Burnside PS, East Adelaide PS or North Adelaide PS?

[jemjem]

I have lived in Australia for 4 years and am moving to Adelaide this month. I know the sub's roughly and have narrowed my choice of Primary schools down to 3, North Adelaide, East Adelaide and Burnside. I can live in any of the zoned areas. Does anybody have any inside info re these to help me decide?

One other thing I would like to find a school on the coast but can't find one with good results. Semaphore, Henley, West Beach area, any advice please??

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Rachiegarlo]

Burnside Primary is excellent. It follows IB curriculum. The other two will be ok. North Adelaide primary is the smallest. Walkerville and Linden Park primary schools also have excellent reps. All these schools are in areas where the families are well settled and behaviour probs are usually minor and are able to be dealt with by the class teacher. About a third to half of children attending these schools will go onto private schools. How old is your child because if you move into an area for the primary, you may not be zoned for the high school of your choice.

[jemjem]

Thanks for your reply, I am going around in circles a little and time is running out eek. Daughter is going into grade 2 this year she is 7 in Feb and my son is 5 and will be in either reception as he has only done 4 months reception or grade 1 I guess depending on the school. He needs sports based activities. I have heard great reports about Burnside but was a little worried about the size. My two come from a primary school of 90!!! Haven't even thought as far ahead as upper school. My reason for moving is schooling so I am happy to move to any location if the school is good it will be worth it. I heard the head had changed at Burnisde and some of the older teachers have left, is this right?

[Rachiegarlo]

New principals can totally change the school very quickly. This happened at Linden Park when my youngest was there and within a year or two people were trickling out, but it has changed again. I guess look at all these schools again, go onto their websites and read their newsletters, this will give you an idea of how the school celebrates the students successes and what they do on a weekly basis. All primary schools here have sports teams usually from grade 3 onwards, but will do pe and sport as part of the curriculum. Linden park is set up as two sub schools with R-5 in one area and 6-7 in another separated by an oval. Burnside from what I remember has the younger years grouped together also in the same area. When you het here go and physically look around the schools and see how your children react in the environment there and go with your gut feeling. Kids usually adapt very quickly to new situations especially if they pick up positive vibes from the parents. Magill primary is still set up with Junior Primary (R-2) and the primary (3-7), my friend's daughters go here and she is very pleased with it. I think it is Prema on here who has her children at Burnside, do a search for posts.

[Diane]

Thanks for your reply, I am going around in circles a little and time is running out eek. Daughter is going into grade 2 this year she is 7 in Feb and my son is 5 and will be in either reception as he has only done 4 months reception or grade 1 I guess depending on the school. He needs sports based activities. I have heard great reports about Burnside but was a little worried about the size. My two come from a primary school of 90!!! Haven't even thought as far ahead as upper school. My reason for moving is schooling so I am happy to move to any location if the school is good it will be worth it. I heard the head had changed at Burnisde and some of the older teachers have left, is this right?

Don't have any experience of the schools you mentioned, but thought I would post a quick reply as my kids were 7 and 9 when we moved here and left a school in the UK that had only 73 pupils. When we got here, we initially looked at smaller schools for them but ended up choosing Highbury Primary which I think had about 500 pupils - so a pretty big change! One of the reasons we selected a bigger school was because in the small school, there were never enough pupils in one year to make up a sports team, so the school team for soccer for instance in a Year 6 competition was made up of pupils from Years 4, 5 and 6 - which meant that playing against a team of all Year 6s, they lost painfully every time - not a problem per se, but a bit bad for morale over time! At the bigger school, there was a lot more choice of activity, sports carnivals, musical ensembles etc - and a good school will make a child feel special even when they ae one of many! Ours settled really well at Highbury despite the huge difference in school size to what they were used to. If your son is into sports and stuff, perhaps the same factors might also be a consideration for you guys?

PS The comment above about going with your gut feeling is absolutely spot-on: one of the things that impressed us about Highbury was the Deputy Principal who showed us around greeted every single child we came across by name with a personal comment about their interests/current activities - as I said, a good teacher will manage to treat each child as special, and the fact she did that was what made our decision for us! She's still there, by the way, that teacher

[browny]

Hi i maybe throwing a spanner into the works but my son has just finished year 2 at Unley Primary (his first yr in an Oz school) and i cannot say anything but positive things about it. It is small ish (400 pupils) split over 2 campus's / areas so feels small. My son has done Aus Kick, Cricket, Basketball and joined the chess club. They also offer Soccer and netball.

If you position yourself right you can be in the catchment of the Primary School and Glenalta High which is a good school i believe. My son has come on in leaps and bounds and loves going to school.

Its definitely worth a look but dont be put off by the buildings as its not a flash as other schools but the friendliness and genuine care the staff have is great. They have all facilities for the children, IT is good and the community feel of the school is great. They have lots of out of school social things for all the family and to top it all Unley is lovely to live in.

Sorry if I have now made your problem/ decisions even bigger but it is a school worth considering (in my opinion obviously!! )

Nicole xx

[Rachiegarlo]

Yes Unley is a good primary school too. So is Glen Osmond which is smaller than Burnside.

[tinkertailerdog]

Another spanner thrown in but my daughter has just finished reception at Rose Park, this school follows the IB program and is fantastic.

[jemjem]

Wow can't believe it has taken me four years to find this site.I love your ideas and appreciate all spanners. I am researching as we speak! I love the idea of separating lower and upper primary. Any ideas for the coast schools