How hard is it to get into a Private School if you're not baptised?

Ausprop said:
I don't really know much about the rest of the country but this city is nothing like it was. most of the public schools here I would want nothing to do with (I know there are exceptions like willetton and shenton college etc).
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It's funny how different perceptions can be. For me, public high schools in Perth that I wouldn't have wanted anything to do with 20 years ago are now the very model of respectability. I know the public school I went to has improved beyond recognition. All associated with the "gentrification" of their neighbourhoods where previously they were outlying suburbs now they are middle ring. I can well remember being of ethnic extraction back then could be a frankly terrifying experience in the school yard and next to none of the teachers cared about it.

There are quite a few public schools that beat many of the private ones in Perth now and they're a lot cheaper...

But then I'm also impacted by my uni experience doing two degrees concurrently - one in Elec Eng and the other in Commerce. A LOT of private school grads started with me (would have been over 2/3 of the intake) due to their artificially high tertiary entrance scores courtesy of all the coaching but without someone to hold their hand in such a tough course they fell by the wayside pretty quick. Less than 10% of my peers actually graduating at the end of 5 years would have come from a private school. These results were pretty well mirrored across the "standard' eng grads as well, just to a lesser extent. Anectdotal discussions with more recent grads have indicated nothing much has changed in that respect. First year lectures were held in large ampitheatres and final year lectures in small classrooms...
 
HiEquity - You are spot on. The academic 'spoon feeding' of students in private schools to ensure good results is something that really puts me off a private education for my children.
 
thanks for all your replies. I thought some private schools had a percentage of non-religious people that they will accept. I think I might just forget about it and move states again at the end of this year.
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Are you talking about a private school or a catholic school??? As I said before there is a big difference between a Catholic School education and a Private school education. You cant really call a catholic school private nor compare it when a Catholic school education is costing less than $2K a year to the private school equivalent of almost $10K a year.

Not that Im not happy with the Catholic System but it obviously doesnt have all the bells and whistles that a private school has at 5 times the cost. And more to the point you should expect a point of difference if your paying that.

A lot of private schools ie: Grammar Schools dont accept based on religion but more to the point its based on if you can pay their fees :p A catholic school will accept non-catholic families and all have a percentage that they MUST take.
 
cjandlj said:
You cant really call a catholic school private nor compare it when a Catholic school education is costing less than $2K a year to the private school equivalent of almost $10K a year.

Not that Im not happy with the Catholic System but it obviously doesnt have all the bells and whistles that a private school has at 5 times the cost.
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Low Catholic school fees generally reflect the area the school is in - low incomes areas have cheaper fees. I've always thought this was part of their "no child of a poor Catholic family will be deprived of a Catholic education' motto.

Other Catholic schools charge in excess of 10K and some have just as many 'bells and whistles'. My sons girlfriend went to one that charges around 10K and that one outperforms the majority of high paying independent schools in year 12 most years, here in Adelaide.

A good friends sister was a teacher at that school for years and a couple of years ago moved to an independent school that is probably considered Adelaides most expensive and highest performing, but at over twice the price.

When I last spoke to her about results and comparisons (because I was curious why the Catholic one kept outperforming year in year out) she said both schools were very close in performance, and interestingly both had higher that normal highly educated or successful parents, that had very high expectations of the school and their offspring.
 
cjandlj said:
Are you talking about a private school or a catholic school??? As I said before there is a big difference between a Catholic School education and a Private school education. You cant really call a catholic school private nor compare it when a Catholic school education is costing less than $2K a year to the private school equivalent of almost $10K a year.

Not that Im not happy with the Catholic System but it obviously doesnt have all the bells and whistles that a private school has at 5 times the cost. And more to the point you should expect a point of difference if your paying that.

A lot of private schools ie: Grammar Schools dont accept based on religion but more to the point its based on if you can pay their fees :p A catholic school will accept non-catholic families and all have a percentage that they MUST take.
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I meant private catholic school.
 
INVSTOR said:
Over the past 12 years I've met many mums who have had there children baptised for the sole reason of being able to send there children to a specific Private School. I'm currently in a zoning for a public school that a few parents who I highly value have said, "You'd do anything to not send your kids there!" etc. There is a good public school in the area and it is in very high demand. The border for the intake of the good school ends at the end of the street. I spoke to the school admin and they informed me they won't even give out application forms to anyone who doesn't fall within the catchment, you can only get an application from their office and they are one of the strictest schools for enrollments in the area. Moving is not an option. I'm considering a catholic school which I like the sound of. I'm catholic/ was brought up catholic although I don't regularly attend church. I haven't brought up my children religous, but have focussed on good values and morals and have left it to them to decide what the want to believe in. I really don't think I could bring myself to baptise my kids just to get into a school. It's kind of a weird thing to me really that your childs education can be guided by religion! Anyone know much about the likelyhood of being accepted and not being baptised/non-religous? The school I'm looking into has had an average reputation in the past. They have a new principal and are gaining a good reputation. It looks like they are after enrollments, eg, handing out applications in local shopping centre. My daughter is slightly above average to above average in grades. The school focuses on drama as a subject, and my daughter is an A-B student in drama. Thanks!! :confused:
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I have no problem with Baptising my kids to get them into the school I want them in. It's a game with stupid rules, so I play by the stupid rules and get what I want, simple.

I pay a ridiculous amount of tax and a ridiculous amount of that tax goes to Private Schools. That's stupid, but that's the way it is. I accept it and just play by the rules to get what I want.

Don't treat this as a moral issue, it isn't. You are making the best choice for your child that you can with the information and resources you have available.

Baptise, enrol, enjoy. And just make sure your child knows the values that you want to instill in them. And, please make sure they don't take on that ridiculous religious "guilt / fear" thing that Christianity can't seem to function without. That $h!t can take years to shake off and can stunt your child's personal growth. How do I know? It stunted mine for a while.
 
Well after reading this Ive decided my child now goes to a "private" school and that we are way undercharging! :) off to the P&F I go to tell them our funding issues are solved! and I hope those families that are paying 5 times the price for the grammar education are happy with their investment! :D
 
cjandlj said:
Well after reading this Ive decided my child now goes to a "private" school and that we are way undercharging! :) off to the P&F I go to tell them our funding issues are solved! and I hope those families that are paying 5 times the price for the grammar education are happy with their investment! :D
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I also was surprised at the fees mentioned being so cheap for Catholic schools. I know they generally are half to two-thirds (at lease when I was looking) but our Anglican school this year is $8.5K and the local Catholic girls school is $6.5K so I'm not sure how many Catholic schools are still sitting around the $2K mark (as mentioned somewhere above). The elite grammar school is about $18K I believe in comparison.

When our oldest boy was ready for high school, the Anglican school we chose was $4K per annum and the local Catholic boys school was about $3K (from memory).

The school he went to is undergoing massive building and improvements and the fees went up about $500 per year until a couple of years ago when the increase was $1000 in one year. It didn't matter to us as we paid upfront for the whole five years at Grade 8 prices plus a 4% discount. That is something worth investigating.

The choice for our son was "free" public school vs elite grammar local school at about $8K vs Anglican private at $4K. We would not have chosen the grammar school as it is not our "cup of tea".

Ultimately, parents make choices for all sorts of reasons. There are plenty of kids attending elite schools because the parents get some sort of "jollies" out of it.

We chose the school for social reasons, private schools better able to deal with bullies and on the recommendation of his grade 6/7 teacher. We were prepared to pay money for those benefits and for the atmosphere at the particular school. I don't like to add up what we have spent, and just accept we chose the right path at the time.

We don't for a moment believe our boys would do any better or worse scholastically at any other school.
 
Our DD attends a Catholic primary school, her fees are $666 per school term. For the second child there is a 25% discount, for the third a 50% discount, and the fourth attends free.

The fees jump a bit when they reach highschool, but it depends on the high school chosen. I we choose on of the co-ed catholic schools (which is what we will likely do, I prefer a co-ed school and it makes it easier when I [will] have 2 of each gender attending school very close together in age) it is significantly cheaper then if we go to the single sex Catholic Private schools (my parents were paying approx $15k p/a for my youngest sister to attend one of these).


We choose Catholic education for a number of reasons, in order of importance to myself:
1) we are catholic and wish our children to gain a good understanding and foundation of the catholic religion and other religions.
2) discipline is (generally) alot better at these schools because the teachers have more leeway in terms of punishment and consequences.
3) the school community are more like minded in regards to their expectations and there truely is a sense of community.
4) education. Not our sole focus, but certainly important. Not because the kids are working at a higher level (although they are) but because of the support and involvement of the teachers and the school in helping those students (like my DD) who are behind the curve and also having in place systems and resources to help out not just those falling behind, but also provide stimulation for those who are far ahead.


FWIW - I went to 9 different schools growing up (my family moved alot), a mixture of catholic education and public education. It really does depend on the the particular schools in question and the child as to which school will be the better choice. But overall, I can say that discipline and respect were held to a much higher account with students (and teachers) in those catholic schools I attended. As a student in some of the public schools, I would often be shocked and appalled at the way some other student (my friends no less) would talk to the teachers, other students and even their parents. And they didn't see anything wrong with it. I was always brought up with the confidence to stand for my opinions and understood that there was nothing wrong with my disagreeing with an adult - but that it should be done respectfully and with thought and maturity. It was never OK to swear and yell and completely disregard that adults authority simply because I thought they were wrong. Part of that is upbringing at home, but part of it is also the fact that the catholic schools I attended, you simply would not have gotten away with that behaviour - you would have had serious punishment and even expulsion. Public schools simply do not have the same power to do these things in the same measures.
 
Mr. Fabulous said:
There's also the issue that if you don't get baptised, you're going straight to Hell! Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.
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Alot of religious steriotypes being thrown around in this thread, without any true understanding of the actual religions in question. :rolleyes:

Catholics do not believe that those who are not baptised catholic will go to hell. That is an archaic idea, which is no longer in holding with the teachings of the church. Nor do I know of any Catholics (including the priests I know) who would advocate baptising your children simply to get them into a certain school, or for any other reason other then actual belief. It is best simply to teach them and allow them to make their own decisions about such things. Even amongst catholics, kids are often held back from making the sacraments (euchrist, reconcilliation, confirmation) at the typical age if there is reason to believe they don't actually have understanding, belief or are simply not mature enough to make that decision.

If you are going to critise a religion (any religion) it would do you well to get your facts straight before throwing around misconceptions. There are plenty of things you could say about my religion which I wouldn't gainsay you on, and might actually agree with, no need to make up things which aren't even true. ;)
 
rugrat said:
Alot of religious steriotypes being thrown around in this thread, without any true understanding of the actual religions in question. :rolleyes:
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I was joking. As an avowed atheist, I don't believe in hell. Which means I'm probably going there to get pitchforks in my butt for all eternity. My good friend Jordan is a creationist. We have some interesting discussions. She's one of about 2 people I have met that can discuss religion without getting all defensive about it.

The interesting thing is that she has actually admitted to me that she believes in the literal interpretation of the Bible *despite* the mountains of evidence disproving it. Evolution, kids!
 
This is really interesting but I was just thinking about this.
Neither of us are religious and we had a civil marriage.
I asked a few of the Catholic mums, they looked at me like I was a blasphemy and would go straight to hell. Guess I will leave it for a while.
 
Lamingtons,

There are lots of 'Athiest' Catholics in the Catholic school system but they generally keep quiet (and as an Atheist myself I wouldn't dream of piping up to anyone - for fear of appearing to be bagging the sysyem - if my children attend either).

There are Athiest teachers. A friend is one. Another teacher who teaches RE told me she tries not to mention the J or G words (her words) too much otherwise she loses the children and preferred to concentrate on moral or ethical issues where possible since she got a far better response.

Also a few years ago 5 mums and myself took our children who were all attending Catholic Schools at the time, to the beach for an outing, and one mum admitted her husband was athiest (and not real happy about it) and wanted to know what we thought, which prompted others to admit who was religious - or Catholic - and who wasn't.

Out of the 12 adults (wives and partners/husbands - one couple were unmarried) 6 were athiest, with my husband and I the only athiest couple.

I don't think you would be alone.
 
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