The Smart State

So I checked out the myschool website - http://www.myschool.edu.au/

By the looks of things, my kids better brush up on some armed robbery skillz because they won’t be going to University anytime soon. So poor were the results.

Both schools were below average for years 3, 5 and 7. My first reaction? What the Fuck?

I have two school aged children. One in year 2, one in Year 6.

Sam, in year 2, has Aspergers and luckily he began Prep at a school with a Special Education Unit that is highly regarded on the Gold Coast. As such, a lot of kids at his school need extra attention. Some, like Sam, who is in a main stream classroom, need a teacher aid with them a lot of the time, so they can concentrate, learn their ABCs and 123s and not skiv off to the sandpit and play. Others need no help academically, but need a lot of help behaviour wise. Either way, this school has a very large proportion of children with varying degrees of academic ranges and the majority sat that test.

And they still did better than my daughters school that we pay for.

My daughter who is 11 this year and in grade 6 was part of the year 5 Naplan testing last year at this Catholic Education School. We changed her from her brothers school due to one fact and one fact only. She couldn’t understand her teacher. This particular school is multi-aged, meaning it’s not about what grade you are in, but the stages. Early, Junior, Middle and Senior. It’s a great notion. The kids who are smart, get taught to their ability, not grade, the ones who are struggling, get helped along. So the theory goes.

Maddie is an avid reader. Massive reader. Out reads me. This is not a biased observation, it just is. Her division and overall maths are not so crash hot, nor her presentation of work or her physical education. So when her mid-year Year 4 Report came home and it showed a C for Reading and English, I was a little bit baffled. See, her teacher for that year, and the subsequent year was a male who is from Pakistan. I had had him as a client some years earlier and he got the total shits with me because I couldn’t understand him. So when I realised, by some weird cosmic force, that he was going to be Maddies teacher in year 4, my first thought was “How in the hell will she learn when she can’t understand her teacher?” I told her to tell me if she couldn’t work out what he was saying. She said she would. But she didn’t. Because she didn’t want to leave her friends. Excellent.

So turns out she couldn’t understand him for the majority of year 4. He was a lovely man. He really liked Maddie. He made her the mentor of other wayward children in her class, with the best of intentions, but at the end of the day, the realisation that my child was to be taught by this teacher again in year 5 and possibly not learn, concerned me. We were always going to send her to a Private High School anyway, so figured, Year 5 was as good a time as any to change her to our only affordable option – Catholic Education.

I know, it’s all a matter of prioritising and budgeting and yes I agree. But, we’ve got 3 kids, all of which would be in private schools at the same time, we have extra medical costs associated with Sam and you know what?, I can’t see how the kids are really going to be better off if we are stressed off our heads just so they can go to the “Best private schools” on the Coast.

See, this is the problem. When I was a kid there were private schools on the Gold Coast. Not nearly as many as there are today, but the major ones were there. But it wasn’t an issue. Well it didn’t appear to be. You went to the school you lived the closest to. Or, if you were exceptionally wealthy, you went to one of the private schools. End of story. Even then, everyone was still friends. There certainly didn’t appear to be the same sort of class system. Nor was the awkward conversation at dinner parties “Oh so where does your child go to school?” Fuck, isn’t it hard enough just to exist these days, let alone be judged by what sort of education your child receives? And isn’t it our right, as a taxpayer, as an Australian, for our children to receive the best of education and health regardless of wealth?

And most teachers at state schools are wonderful. My son has had the best teacher for the last 2.5 years I could ever have hoped for. She was wonderful. I truly believe it comes down to what suits your child. Only you, as the parent can make this call.

I can totally see the frustration on both sides of the fence for both pro Naplan testing and anti. Teachers are being raked over the coals for shite results that aren’t directly their fault. Some schools are getting awesome results due to the fact they deliberately wrangled for less academically gifted children to avoid sitting the test.

The thing is, we all just want our children to get a decent education. We don't want to feel ashamed because our children are attending under performing schools. We don’t want special attention or favours. We don’t expect to have sunshine blown up our arses about how good how child is. We do expect however, to get decent, fair and equitable teaching for our children. No matter what school that they attend. No child should get better marks because they have access to more equipment at home to process an assignment. No child should get favoured because they catch up with a certain childs mother from time to time. That crap has to stop.

So this website may eventually help average out the results across the country. If a school is particularly struggling, perhaps a crack team of experts will descend on the school and work out how to help the situation. That to me, would be a positive outcome generated from this site.

Apparently there is a frenzy of parents pulling their children out of under performing schools based on this website but, if you were happy with your childs school before this website went live but now have concerns, back yourself. You know what’s best because no one knows you child quite like you do.