Private or Public Schools?

[Gordon]

Autism is a spectrum. Autistic kids who can control their behavior are fine to attend mainstream classes. If the teacher is burning time on behavior and not teaching, the child needs a more suitable environment.

[Nicole]

Autism is a spectrum. Autistic kids who can control their behavior are fine to attend mainstream classes. If the teacher is burning time on behavior and not teaching, the child needs a more suitable environment.

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[mellie]

My daughters behaviour is excellent.

And I agree, any childs behaviour, autism or not should be manageable within a classroom environment.

Most kid's on the spectrum don't have behaviour issue's that impact on others.

It's usually a case of them having a comorbid diagnosis, ie ADHD and Autism or ODD and Autism..... or FLP and Autism which presents as unmanageable behaviour in the,classroom.

FLP. F,ing Lousy Parents.

[mellie]

Autism is a spectrum. Autistic kids who can control their behavior are fine to attend mainstream classes. If the teacher is burning time on behavior and not teaching, the child needs a more suitable environment.

x 2

X3

[mellie]

https://goo.gl/images/pUcNqH



I imagined BO quite different to this actually.

[Black Orchid]

Well imagination is always a good thing but I look nothing like that

And I am afraid I don't own a twin set

[Gordon]

Interesting article!

Nicola Bodor's second child is due next week, and along with a hospital bag, she has got the application form for SCEGGS Darlinghurst ready to go.

Ms Bodor toured the private school when she was pregnant with her first daughter Poppy, and said she was told she had about a month after Poppy was born to get on the waiting list to have a chance of being accepted.

"We sent in the form for SCEGGS when Poppy was five days old," Ms Bodor, who lives in Balmain, said.
Ms Bodor also put Poppy on the waiting list at Ascham and had to pay an application fee of $250 for each school, and is planning to do the same for her second child.

She was told there was a spot at SCEGGS for Poppy eight months after applying and had to pay a $1000 non-refundable holding fee that wouldn't go towards school tuition costs to keep the spot.

Many private schools across Australia are charging between $70 and $500 in non-refundable application fees and as much as $7200 in enrolment fees that are required to accept a place at the school.

A recent survey of more than 2000 parents conducted by finder.com.au found that 6 per cent said they had paid application fees for multiple private schools.

NSW enrolment figures show that 11 per cent of primary school students and 16.6 per cent of high school students attend non-Catholic independent schools, a total of more than 161,550 students.

Bessie Hassan, money expert at finder.com.au, said applying to multiple schools can become financially difficult for some families, especially soon after having a child.

"Even if families will be able to afford said school fees in the future, their kids may not be in the running because their parents couldn't afford to put their name down when they were a baby," Ms Hassan said.

"The schools will take your money whether or not you have any chance of even being offered a place due to limited available places."

Scots College, which had year 12 school fees of nearly $35,000 last year, is charging parents a $500 application fee followed by a non-refundable $5000 entrance fee to accept an offer.

Cranbrook School, which has one of the highest fees in Sydney at $37,230 for year 12 this year, has an application fee of $300 and a non-refundable enrolment fee of $7275 to accept a place at the school.

Knox Grammar School has an application fee of $380, while Sydney Grammar charges $253 and Newington College has a fee of $250.

Head of the Association of Independent Schools of NSW Geoff Newcombe said not all private schools charge enrolment or waiting list fees, which cover the administrative costs of managing applications.

"They also act to discourage parents from applying for a place at several schools for the same child, and to ensure proper notice is given by parents if they withdraw their child," Dr Newcombe said.

He said approaches to enrolment fees also vary between schools, with some not charging the fee or refunding it by reducing the amount from the first year's school fees.

Lecturer in education at Deakin University Emma Rowe said school application fees and competitive waiting lists are the result of Australia's "segregated education system".

"Schools are asking for an indication of a family's socioeconomic status from the offset and this is incredibly prohibitive for students from families who simply don't have the financial means," Dr Rowe said.

"A lot of middle-class parents, they all seem to know that as soon as your kid is born, you start looking for a secondary school. A lot of parents describe it as quite intense pressure from the get-go.

"There's relentless competition to avoid schools that are residualised, with a higher proportion of low-socioeconomic students. That's the problem with having such a segregated system."

https://www.smh.com.au/education/privat ... 4zb8g.html

[brian ross]

Waste of money IMO. I believe in the State providing schooling and I have not been disappointed in the two states and one territory where my kids have attended schools. All have been excellent institutions with excellent staff. Having experienced private schooling as a child, all I can say is that I was taught how to hate other people rather poorly. Private schools don't have better teachers, they may have better facilities and that is where the funds go - into capital works. The kids' education is secondary to them.

[Rorschach]

Oh dear.... just one more thing we agree on brian...

You should try remembering those things when you lose control in your posts and lie about people.

[Gordon]

This is why I'm happy my daughter's going to a private school with a low teacher to pupil ratio where her curriculum will be tailored to suit her.

The Prime Minister has thrown his support behind what he's described as a blueprint to lift Australia's lagging educational performance, laid out in a report by businessman David Gonski.

Malcolm Turnbull has urged state governments, teachers and parents to back the recommendations in Mr Gonski's report on achieving excellence in Australian schools.

Mr Gonski's second major review into Australian education said the country must urgently modernise its industrial-era model of school education and move towards individualised learning for all students.

Too many Australian children are failing to reach their potential at school because of the restrictive nature of year-level progression, the report said.

It calls for the implementation across states of a new online assessment tool that teachers would use to diagnose the exact level of literacy and numeracy a child has achieved.

Teachers could then create individual learning plans for students that would not be tied to what year group they are in.

If formative online assessments were established and reported nationally, it would downgrade the intense focus on the yearly NAPLAN tests in favour of continuous, real-time measurement of student progress.

"We need to have more of the type of focused, personalised attention that David talks about," Mr Turnbull said.

"We need to make sure … our kids are coming out of school competitive. This is a very competitive world.

"We've got to make sure they've got the skills to excel and to compete and be their best."

The Federal Government has agreed to implement all of the report's recommendations, and it hopes to use it to develop a new national schooling agreement.

Education Minister Simon Birmingham said he would enter into talks with the states and territories about how to implement Mr Gonski's recommendations.

"We want to see a system out of this report where each student is stretched to the maximum of their capabilities each and every year over the 12 or 13 years of their schooling," Senator Birmingham said.

"It really is essential that teachers know and are able to chart where their students are up to in terms of what they're learning, how they're progressing and that parents are fully engaged as part of that process as well."
Mass education model holding back students

The report was commissioned by the Federal Government last year after the passage of its amended schools funding legislation.

Mr Gonski said in his report that the structure of Australian schools reflected "a 20th century aspiration to deliver mass education to all children".

The report recommended shifting from that industrial education model to one where schools focused on achieving each individual student's "maximum potential growth in learning each year".

t found current assessment tools in schools did not provide teachers with "real-time or detailed data on a student's growth".

"We're advocating in this report that teachers should also, all the time, be upgrading their thinking and their ideas," Mr Gonski told reporters.

"I believe most teachers would agree with us, but the opportunity to do it, for example; how do you fit that in to your day, and so on?

"In our report we're suggesting: let's take some time to allow teachers to have more time to improve their art — and not to improve it because it's not good, but to keep up-to-date with all that's happening around the world and in their profession."

While tests like NAPLAN and the international sample test PISA provided "a useful big picture view of student learning trends across Australia and the world", they provided limited assistance to teachers at the classroom level, the report said.

It also said the current "rigidity of curriculum delivery, and assessment and reporting models" were holding Australia back.

Several state governments lodged submissions to the Gonski review, pointing out that current assessment tools used by teachers were not uniform across all schools.

The Victorian Education Department described current assessment tools in its state as "idiosyncratic".
Mixed-ability classes preferable

Many schools rely on gifted and talented programs to extend bright students but the report said evidence showed that mixed-ability classes were preferable.

It said streaming children by ability "has little effect in improving student outcomes and [has] profoundly negative equity effects".

It recommended overhauling the curriculum to focus on "learning progressions" that extended all students, regardless of ability.

Other key recommendations included:

Setting up a national inquiry to review curriculum and assessment in years 11 and 12
Establishing a national educational research institute
Implementing greater principal autonomy
Providing more rewards for high-performing teachers
Overhauling the current A-E grading scale to instead measure progression gains
Introducing a "unique student identifier" for all students that allows progress to be tracked across time, even if a student changes schools or moves interstate

A special meeting of the Education Council will be held on Friday to discuss the recommendations in the report, titled Through Growth to Achievement: Report of the Review to Achieve Educational Excellence in Australian Schools.

Mr Gonski was commissioned by the Gillard government in 2011 to compile a major report on school funding.

The review formed the basis for what is known as the Gonski legislation that created a baseline resourcing standard across all schooling sectors.
Findings 'not supported by research', 'lack detail'

But the report has not been welcomed by all in the sector, with the Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) describing it as a failure.

Senior research fellow at the CIS, Jennifer Buckingham, said the report offered no clear guidance to schools and did not meet the review's terms of reference.

"Many of the findings are not supported by research, and lack detail about implementation," Ms Buckingham said.

"For example, the disproportionate attention to policies that facilitate 'growth mindset' have no evidence-basis in terms of impact on student achievement.

"Likewise, the pre-occupation with increasing the focus on general capabilities has no support in rigorous research about curriculum design and how children learn."

The Australian Education Union said it was concerned the report was coming at a time when the Federal Government was cutting funds to public schools over the next two years.

Union president Correna Haythorpe said it was about properly resourcing disadvantaged schools and students.

"We do have outstanding teachers across Australia who are delivering a very high-quality curriculum, but the reality is that they are missing out on the resources needed to close the student achievement gap," she said.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-30/g ... ea/9708984