分类： Sydney Public School Information

I read this article Sydney Schools Becoming Anglo Ghettos on SMH a few weeks back. This is a very interesting article and deserve some in depth discussion. I think the more correct term would be the some schools are becoming ghettos, not just Anglo. First the word ghettos may often used in denigrating fashion, most commonly refer to area that is mostly reside by population that are under privilege or minority groups. However modern day usage can mean concentrate of certain groups of people in a particular area. Since people with Anglo background is the majority group in Sydney, so use of the term “Anglo Ghettos” is more for the shock value and attracting attentions. To be honest the title of the article did its intended job very well, it generated plenty of controversy and interest.

It is no argument that public school has higher percentage of students with none English speaking background than their private counter part. Most of examples are from lower north shore area. In general the pattern is that public schools have higher percentage of students from none English speaking background compare to their private school counterpart where the government selective schools contain even higher percentage of students from none English speaking background.

The important part the particular article does not go into is why this is the case in Sydney, only point mentioned is that parents with Anglo background maybe actively shunning the public schools.  So exactly what has driven and formed these “Ghettos” in public and private schools? In my personal opinion there are multiple of reasons that contributed to this particular phenomenon.

Anglo Families are Shunning the Public Schools

This is definitely is the case by looking at the statistics and from personal experience. I know from first hand information, some Anglo families are giving up the government selective school position because they think the school in question had too many Asians. This is probably one of the biggest reason other than Asian families tend to favour government selective schools with higher academic performance.

Families with none English Speaking Background Shunning the Private Schools with Religious Background Particularly Catholic

This is my theory, Asians I know tend to be agnostic or lower level of religious association so some of them may have avoided the private schools with religious affiliations. I do know Asian families avoided catholic schools for this particular reason. I may make a research project out of this in the future to collect more stats and do a better analysis on this sub topic.

Difference in Social Economic Background

Again this is my theory only, despite the news report that Asians are buying up everything in Australia. Majority of immigrants families here just did not have the same amount of time accumulate wealth over multiple generations. It is not really affordable for middle income families to send more than one children to one of the top private schools on full fee. Even one child at top private school with full fee will stretch a middle class family’s budget badly.

Most selective schools students tend to be solidly middle ground however it is rare to have students with “super rich” parents. And this I think in a large degree explains why public school in general have higher level of students from none English speaking background.

Tradition

For families that resided in Sydney for a long time, you often had grand parents, parents, sisters and brothers all went the same set of private schools. It is natural for the particular families to wish their children to go to the same schools. Families with none English speaking background tend to be new comers and just have less affiliation with a particular school. This phenomenon is very common in private schools from the people I talk to, but much less than with public schools.

Asians Favours Academic Performance

It is probably not a secret that many first generation Asian families favours academic performance over most other factors when picking schools. Government selective schools are focus of this which is why you have a much higher concentration of students with Asian background. For Asians families that are second generation I do not found too much of a difference in their motive compare to Anglo families in whether sending their children to private or public schools.

A lot of top private schools offer scholarship for students based on academic performance, it would be really interesting to see the composition of those students and how many of them are from none English speaking background.

Overall there are a wealth of information from myschool.edu.au and a lot of can be learned from data gathered. I wanted to do a follow up article on this topic to go over some of the stats around it.

This the last article in choosing a school for your child series.

• School’s size, the number and composition of the students enrolled

Class size wise public schools that I know off all have it well managed. The main issue with this is that Sydney and in some areas like north shore, northern beaches etc, a lot of schools experienced increase in enrollment of 40 percent or more in less than ten years time. What this means is that a lot of schools in the old more established suburbs all became very crowded and forced to settle with a lot of demountables. The 2008 GFC actually provided a much needed capital construction for the public schools in Sydney. Going to the public schools in north shore area, just about the only new buildings they had in I do not know how many years are all constructed during that period.

The issue with the composition in the public school it is a lot more tricky. Some school’s catchment contain large amount of public housing which can have a direct impact. If you intend to send your children to the local public school, it certainly pays to do research first on the local intake area so you do not get yourself into a situation you do not want to be in.

• How well the particular school is managed

Generally in personal experience the public schools in Sydney are well managed. However to find out more details, you will need to do the research yourself online and if possible get into contact with parents who have children going to the school. This will differ from school to school and even principle to principle.

• The non academic programs in the school such as sport, music, arts etc.

This is the part where private schools have an edge over the public ones. That being said in the more affluent areas just about every children going to the public school all had private non academic programs happening outside of school hours.

• Will your child have friend in the school they are going to and do you think they will fit in

Public school wise, I think there is no great difference between the different ones in the state. If your child had been going to the local childcare or preschool previously, then it is very likely he or she will have people they know going to the same school.

• The availability of the after school care

This is actually more important than many people think. In the modern age, a lot of families got two working parents, without after school care it is almost impossible to manage the pick up and drop off. Depending on the area, some may have very tight competition on the spots for the after school care. You may even need to book as soon as possible even before they actually started in the school to secure a position.

Not all after school cares are made to be equal as well, some are well organized and have good programs, food etc. So definitely pays to do research on this.

• Family involvement with the school life

My child goes to one of the public school in the north shore area and people I know had children going to the public school school in the north shore generally had very positive experience in this aspect.

There are a lot of opportunities for volunteer work and very good family involvement in the schools as well. Again this is very much a case by case situation, so if this is something important for you, then it pays to do the  research ahead.

This is the continuation of choosing a school for your child article part 2. Three point I am going to discuss over this part

• Private or public school

To many this maybe a personal preference on whether to send your children to private or public school. There are however many factors that also determine this, such as cost. Many private schools also have religious affiliation, another point for the parents to consider. The top private school will easily set you back 30k plus a year while even on the lower end you probably looking at at least a few thousand per year at a minimum. This may not seem a lot for some, but consider if you have two children going to the private school at same time, it is going cost a bundle. I know a couple who are on very good income level and sending three sons to a top Sydney private school, even they are struggling fair bit with the cost.

Public school in generally probably will set you back between one to two thousand per year. There are of course some additional cost like uniform etc. However in general the cost of sending multiple kids to public school is not a problem for average families. Generally the public school is excellent, however school in some area need to be avoided. I am personally is a support of the public school system, however if I live in certain area such as Phillip Bay, I would send my children to the private school.

If cost and religious affiliation is not an issue, just pick whatever is your personal preference. If academic performance is your major concern, top public school do just as well as the private ones. So in this particular case pick the one that suit your economic circumstance and personal preference.

• Distance of the school to your home

Distance and travelling is a also a big concern, particular in the primary school years where they require supervised drop off and pick up. Spending two hour doing so would be a major problem for some parents. Two working parents in the modern age is fairly standard for many families and unless you have someone to help out full time, this is certainly something many will have to take into consideration when choosing a school. Personally most ideal is within walking distance to the school, obviously with the skyrocketing Sydney property prices, this is simply not possible all the time.

• The academic performance of the school in question

The top private school has good academic performance and abundance of non academic programs which is a major draw point for many parents. The top public school also have excellent academic performance. The top public schools also have very strict catchment/intake area, so unless you live in the school catchment, it can be very difficult to get into them. In general a public school at the primary school is good because most of the parents are “Tiger Mothers”. If you shift the same set of parents to another school, it pretty much guarantee to make that into a top school as well.