Board Of The News: School Captain speech tells it like it is

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/ravenswood-captain-sarah-haynes-accuses-school-of-betrayal-20151206-glgmfq.html

For those of you who don't know, private education in Sydney, Australia can get RIDICULOUSLY expensive. As in, $30k+ a year. Ravenswood is one of the higher-fee schools (one of the highest, Sydney Grammar charges around $31k per year regardless of the year). Oddly, the Uniting Church is actually one of the more progressive branches of Christianity, but I digress.

The speech itself actually seems to share some of my sentiments with the private system and even some of the more "elite" public schools in recent years. What you're seeing in the media, during open days, during school tours, is not always necessarily the "real" picture. Some images are carefully crafted or manipulated just slightly, others will be purely "set up" to show "We're a great school, come and see us." Some of the problems are also partially government-driven, not by funding, but by the MySchools databank and more specifically NAPLAN.

There have been a huge number of anecdotal reports involving students with a learning disability or who just aren't doing "well" in class being asked to stay home on test days, or even outright being told that they shouldn't sit the NAPLAN, because their results drag the school's result down. Not only is that an incredibly stupid move to do (it's also actually illegal if the student has a disability), it's also a really horrible way of using NAPLAN. NAPLAN is meant to be for individual use, not to compare schools. It is also meant to be a snapshot of how you do for one day out of around 200. If your child is scoring lower, then it's a sign that they need help in that area. Schools do receive the same data, which is used to plan whole-school strategies, but this data doesn't (and shouldn't) need to be released to the public as a whole. So if you've got that student who has dyslexia, testing them to see how they're going against other children might be a good way to determine if any sort of intervention program actually works!

Unfortunately, schools don't always do that. The higher-fee schools in particular, I've noticed, will treat certain students as "reputation students". That is, those students are there so the school can say "we have students of <xyz> background" even though they won't necessarily provide them with the best practices they can offer. They'll educate them sure, but that doesn't necessarily mean that those students will receive the proper support needed. Or on the other end of the scale (like Sarah), they'll use them as a mouthpiece or as a proxy salesperson. That is, their role is to get their numbers up.

I've seen this happen in public schools too, it is not just a symptom of the elite private system. I vividly remember the two high schools I attended growing up and how they managed particular matters for each. I actually figured out that my first high school cared more about reputation way back in Year 9, while my second high school started caring slightly more when I was in Year 11, but didn't spend more time on image than on education (they tightened up uniform standards, but that was about it). A third high school my university lecturer told me about made some changes to improve image, but they didn't impact education. (My partner also attended this school). These changes were small things, such as emphasising the community aspect over "image." In the case of the second and third high schools, they found that enrolments increased heavily and that teachers were now begging to work there.


At the end of the day, I'd argue that the community seems to be the aspect that schools SHOULD focus more on when it comes to attracting students, not about their graduate results or how hard they push students to achieve top marks in the HSC. Once that child graduates, the real world won't care about where they went to high school (unless they're unethical). The real world won't care that your child failed an English class in Year 11.The real world won't care that your child only got an ATAR of 83. Universities definitely do not care about prestige, or where your child went to school.
Schools are meant to however, prepare you for dealing with people from all walks of life. Private schools however, can pick and choose who they please. This doesn't actually benefit anyone in the long term.

"Sure," you might say, "But those schools do community service programs!" How many of them are doing it as a genuine altruistic need and not in anyway to benefit themselves? How many of them are doing it as part of a religious studies program of some description? How many of them are doing it as a genuine academic requirement? I would imagine that you'll find more of the former in the public system and more of the latter two in the private system.

"But wait!" you might say "Those elite schools prepare them for high-level jobs!" Sorry, but no they don't. You need to study at uni first. And at uni, unless you have a disability or another need that legally requires intervention, they don't care about your private school status. they will not hold your hand. They will not intervene if you are verbally assaulted by a less-than desirable student. That "less-than-desirable" student will be in fact be allowed to continue studying. They will not intervene if you fail an exam. They will not assign you homework and chase you up if you fail to submit it. Work ethic is also not determined by the school at all. Work ethic is determined by many factors and some of the best and brightest schools will have students with the suckiest work ethic. Don't believe me? Go into your local supermarket or McDonalds. Take a look at the students behind the counter. Guess which ones are privately educated and then actually ask them. You'll find that there's a mix of public and private. You'll also find that the students with the crappiest ethic might actually be privately educated. You'll also find that the private students might not even actually be studying further.

So in short, if you are going to pick a private school, make sure you pick one that focuses on the community, not just the end result. The end result can be skewed. The community can't.