We hear from many of you that choosing a school is sometimes confusing because there are so many conflicting messages out there. So what are the education facts and fiction?

Single sex is better than co-ed (not necessarily, it depends on both the school and your child). Can’t go to a Catholic school unless you’re catholic…or can you? (Yes, you can and many do). Catholic schools aren’t private schools (they are, any school that is non-government is simply put, a private school).  All private schools are rich (they’re not). Public schools are poor (not all). Public schools have to take you (some, not all – selective schools, zones, capacity). Private schools have it tough too, they take lots of ‘disadvantaged’ kids (they take some, but public schools do the heavy lifting here).

Teachers are better in private schools (not always, and anyway we don’t have a different teacher training factory for public or private teachers!). Parents are more engaged at private schools because they pay fees (some are, some aren’t, some are too ‘helpful’, some are never seen – same as in all schools). Public schools don’t have values (they do). Everyone is going private (no, the majority of Australians have been, and continue to be, educated at a public school).

And on, and on, it goes.

Part of our aim at Schoolapedia is to help you sort the education facts from the fiction. We don’t tell you which school to choose, we just ask that you choose wisely. To help inform the conversation about schools here are a few great resources you might like to visit.

Useful resources:

• The Schools, Australia 2017 is an annual product containing data on schools, students and staff from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
• EdMediaWatch by Chris Bonnor – full of research, fact, media corrections, publications, current topics and issues.
• SaveOurSchools by Trevor Cobbold – more great research and lots of other links to resources and information.
• Pearls and Irritations by John Menadue AO – the link here takes you to the Education section but the site is a wonderful collection of thoughtful, incisive articles from a range of authors and contributors.