One day my wife came home from a play date in a bit of a panic. Being the concerned and sympathetic husband that I am, I immediately asked what was wrong.
She proceeded to blurt out a frantic comment about where the kids will go to school and how they weren’t going to get a good education.
Hmmm? What sparked this one?
Jumping back to when we first arrived in Australia we had no idea how long our stay would ultimately last, kind of a blank check on time. However, we did keep it in the back of our minds that we wanted the kids to complete most of their education in the US. We also realized that there was a distinct possibility the kids would attend Aussie schools whilst (yes, whilst – not bad, eh?) we were here…something we were quite comfortable with doing.
Now returning to the (well) aforementioned play date...my wife was asked where our daughter would go to “kindy”. At the time, she thought the word kindy was an Aussie abbreviation for kindergarten and politely (I’m told) answered that she wasn’t sure. That is when the collective gasp, allegedly at a very high pitch, kicked in from all the moms.
This is where the panic set in.
The big difference with the education system in Western Australia is the competition to be accepted into a top notch private school. Parents put their children’s names on a list at birth at the best private schools in the area out of fear of sending their children to a public school. In fact, it’s not uncommon to have a child on the lists of numerous schools to ensure acceptance somewhere. The perception is that if your child is not accepted at the early level to a private school this may throw off the admission into the top notch private high school.
What really concerned the other mothers was the fact that we didn’t have my daughter on a list for an interview at a private school. The concern stems from a less than desirable reputation, which seems to be at least partly legitimate, of the public schools. It’s not that the public schools are unacceptable, it’s just that the private schools are better (read: deeper pockets).
Coming from New York State where the public school system is highly respected, and having a wife that taught in some amazing school districts, I couldn’t wrap my hands around this concept. It is more common in WA for kids not to go to school with the people in their community. Your classmates could be from anywhere in the Perth Metro area. Imagine living in B’Ville and going to school in J-D and your friends live in North Syracuse and Manlius (I’ll try and drop a few more CNY towns later).
One other bit to the equation is the cost. Private schools are expensive! Not just the tuition, but the cost of all the uniform items which students in private, and public, schools are required to wear. Uniforms for each season, physical education uniforms, and house uniforms (my wife tells me it reminds her of Harry Potter). And then there are the accessories to the uniforms; ties, shoes, socks, hats…all required. Add to that the cost of the books and supplies that must be purchased through the school and the total begins to look like the first year at college rather than the first year at primary school. I could go on and on.
I’m sure this happens to some extent in many parts of the US; however, it still comes as a bit of a surprise to me.
Once we realized there was this competition to be in a private school we had to figure out the terminology, it really threw us off. Let’s see if I can explain.
As I touched on earlier, what we would call pre-school is referred to here as Kindy. Kindergarten, or Kindy, consists of one or two half or full days (depending on where you send your children) with kids aged three or turning four after June 30th, the cut off for the school year. The next level is called pre-school and is for four year olds, or that turn four by June 30th. It consists of five full days. Both kindy and pre-school are not compulsory for children to attend. Grades 1 and beyond are mandatory and start when children are age six or turning six by June 30th. Years 7, 8, and 9 are now referred to as middle school. Secondary school goes up to year 12. Year 11 and 12 are not compulsory either.
Then we had to look at the school calendar. It runs very different from the one we are used to. School starts early February and ends for summer holiday (vacation) in mid December. They also run on school quarters, with about ten weeks of school on and then a two week school holiday in-between.
We also noticed that there are also no school buses. Since kids could attend a school anywhere in WA if accepted there is no need for them. Kids walk or are dropped off at school.
Now that we had that all figured out we had to decide what we wanted for our kids. Was the expense of a few years of private school worth it?
After discussing things we decided that what we wanted was for my three year old daughter was to go to kindy in a safe, caring environment. We found a great place where she attends one morning a week in her school uniform. She’s happy and we are excited to be coming back to the great public schools in CNY.
If interested here are some links to the local public school and a local private school in the area where we live:
http://www.hillarysps.det.wa.edu.au/
http://www.stmarks.wa.edu.au/
