Private schools in and around Adelaide

[Guest friends4life]

Hi,

We are looking at schools and have no idea as to where to start and how to tell a good school from a bad one.

We have a 14 year old daughter and a 10 year old son.

What would private schools cost per annum and also could anyone tell me any good primary and high schools in and around Adelaide.

I look forward to any information you have to offer and thank you for your time.

 

Friends4life

[lorluc]

Hi,

We are looking at schools and have no idea as to where to start and how to tell a good school from a bad one.

We have a 14 year old daughter and a 10 year old son.

What would private schools cost per annum and also could anyone tell me any good primary and high schools in and around Adelaide.

I look forward to any information you have to offer and thank you for your time.

 

Friends4life

 

Depends on where you are going to be living....

 

Some private schools...more the catholic ones, probably around 3K per annum....woodcroft college...around 6K for a year 8 student...then places like Westminster (my husband works there)...will be more. Plus on top of the fees, you have uniform which is definitley far more expensive than state schools.....think the uniform for a year 8 student at woodcroft was going to total around the $1000 mark...if my memory serves me right..

 

 

My kids are at Reynella East Primary & High School and after 3 years, dont have any complaints thus far...

 

Hallett Cove east Primary is good....my kids went there for a while....but i wasnt too impressed with the R-12...

 

It's very hard with schools as what seems good to others, may not be what others want or expect...

 

Any particular reason why private? there are some pretty good state schools over here

 

Hope i've made sense....5am here and i have been up all night with 2 sick kids with gastro!

[Scousemouse]

You could look up on the DECS website; www.DECS.gov.au

They list all the schools both private and public, and each school has a website you can access.

In the Eastern burbs there are loads of private schools(not surprisingly)...........Loretto girls, St Peters girls, St Francis of Assissi, Pembroke (co-ed)

Centrally you've got Prince Alfred boys, Christian brothers

 

St Peters is beautiful, and reckoned to be as good as Eton college..............of course, you WILL pay higher fees for such status.

 

Good luck with your search.

 

Jane

[Diane]

I can only speak for the schools I know around the North Eastern suburbs.

 

St Ignatius College in Athelstone is about $7,000 a year for years 7 - 10, possibly a bit more thereafter (we haven't got that far yet!). I enquired about Pembroke's fees - that's supposedly one of the best private schools around, and their fees were nearer to $20k a year, and people put their kids' names down from birth (!), whereas Kildare (girls school) near Dernancourt is about $4,000 a year, and I think Pedare and Gleeson are somewhere around $4-7k. Scotch College also has a very high reputation, and fees accordingly. Rostrevor (for boys) has an excellent reputation too and I guess fees are similar to St Ignatius.

 

Don't rule out the possibility of scholarships though if you're looking at private schools. Many offer discounted fees for academic scholarships, sports scholarships etc, some on the basis of an entrance exam, some on the basis of an interview. For your 10 year old son it's definitely worth looking at the ACER academic exam - http://www.acer.edu.au/acep/ - several private schools are covered with this, it's an independently conducted and marked exam and you can put down a choice of private schools, the results are then sent to them all and they choose if they wish to make you a scholarship offer on that basis for Year 8 onwards. Exam is held in the February before the year of entry (when your son is about 11/12) - so you'd have plenty of time for your son to look around. For your 14 year old, several schools also offer scholarships from Year 10 onwards (your 14 year old would be in Year 9 this year probably, Year 10 next) so worth speaking to your favoured schools about those options too.

 

It will also depend if you want them both to go to the same school, in which case you will obviously need to limit your enquiries to co-ed schools, although many single sex schools have relationships with schools for the other sex - for instance Kildare for girls and St Pauls for boys do a lot of joint things such as drama productions.

 

Finally bear in mind that non-denominational private schools tend to have higher fees, but you don't have to be a particular religion for the religion-based schools - although it probably helps - and if you're not particularly religious, you do have to be prepared for religion to be a fairly large focus at those schools too.

 

Don't rule out state schools, there are some excellent ones - Marryatville, Adelaide High, Norwood Morialta, Golden Grove, Charles Campbell, Modbury, to name just the ones within 10 or 15 minutes from us.

 

Diane

[Rachiegarlo]

For private school listings go to this website.

 

http://www.ais.sa.edu.au/html/about_schools.asp

 

It gives fairly up to date info about the fees etc and gives the school website for further info.

 

A lot of people send their children to state primaries and send them to privates for high school. There are plenty of good state schools though.

[Scousemouse]

Of course, there is always Glenunga International as well. It also has a good reputation, but competition is usually quite high for placements. Being in the International Bacolaureate catergory helps somwhat...........but Norwood Morialta also has the scheme in place.............from year 8, i believe.

 

Marryatville is considered the BEST public school in the area, but again they are strict on zoning, helps if your younger child is at Marryatville primary, but it isnt a given!!!

 

Hope you get sorted soon

[Guest Rob&SamThomas]

We live up in the North and our boys go to Trinity College which so far seems very good. The website is www.trinity.sa.edu.au. In comparison to UK schools the fees are very reasonable. You need to buy books & uniform on top which can be quite costly. Hope this helps. Drop me a line if you need any further info.

[Guest friends4life]

Hope you don't mind me asking but i have family that purchase properties in the UK and was wondering what area your house was in?

[Guest Pepparoni]

Anyone with any thoughts on Torren Valley Christion School in Hope Valley? And the areas surrounding it?

Thanks

[Guest Aussie pat]

Anyone with any thoughts on Torren Valley Christion School in Hope Valley? And the areas surrounding it?

Thanks

 

Unfortunately I don't know the school you're asking about but we found it useful to look at the strategic plans of schools we were interested in as there were no league tables to help us. The plans usually outline the weaknesses that the school is trying to address. The interesting thing was that now we are here the impressions we got are spot on. The TER (tertiary ranking score) is also a useful guide to how academic a senior school is, bearing in mind that it's more about finding the right school for the child and TER isn't everything. We are very happy with the choices we made by remote control from the UK and any research you do is very useful. Goodluck.

[Guest Pepparoni]

Has anyone heard of Golden Grove, or King Baptist Grammar or Sunrise Christian School?

[Guest Sideways Sally]

I was School Captain at Golden Grove High School! ha ha ha

 

I started High school at Trinity College and then when we moved I got a transfer to Pedare Christian College (sister college same uniform). At that time (early 90's) the schools were so new and interwoven the only distinguishment between schools was the colour of uniform and $$ fees, so I transferred to Golden Grove High within a week. (In the early days you would have a class in room from one school with a teacher from another and kids from all 3 schools in the class LOL)

 

Golden Grove (State), Pedare (Anglican/Lutheran) and Gleeson College (Catholic) are all on one huge campus in the heart of Golden Grove and have a shared central section called Shared Facilities funnily enough! The schools share resources of elective subjects such as tech studies (electronics/woodwork/metalwork) Art, Drama, Computing etc this allows all schools to chip in for the equipment which means they have EVERYTHING!

 

In recent years Golden Grove high has got too big in my opinion. The uniform and discipline standard has dropped a bit!

 

My Cousin went to Kings Baptist Grammer - no complaints from the rellies.

 

You'll find the standard of education quite high in Adelaide at all levels. Each school seems to have a reputation for specialising in one thing or another and all have different facilities, so what you might judge as being a better school might not be suitable for another childs family. For example if you child has a passion for an elective subject you might be better off choosing one of the schools on the shared campus.

 

All of the schools are contactable by email to give you a list of facilities, subjects offered etc. You can also request school data, such as no of students, no of students who do year 12 (A level equiv) scores, pass marks etc.

 

I recently compared info on high schools in my area and the public high school (Willunga High) had a higher rate of retaining students, higher rate of year 12's with pass marks and a higher success rate of getting school leavers into apprenticeships/courses than any of the local private schools!

 

Email each school and just ask them for their info!

 

Good luck with you research, be sure to let us know how you go!

[Guest nick88]

I went to Pembroke, Pembroke and I think all the private schools, try to discourage kids who aren't likely to get very high scores from doing matric to make sure the average is kept high. I went there and it was vicious and the students came a distant second to the image of the school. There was a bullying put down mentality which most of the teachers condoned and joined in with. The only teachers that were any good were the English exchange teachers. I started school as someone who got 100% for everything without trying but finished there failing everything. When it came to sport I was also very good but for some reason excluded from teams, only certain people seemed to be even given a chance. I would go to tryouts and coaches would avoid me. Once I was damaged enough I left and went to a Seventh Day Adventist school which was heaven. I think Lutheran schools are also probably good.

[Rachiegarlo]

I went to Pembroke many years ago, but it was much smaller then. It has become the

"IT" school of the Eastern suburbs. Prob cos it's the only co-ed private in the area that isn't catholic. Some parents love it, but if your child has needs outside whats offered i don't think they cater well.