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wendywong032

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Lachelle

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我都打算2017年1月送女兒到Adelaide讀Year 7，因為當地學制關係，Year 7在Primary School，我亦只能負擔公立學校，所以想請教哪所公立小學較好。

Dfamily

HI Yangange,

I am not good at English, I hope you don't mind I ask you a question in Chinese.

你好, 我計畫於明年中送我囡囡去adelaide讀中學,想問那裡的公校和私校有什麼分別呢?, 因為我只能負擔得起公校價錢. 校風和成績是否都會差些? 亦想知澳洲的數學是否教得漫過香港? 萬分感激!

yanange

Oh and my Mum was not a tiger Mum, my parents just chose Pymble on a recommendation from a local teacher at Cherrybrook Tech. LOL. My parents didn't do a crazy search, they just applied, had recommendation letters and I did an interview. For my parents it was more important to have the right PEERs around me, i.e. kids that are focus, good, not rebellious, disciplined, wanting to learn, so in HK, I was at Good Hope school because it was strict, the nuns were strict, and in Australia my parents deliberately picked a suburb with less crime rates etc. My older system attended the local Public high school, she didn't excel academically but she was allowed to study what she liked which was languages and she liked it, also never did any thing rebellious and focussed on studying to the best of her abilities. Me and my brother attended Pymble and Sydney Grammar respectively. Because my parents realised our English levels were better so we could cope. etc. etc. So more important is the environment the kids get put in, who are her peers etc.

When I did attended Pymble, I really enjoyed my academic learning due to great teachers, no crazy pressure, you generally wanted to do better because all kids there study so you talk about grades, rankings etc, and it was self-motivated want for improving, but I was bad, I didn't make sure of sporting or a lot of ECAs which is a real shame since Pymble had the best of ECAs and campus facilities, I do regret now as I am older.

Another thing I always told juniors is that "If you do better, if means, the choice is in your hands, if you don't do as well, it means your fate is controlled by others" in chinese it is, 你想人選擇你還是你選擇別人“。

Another quote I love - What is success? I think it is a mixture of having a flair for the thing that you are doing; knowing that it is not enough, that you have got to have hard work and a certain sense of purpose.
Margaret Thatcher

Also watch some TED videos on success: https://www.ted.com/talks/richard_st_john_s_8_secrets_of_success

Ted is a great tool to help your child in learning and learn to dream and think big from inspiring individuals. the videos enable Chinese subtitles too!

yanange

manning2014 發表於 15-11-24 12:48
回覆 yanange 的帖子

Yes, I will also look at selective school as another option. But what concern m ...

Selective high school = HK education system e.g. similar to a Queens, SPCC, DBS, DGS. LaSellle.
It is very competitive. The top ones like James Ruse, Baulkham Hills, Sydney Boys, Sydney Girls, North Sydney girls, North Sydney Boys, Hornsby Girls, Fort Street traditionally are packed with Asians, there is a so call "WHITE FLIGHT" i.e. no Australian White family will send their kids to selective high school because it's mono-culture. In James Ruse, it's seriously all Asian, (Indian, Chinese, Taiwanese, Hk, Korean) If you are white aussie, you are definitely the minority. But you know some Australian white parents have no choice, they cannot avoid private schools at all due to the secondary school tuition fee being well over $20,000 for the top schools.
Read these articles:
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/students-sit-selective-high-schools-test-after-months-of-study-20150312-141vxo.html
http://www.smh.com.au/good-weekend/testing-times-selective-schools-and-tiger-parents-20150108-12kecw.html
http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/cheating-endemic-in-nsw-high-schools-20150507-ggw8h9.html
http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/cheating-endemic-in-nsw-high-schools-20150507-ggw8h9.html
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/selective-high-schools-should-let-in-local-students-insists-mayor-20130222-2ewyq.html



Within the Sydney Morning Herald you can go to the education section: http://www.smh.com.au/national/education. Lots of articles that talks about private vs public schools and public selective high schools.

Carlingford High vs James Ruse, that is not a fair comparison. James Ruse recruits the top students with high pressure, I had quite acquaintances from Uni attending, all Chinese or HK background etc, obviously it's a "PRESSURE COOKER" no time to relax, I think they study extremely hard and the student apply pressure to themselves, they are book worms, geekier etc, less sports, music etc. I mean it is 95% Asian almost. They churn out students doing, law, medicine, finance, honour programs etc etc. They have a lot of tiger mums. Carlingford high, I didn't know anyone attending, I just think that school performs as well because a lot of Asian kids go there too. It is really the extra coaching etc that assist a lot more in the end. Carlingford or James Ruse is more considered in the West. Friends who attended Ruse all mention it is EXTREMELY competitive, and that never stops, but I imagine some kids enjoy it? But I wouldn't want my kids to go unless I know they are naturally talented, if he/she had to be coached to get the scores initially, what's the point, it means he/she never learnt how to think for themselves, they will fail at tertiary education level.

Sydney Boys High, also knew a bunch of boys there too, it is one of the only public high school selective or not that was a part of the GPS system. GPS is a group of mostly private all boys schools that play in sports together (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At ... _of_New_South_Wales). As such Sydney Boys, as such they mix in with the private school kids. They have more clout so to speak. Also the schools have a lot of Asians etc, but because it is in the middle of Sydney, Surry Hills, it is in a place where kids from all over Sydney north, east, west, south will attend so the cultural/ethnic diversity is relatively better. But for a bunch of boys that I knew, back in the graduating class of 2002, out of the 10 boys in that group, only 1 was white. So Sydney Boys is considered to make good connections as they play sports with the private school boys.

But all kids that attend the selective highs are bananas anyways, Asian on the outside, quite white on the inside, they are not different to White Australians. I attended Pymble and I am more "fob" like, a term that means you are more Asian like. This is just due to my personal interests. The kids who attend these schools who driven parents that wants the best education academically for their child. If you do intend to do Law/Medicine, highly ranked ATAR school (i.e. most difficult courses) you will find there were always be more selective high school, private school kids. In all honesty, I think back in my days, graduating in 2002, I think getting a high UAI (it was called UAI before it was called ATAR), I studied humanties more, I was one of the Asian kids who were dumb at maths. I studied English Advanced, Maths (2 Units), Geography, Modern History, History Extension and Economics, I only did 11 units. The HSC counts 10 units, so a lot of students actually study 12 units so they have a spare subject, as most subjects are compose of 2 units as an "insurance" for just in case. In the end, I got 94.6. I didn't even get all 90s in my subjects, I did terrible in Maths, even a 79. In Australia, at the end of the day, majority of students DO NOT focus too much on studying because there are always enough university places generally, but for the popular courses you have to study harder. If you are Asian, you will likely to study harder via coaching etc. The advantage of going to a more academic school within the HSC level is that, you sit in HSC twice in year 12, once internally with papers set by the school and another time at a public seating. For my school, our papers were pretty hard internally, like getting a 80 was equivalent of the student getting a 90 in the public exam seating so the scaling occurred a lot.

But I think at the end, I got spoon fed a lot in high school and lacked discipline to self study and attain knowledge. I struggled at tertiary education level you know. For kids, if they generally solely focus on humanities whereby exams can be aced via pure rote learning, I think you definitely don't do as well in tertiary education. Yet if you did science/ maths subjects, you will do a lot better as you taught to problem solve. Being disciplined, goal driven and discovering your talents are as important as academic success. Some of the top students at universities are very well rounded individuals that do well at sports, music, arts, drama, volunteer work, active leaders as well as scholars, look at those student profiles and you will see what I mean. Life isn't only just about academic success, it should be far more than that.

manning2014

回覆 yanange 的帖子

Yes, I will also look at selective school as another option. But what concern me is they may be 太谷 and no boarding. For selective school, do you have any recommendation? [url=]James Ruse Agricultural High School,Carlingford,[/url][url=]Baulkham Hills High School,Baulkham Hills[/url]? But since it is not a private school, do you think the location (being in North or Eastern sydney) is even more important? Like [url=]Sydney Boys High School,Surry Hills?[/url]

Karenauyeun

My kids are now studying P2 and P4 at a local school.  I am planning to send them to Melbourne when they finish primary school.  Any suggestion on finding school in Melbourne?   

yanange

manning2014 發表於 15-11-20 18:00
回覆 yanange 的帖子

Thank you very much for your input. They are very informative indeed. I will de ...

Good luck in your searching manning! If you need more info you can PM me. I am older but was a produce of the private school system. Actually if you have citizenship, will you not consider selective. In all honesty, in Australia the only extra benefit for private is the extra-curricular activities and the "prestigious old money" network; not much else and these two things isn't important when entering university unlike america. This is only important for scholarships e.g. Co-Op scholarships for engineering or commerce. So you should think about selective high schools if you child is bright. If you can get into selective high schools, they also offer extra-curricular activities as well but probably with lesser facilities but still ok.

yanange

manning2014 發表於 15-11-20 18:00
回覆 yanange 的帖子

Thank you very much for your input. They are very informative indeed. I will de ...

it is a private school but selective all entrants takes an exam. But if you have a sibling you will get priority.

洋子

囝囝讀緊Sydney Trinity Grammar School，我們揀呢間學校係因為有親戚小朋友讀緊，而且我fd係度教書……所以我嘅情況比較特別。唔好意思俾唔到其他學校意見。

manning2014

回覆 yanange 的帖子

Thank you very much for your input. They are very informative indeed. I will definitely look up SHORE and Barker for more information. For Sydney Grammar, I through it is a private, independent school (not a public selective school) according to table like this. Isn't it?

http://www.australianschoolrankings.com/secondary/nsw/?naplan=0

Thanks

yanange

manning2014 發表於 15-11-20 16:43
回覆 yanange 的帖子

Thank you for the information. Since your brother was attending Sydney Grammar  ...

If you want answers from a local's perspective try this forum, it looks at public vs private: http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/1768177
And read the below articles
http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/private-v-public-schooling-20150416-1mm8bn.html
http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/primary-school-public-v-private-debate-study-reveals-public-educated-children-do-just-as-well/story-fni0cx12-1227308735207
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-great-school-debate-public-versus-private-education-2015-6

Private vs Public. I think in university, due to the distortion with the selective high school system, I think NSW is in a strange place. A lot of top students are just from these schools but then out in the work place, I worked in a large MNC before, if you came from public school and you did law, medicine, banking, you are extremely bright as you had no one to help you or spoon feed you. But most of the people that did law, medicine, business courses, engineering a lot went to selective, catholic or private schools, very few from public high school. Australian public high school getting in the top tier courses is few and rare, but obviously Australians don't only emphasise on the top tier, there are still universities in Newcastle, New England, Western Sydney, Wollongong that you can attend, when I was at the MNC, there were kids from there.

Sydney Grammar only accepts PR or citizen, Sydney Grammar is a selective school, there are two primary school campus one in St Ives the other Edgecliff. My brother entered in Year 5 at St Ives, he sat a written test and group interview, but not coached. This school is elite as it has some of the most expensive fees in Sydney and a  very prestigious network of students, every year almost 1 student going to US top colleges, many top CEOs, lawyers, doctors etc. My brother was quite a timid child and didn't do extremely well in academics until Year 11. out of a year of 180, I say he was in bottom half, but that never deterred his determination and when to do well. The school constantly encouraged sports and a thrive for learning and inquiry. But I also think for boys, they mature a lot later, they love sports more between age of 12-15 and only focus on study later. I remember once I looked at my brother's scorecard and I said, seriously your ranking is poor, it's such an expensive school do better, then later he replied to my Mum, what's the point in pressuring myself always when I know only the last two years of high school matter, I only now want to explore and learn. My mum thought it was very mature of him and left it as that.
Also note my brother and I never went to coaching colleges like other Asian kids, only a maths tutor as that was both of our weakness. My older sister attended the local public high school as my mum knows my sister talents was not in academics and just left her in a school she was happy with. I overall performed better throughout Pymble but I think grammar had a good side in that it instilled life planning in the boys. I.e. helping them discover their true passion and leadership qualities. My brother was volleyball captain, although not a prefect, it was still good as this REALLY helped him to be confident, sporty (he looked good, the girls liked him ) and he fitted into the Australian culture. Due to sports, he was able to interact with boys of different age groups within his school so he could mentor younger boys and learn from older boys. Sydney Grammar has a fabulous OLD BOYS network. If you have to pick, Grammar is the best. But not easy to get in after Year 5 and year 7. It's much harder to get into Grammar full stop, they don't actively recruit in HK as they don't take international kids.

King's and Knox, King's is a wealthy school but doesn't perform as well, to be honest, for the money you pay, why not pick Shore, stronger academically and perform better in sports, arts, drama and music. King's is in Parramatta, so it's less "prestigious" because it's localed in Western Sydney. Schools in upper, lower north shore, eastern suburbs and northern sydney tend to be considered more prestigious. And also the inner west ones like Trinity or Newington, but a completely different crowd socially. King's has a large campus and does cadet etc, but really I think its not as high up in the prestige ranking. King's developed probably more well rounded boys in sports, arts and drama, not overtly academic, I think it's due to the fact it is located at Parramatta which is a mix of the old and new money and the student's parents are probably made up of less professionals. Whereas upper, lower north shore and eastern suburbs is definitely made of old money. Eastern suburb schools will have less asians. King's I think would't be too hard to get into. Private education in Australia will just create a space for kids for boarding as you pay a large hefty extra fee in boarding, schools love that.

I would definitely prefer SHORE or Barker (big school but at least co-ed) or Cranbrook or Sydney Grammar or even the less old name schools like Sceggs Redlands or Reddam House. Knox, my main thing about this school, it is graduating 293 students, WOW, such a big cohort, wouldn't you feel your son will get lost in the crowd? Knox also had a molestation scandal, just google it, lots of parents fled, it was crazy! For the boy's schools, the girl private schools have really done a lot better but doesn't mean the boy's aint good, just they are probably developing later in life. Knox is quite easy to into really, my cousin did it coming from a B2-B3 HK school, after that scandal and compensation payouts, I imagine the school needs money. Knox aggressively recruit, I think my cousin did application process and interviews in HK.


Go to this fair- http://aeas.com.au/parents-students/hong-kong2016/ I recall Knox and Pymble were both present and I spoke with Elize Tse from  ieducation, who was very knowledgable. That fair also had boarding schools from other states that could be good as less Asians, so your kid will immerse into Australian culture and perform better if he isn't a top student. I believe some schools require the AEAS, some don't.



Pymble in my year unfortunately had bullying, there were girls from rural AU that were mean and boarding mistress didn't do anything about it. white vs asians, but they get over it in time, nothing too detrimental, just name calling and cutting your clothing, adding dye to your clothing, not physical sine it was a girl's school. But speaking English is a must at Pymble, any other language is frowned upon in boarding school.

manning2014

回覆 洋子 的帖子

可否分享下你同囝囝找 boarding school 的心得？如點解選咗現在的學校？有什因素？Co-Ed or boys School? Thank you.

manning2014

回覆 yanange 的帖子

Thank you for the information. Since your brother was attending Sydney Grammar School (a top but non boarding), and yourself was at PLC (top but boarding), how would you compare or recommend me about these 2 types of school? in team of activities (sport, music or inter-personal interaction) in school, bullying? Since Sydney Grammar  is one of my target, and Knox Grammar, King's School for boarding option. What is your comment about these schools? Are they all very difficult to get accepted? Any advise for application? Thank you.

洋子

回覆 manning2014 的帖子

囝囝依家系悉尼讀緊私立男校, 不過學校有boarding, 所以吾需要home stay......我囝囝吾系澳洲居民, 是申請學生visa去讀書gei,

yanange

回覆 manning2014 的帖子

On top of that the private schools will offer more diverse network (White/asians etc) Selective probably all asians. My friends at USYD doing commerce or law were all from private schools or selective high schools, very few from government comprehensive schools, if they were it would be Killara, Cherrybrook, Burwood Girls, Cheltenham Girls etc.
One thing to note, socially for boys they have to play a sports, most require it as a pre-requisite for year 10 but not year 11 or year 12. My brother went to Sydney Grammar (but they don't do boarding), he did volleyball up to year 12 to help him de-stress etc, got into UNSW commerce/science and ended graduating with distinction. I think going Sydney Grammar bred a very all-rounded person that encouraged independent learning and also an excellent network of very talented ex-students who mentored him. So that's a good thing.

Another to note at boarding schools, bullying can happen so very important to have good pastoral care and a site visit. My school Pymble ladies college had it happening to most new pupils no matter what the teachers do at the beginning when boarders started.

More questions, please feel free to ask.

yanange

回覆 manning2014 的帖子

Are you referring to NSW?
Private boarding school will be easier to get in and your son will likely be able to participate in more musical and sporting activities as private schools are better funded and have the right facilities on hand. There are quite a few choices, my friends back then preferred attending Shore and it is currently the top ranked boarding boys schools in Sydney. Barker is another good choice as it is co-ed so maybe more socially friendly and more like the real world and the academics are not bad with huge campus and strong in sports. Cranbrook isn't a bad school either but a lot more posh as it is located in the eastern suburbs and as your son arrives late, perhaps it is harder to fit in socially.

My cousin also attended Knox, it has a big boarding community with many boys from HK whoever recently academics standards slipped more.

For a full list of boardings see here: http://www.boardingschools.com.au/directory/sydney


As for public selective high school, there are very limited places to transfer into within Sydney. The top schools like James Ruse, Baulkham Hills, North Sydney Boys, Sydney Boys are tough and your son will have to follow the below procedures: http://www.schools.nsw.edu.au/le ... s/selective8_12.php

Obviously academically selective high school do very well, it is almost 90% asian in the 10 selective high schools in Sydney.
See rankings here:
http://bettereducation.com.au/results/hsc.aspx

manning2014

回覆 yanange 的帖子

Hi yanange, Any comment on choosing between good private boarding school or public selective school. Any recommendation of good school on boy? Thanks.

manning2014

回覆 洋子 的帖子

Which secondary school or what type of school (Public or private, boarding) is your son attending? Is your son a Aus citizen? My son is studying F3 now in HK, I am thinking to send him to Aus at 2017 for year 10 (like you, sending him at last term of 2016 for better preparation for 2017 year 10). Any comment on choosing between good private boarding school or public selective school (he is a Aus citizen)? Thank for your advise.

yanange

回覆 wendywong032 的帖子


The below is for NSW only! I.e. Sydney
The list of public high schools for international students are here:
http://www.decinternational.nsw.edu.au/search/schools?p_p_id=eppinternationalschoolsearchportlet_WAR_eppinternationaldefaultportlet&p_p_lifecycle=1&p_p_state=normal&p_p_mode=view&p_p_col_id=column-1&p_p_col_count=2

For ALL of Australian high school university entrance rankings see here:
http://bettereducation.com.au/SchoolRanking.aspx
Fees are a lot cheaper than 20,000 - 40,000 for tuition and another 15000+ for boarding

[td]

2015	2016 & 2017
Application fee (non-refundable)	A$250	A$250
Tuition fees per student per year*

Years K to 6 (Primary)	A$10,000	A$10,500
Years 7 to 10 (Junior secondary)	A$12,000	A$12,500
Years 11 and 12 (Senior secondary)	A$13,500	A$14,000
Intensive English Centre	A$7,000 for two terms	A$7,500 for two terms

Homestay accommodation
Parent nomination homestay fee**	A$270	A$290
Accommodation placement fee	A$270	A$300
Homestay fee	A$250 - $300 per week	A$310 per week
Other fees
Airport pick-up fee	A$140	A$140
School uniforms	A$150 - $200	A$200 - $250
School transfer fee***	A$400	A$400

http://www.decinternational.nsw.edu.au/study/schools/fees