls, less social interaction, and the big one being that when my girls go off to high school its a big shock as it is, let alone coming from a small country school with 22 students in a house to a big school with over 1000 where there is no tailored learning and one on one help.


On the Schools Online website for our state I did a search for schools with 10km of our suburb, and I came up with quite a few.

Basically, im just confused and I would like some insight. Obviously its unrealistic to see ALL of these schools to get a feel for them, so I want to come up with a short list.

So, just to get the ideas movign around in my head again, a list of the schools, pros and cons as of what I can tell from the websites, and if you had a choice out of these schools, with this knowledge, which would you pick and why? (Ive put the initials of the schools in the title)

As these are all public schools, cost is not an issue.

C.H Primary School
Current enrolment: 18
Rough distance from home: 3min drive (honestly we'd probaby walk it)
Uniformed: No
Pro: Tailored learning
Con: Incredibly small school, no extra curricular acitivites

K.G Primary School
Current enrolment: 139
Rough distance from home: 10min drive
Uniformed: Yes
Pro: Has a school social worker to deal with bullying and family problems, Camps for the older students, Free after school sports programs, wide curriculum, teaches a LOTE (Italian), optional instrumental lessons, an incredible amount of electives for a primary school (ranging from French to Photography, to Cooking to Film Making to Orienteering and more)
Con: Honestly, I cant find anything on the site that I dont like

S.A Primary School
Current enrolment: 62
Rough distance from home: 12min drive
Uniformed: Yes
Pro: Camps (run identically to K.G Primary school, only the years 4-6 camps run for a day longer), instrumental lessons, farming studies involving all children growing, harvesting and selling their own fruits and veggies, interschool sports, LOTE (Italian), Talilored learning
Con: Relatively small, less variety in curriculum

Y.G Primary School
Current enrolment: 201
Rough distance from home: 15min Drive
Uniformed: Yes
Pro: Large school grounds with basketball and tennis courts, after school basketball, life education program (we had this when I was little, a giraffe in a van comes and teaches you stuff, okay, thats very vague, but I loved it) camps (but not specified for which year levels) canteen runs 3 days a week and serves healthy food that is quite cheap, encourage alot of parental involvement.
Con: Excursions (or field trips) do not start until grade 2, backwards recess and lunch (as in they eat lunch at 10:30am and have recess at 2pm)

Y Primary School
Current enrolment: 39
Rough distance from home: 15min drive
Uniformed: ?
Pro: ? (does not have a webiste)
Con: Small

H Primary School
Current enrolment: 526
Rough distance from home: 20min drive
Uniformed: I assume so with a school that big
Pro: ?
Con: ? (another without a website)

W.P Primary School
Current enrolment: 296
Rough distance from home: 15min drive
Uniformed: Yes
Pro: Indigenous study, Larger community school rather than a state school, Camps, bridging programs for children struggling, extension programs for children who are above the level of what they are learning, free active after school sports, dance and aerobics teams, interschool basketball, LOTE (Japanese)
Con: Can order lunch once a week form the supermarket and order whatever they want that the supermarket sells



So, what do you think?

 

[Dadu2004]

I personally would go with the KG primary school. The class isn't huge so she will get some personal attention, yet also allows her to be social and have some good opportunities.

 

[bssage]

Most of our schools will let you audit classes (sit thru a class). i would check into that so you dont have anymore suprises like you did this year.

I agree with Dadu. Looking at the little info. I would say the S.A. or K.G. Just IMO. Which schools are on Rebekah's short list?

Do you something like a YMCA if needed to other activities I.E. basketball, baseball, swimming, ect. That could be helpfull on several different levels. You would meet kids and parents going to the different schools. DD would have a pool of friends who attend different schools. And it may lesson the impact of some of the smaller schools that have less resources.

While I think I am of the same opinion as you that the small schools would be OK. I am not sure if thier lack of resources would be an issue or not. I do have several friends who attended very small schools (graduated class of 3 and class of 5) who also attended college and seem very well adjusted. I guess I just dont know. I would need to talk to people who attended the schools in question.

 

[zeitgeist]

K.G Primary School
Has a school social worker to deal with bullying and family problems, Camps for the older students, Free after school sports programs, wide curriculum, teaches a LOTE (Italian), optional instrumental lessons, an incredible amount of electives for a primary school (ranging from French to Photography, to Cooking to Film Making to Orienteering and more)

:err:

::moves to Australia::

 

[mom2many]

Our school district is pretty small also, although not as small as your C.H Primary, all three of our schools sit on the same property and share the same lunch room (we just got a new high school 2 years ago and it is huge but shared with the middle school). I would love your small school, I can see many more benefits then negatives. Interaction is important, but you would almost be getting the benefits of homeschooling. Which can be really great, interaction can come from more then just school, after school programs could give the same benefits.

Check them out and see what your little one likes.

 

[AmyBelle]

:err:

::moves to Australia::

Hehe, to be honest with you, K.G has the same facilities as most of our city public schools, its just that out in the country you dont come accross it so often.



Were definetly going to look at C.H, just because its so close, and obviously K.G.
Were not able to sit in on an actual class here, but we can get a tour while the school is running, so we pop into a few classrooms throughout an hour or so.