There is often a bit of conversation on the School Mum facbeook page about State School vs Private School. Sadly it can get a bit nasty at times as it does seem to be a bit of a controversial topic.
My husband and I have talked for many an evening in the years leading up to our first daughter going to school as to whether we were going to go State or Private. We did think about this for quite some time and this is what we thought about.
Growing up my husband was a state school kid for both primary and high school and I was a mixture of state and private. My husband’s parents decided when their kids were young that they were going to invest their money into buying a house for my husband and his sister to share (40 years ago) instead of sending them to a private school. This we were VERY grateful for 🙂 My parents sent me and my siblings to a state school for primary and a private school for high school.
One other factor to note is that my husband is currently a primary state school teacher and has been so for the past 6 years. Both my husband and I are very passionate about schooling our children and what that looks like. Not passionate in a way where we are obsessed with our children being childhood geniuses and getting A’s for every subject but more that they get a quality and diverse education and develop a love of learning.
When my husband reflects back on his education he often says he is very grateful he went to a state school rather than a private school. He felt like the state school kept him grounded and in the context of his family and life that was a really good thing for him. He tends to like the finer things in life and can get carried away with that a bit but in reality he knows that stuff will never make him happy.
I on the other hand went to a private school for high school. It wasn’t a fancy smancy private school but a Christian high school which didn’t have a massive focus on academics at the time but more just doing well in life and making good choices. This was a good thing for me as I was the kind of teenager that could have made some extreme choices and was a bit of a risk taker however there were not heaps of choices for me in the context of this school as most of the kids were well behaved.
Thinking back on our experiences and making plans for our kids both hubby and I have decided for primary school to send our kids to the local state school. My husband is very passionate about supporting the state school system and making sure it remains strong. We are keen to make sure our kids have a quality education and have decided our money will be better spent taking our kids overseas every year or second year to gain some great life experiences vs spending that money on private schooling.
Last year we took the kids to Cambodia and the year before we went to Chiang Mai in Thailand and we felt like this is a great choice for our family. Our choices might change by the time our kids go to high school but for now we have been super happy with our local state school and our eldest daughter is loving school.
One other MAJOR factor that I am aware of which impacts greatly on our decisions around which school our children go to is that the NUMBER ONE factor when it comes to your child’s education and how well they do is parent involvement.
This is awesome and scary both at the same time because it means that we make the difference in our child’s education. So whether you send your child to a state or private school at the end of the day your involvement in your child’s education matters more than the school you choose.
We live in a society which has outsourced lots of our life and it is easy to view schooling in the same way and think if we choose the right school for our kids then we are done however the reality is we still matter and if we are engaged with our kids in their education state or private does not really matter they will be ok and do well. No pressure or anything haha
So anyways these are some of my thoughts and musing on the whole school choice thing and just remember as long of you care about your kids education and are engaged in their learning they are going to be ok whether they go to a state or private school 🙂
Written By Sam Shazzam aka School Mum
