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User #707221 2 posts
yanange
I'm new here, please be nice
reference: whrl.pl/ReqN4H
posted 2015-Oct-21, 3:22 am AEST
I myself entered a prestigious all girl's private school, Pymble Ladies College at Year 7. I came from an Asian background and only migrated to Australia when I was 9 and and attended English as a second language class at a local public primary school. I was supposed to go to a local public high school but my parents placed my name down for Pymble and surprisingly I got in. Well maybe not that surprisingly as it is a massive school, (I left in 2002, so I am an OLDER alumni). Just speaking of Pymble itself.
Pros:
1. Facilities and extra-corricular programs: mountains of facilities, top of the class buildings and grounds, has a pool, gym, oval for horse riding etc etc etc. Also a very wide range of sporting (like rowing, cricket tennis, netball etc, musical (choir, chamber orchestra, dance etc) and social activities (newsletter team, debating, moots etc). The sporting teams always won competitions while I was at school and very musically talented too.
2. Academics: very strong overall academic results at HSC level, my year had four girls who ended in with UAI of 100 and a cohort who had more than 50% in UAI of 90.
3. Teachers – the teachers were passionate, I had some great learning experiences whilst at the school, whether or not you were the top of your class, you were catered for, though that being said, it's impossible to always get the best teachers. The teachers that were really poor, I remember in my year we complained a lot to the school or the parents did, and the school took immediate action and those under performing teachers were gone very soon. The teachers were all very diligent and passionate about their jobs which is a good thing as a student.
4. Discipline- if you want a strict school, this is one with strict uniform policies and house mark demerit points.
5. Networking – This school does offer a great network but then I guess it's more to do with the higher socio-economic profile of the student cohort.
Cons: (bear in mind I am Asian, English was my second language and I was not a top student, I only transferred to Pymble at Year 7 and didn't live around the north shore area.)
1. Size of school – if you are not a top student, you will just become a number in the school system, the grade was massive, very cliquey, the asians hung out with asians, the smart girls with smart girls, the smart asian group, the artsy groups etc etc.
2. Social – there wasn't a lot of group mixing etc, in my year we had a set of twin girls who attended from kindergarten but were clearly disadvantaged due to learning problems, however, up to year 11, there was a lot of hazing and bullying happening in the school. The school did next to nothing about this issue and it's a very sad thing to see, the principal at the time solely focused at the top tier of sporting, academic and music arenas and neglected many other students.
3. Discipline – Oh in year 9, drugs became a problem, half of my form was expelled or left to go to other private schools or public schools. The bullying situation occurred in the boarding house as well especially as this school banked on the higher fees from boarders, many of the boarders who entered in year 9 or year 10 were bullied and they had clothing being stolen, cut or shouted names etc, quite racist comments too. Let's just say the pastoral program is quite insufficient.
If you are to send your kids to a tertiary education in NSW. When I left Pymble and attended USYD to do a commerce degree, I noticed many more kids from varied cultural and social backgrounds and realised how secluded I was in the Pymble environment. As NSW has a skewed system with the selective but public high school, a lot of kids are from selective high schools did the commerce course. Yet kids from public non-selective high schools did very well for themselves as they had ambition in life and very clear goals, plus there wasn't a lot of spoon feeding for them throughout high school and they got to university on their own merits so they toughed it out in this university setting whereby individual learning and analytical thinking was valued above all.
Going a private school has its pros with top resources etc however, as someone who went to Pymble, I wouldn't want to send my daughter there, it's too cliquely and if you are not a top student, I think you wouldn't have the chance to trial a lot of the opportunities as stated in the prospectus. But if you want academics, Pymble definitely had the right teachers that will spoon feed you and did the work for you.
A lot of my friends came from private girl schools like Meriden, PLC Croydon, Ravenswood, Barker, Monte, Wenona, Kincoppal Rose Bay and Ascham and all loved it, they were smaller schools that had a more caring environment. So really for the 25k+ you will pay per annum. Selecting a smaller school whereby your daughter can shine is a much wiser choice. |
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