[andreamatt]

Hello there

Just looking up a few school websites. Wellington College (boys) LOOKS fantastic but I wonder if anyone has heard anything good, bad or indifferent about it?

Also Wellington College for Girls, and Karori Normal School.

Your thoughts please...

Thanks,

Andrea

[Anita & Marco]

Hi,
I do not have children myself, but these schools seem to be about the best around here.

Cheers,
Anita

[Carol]

The only way to know for sure is to go and "feel" the school.

If it is right for YOUR kids - you will know.

[highlander]

Our older daughter, has just joined Wellington Girls' College. She has only been there one week but has actually enjoyed school. She hated school in the UK. Aparently the kids here are 'nicer'. Not sure exactly what that means.

WGC is on a very small site and the school thus goes upwards rather than outwards. The tower block has 8 floors I think. Facilities seem OK though. They use Thorndon pool next door for swimming in summer (open air pool).

The school seems very good in terms of admin/organisation, and the teachers we have met seem good.

Uniform will cost you a few hundred dollars - but they have 2nd hand sales occasionally. These are very organised - you queue then get a numbered ticket and come back at the appropriate time to be 'fitted out' with stuff. Not the usual jumble sale type thing we've been to in the UK.

There is a website which may be of interest to you - http://www.ratemyteachers.co.nz/ where kids rate their own teachers. (There is a similar one for the UK). It gives you some feeling for what the customers think of the service.

[eternalkiwi]

Like Carol says the best school is one with the right feel and balance for your child.

Personally I think the Wellington High School/College options are generally better for girls than for boys.

I would recommend visiting the school and meeting teachers and staff.
While these schools may have a strong reputation, each school has its good and bad points and suit different types of students and needs.

[andreamatt]

Hi

Thanks for all your responses. Yes of course we won't be able to tell until our feet are on the ground (July).

Highlander: whereabouts are you in Wellington?

Andrea

[highlander]

Andrea, we're based in Thorndon. The houses/apartments are generally expensive, small and have minimal garden space (or none). Its very convenient for most things - but not really suitable for active kids who want space to run around and make noise - unless you can afford a NZD 1m+ place with a half decent garden (which we dont). Thus its not really a family area and not many families live in Thorndon. Its more young professional singles/couples and foreign embassies in the big old houses.

However we chose to make this our base for at least a couple of years because we wanted our younger one to go to Thorndon School (which is right next door to WGC) so they could walk together to and from school most of the time. They used to lose a lot of time travelling to/from school in the UK. Schools here are very strict on ensuring that you do actually live in the 'zone' (catchment area) for the school, and the zone for Thorndon School is tiny. Once our younger one moves up to WGC we should be able to move out a bit further as the WGC zone is much larger.

You can see school zones graphically at http://www.schoolzones.co.nz. Most school websites also state exactly where their zone boundaries are.

Karori has better value for money housing-wise. You will need to take a bus into town (20 mins in rush hour?) but I think the service is very good/frequent at peak times.

The house price/distance from CBD gradient is much steeper in Wellington than in London UK. Houses at the far end of Karori are regarded as 'cut off' from civilisation and are much cheaper than those at the city end - although from the far end it is less than 10 minutes drive to the CBD with light traffic!

[Debbie P.]

There is a website which may be of interest to you - http://www.ratemyteachers.co.nz/ where kids rate their own teachers. (There is a similar one for the UK). It gives you some feeling for what the customers think of the service.

This IS an interesting site. Think the comments need to be taken with a pinch of salt though - the teacher I clicked on at random was described as 'bloddy iliterate'! Still, I suppose that might well be the case since he obviously hasn't been able to teach his kids to spell!

Joking apart, that type of site worries me. It's the perfect opportunity to diss the teacher you don't like because he/she has given you one too many detentions. I hope they moderate it well.