Hello everyone,
I am in NSW at the moment and I am a bit puzzled about which type of school to send my daughter to.
My DD is 3.5 yo and she started reading (Thanks to the LR program) at 2 yo. After a year and a half, she reads very clearly and quickly (Like an adult would read) books like Cinderella, Dumbo and books of the sort.
She also followed the shichida program and her counting is strong, at the moment she counts until 100 and in 10s and in 2s.
At this point, she shows a lot of strong academics, and some teachers seem to think she is gifted, however I am pretty sure is about the early learning we have been doing.
So my question is, which type of school will you choose for your little ones? Public school seems to be the obvious choice for my husband due to the low cost. What is actually stopping me from this is that I don’t see that they have gifted programs or teachers that work with gifted kids, unlike the expensive private schools.
Shichida teachers would tell me this is pretty normal for kids and not necessarily mean that my kid can be gifted.
The entry point for private schools are at age 4 and we would need to make a decision within the following weeks if we decided to go down this path.
Any users that have tried private schools (For ex: meriden or MLC) and seems to think there is a big difference with the public schools?
Hello Bemi! I’m not exactly from Australia (USA) but I can definitely give you some advice on public versus private school. Public schools tend to not be able to enforce different learning speeds so if your child can already read she will probably end up not learning anything new in reading. This is because the teacher teaches one specific way for everyone. I have heard that many children who have had a tremendous start in learning end up wanting to read the book to the class instead of the teacher though. lol Private schools may help with accommodating to your child’s learning ability (I mean you are paying for the school!). There is also the option of international schools. If there is one in your area, your child would not need accommodations because they would start with teaching your toddler how to read and do math in another language. Knowing how to read in her first language will set her up for learning other languages rapidly. International schools tend to cost the same amount as private schools or a little cheaper. Some public schools also offer the immersive language option so I would keep an eye out for that if its available. I don’t know how different our education systems are but our public schools in the US are not very good.
I chose private school for my children and don’t regret it. However I can’t say they got an individual education at all. The education they received was on par with what they would have got at a public school. They did however get to spend their days with a MUCH nicer group of children and these children all had parents who valued education. That was worth the money all by itself. The kids grew up thinking education was important and they had to try hard.
In terms of learning, each school (public or private) is quite individual and you would need to actually visit the schools around your area to determine the best fit. In many places in NSW
public schools are better, especially if you live in an area where the average income is high.
In the end after many happy years in school my children were just not being challenged enough at school and I am homeschooling them for the time being. If you are serious about excelling in education long term, homeschooling is most definelty the best way.
I dont know if you are considering homeschooling but I can totally agree with Mandabplus! Homeschooling is by far the best educational route. Even International Schools cannot compare. I find that the mother is the best teacher and teaching a child one-on-one allows the child to not only absorb everything but absorb it at a faster pace. If you are considering homeschooling, I would save the money that you will spend at schools and put it towards wonderful homeschooling curriculum. There are plenty of amazing programs to choose from just off this forum alone. Happy searching!
I’m not from Australia too but based on my experience, it would be best to give your child all the attention she needs. I’m not saying that private school is better than public school, but if you’ll think about how many students they have in one classroom, right? For private schools, they may have a few students per class and the social interaction is good for your child.
I agree that mothers are the best teacher for early learners. Your daughter will get all the attention she needs and will make your bond with her stronger.
In W.A we have a once a week pull out program called PEAC (http://www.northmetropeac.wa.edu.au/early_years.htm) that caters for year 1 upwards if your child is advanced. I expect that N.S.W would have something similar.
I tend to try to use the school system as a free supplement with the aim of staying 12 months ahead so that they are reviewing what we have already covered. So far so good.
