[angelofamily]

Hi there , we have arrived from SA a week ago and have rented furnished (temporary )accomodation in Torbay . We do not have schools sorted yet and would like to have suggestions for schools for my son (year 6 -10years of age )and my daughter (year 9- 13 years old) . We were thinking of Westlake Girls , but no idea for son . We do not know where we will rent once furniture arrives , will move to 'good school' area if neccessary . Any advice ?

[shakyle2906]

Cant help sorry as living out of area, but just wanted to say, Welcome to New Zealand.

Sharon
x

[AndyR]

hope you get settled in soon!

[JandM]

Good luck with this next phase.

[thewoodies]

In the book 'Where to live in auckland' it lists ALL schools in upper East Coast Bays as decile 10 (10 being the best 1 being worst) Torbay intermediate decile 10. Westlake school is listed under Westlake seperately but also decile 10. phone number for book 64 376 4849 website www.wheretolivebooks.com
Barbican Publishing.

Hope this helps :D

[IanW99]

In the book 'Where to live in auckland' it lists ALL schools in upper East Coast Bays as decile 10 (10 being the best 1 being worst) Torbay intermediate decile 10. Westlake school is listed under Westlake seperately but also decile 10. phone number for book 64 376 4849 website www.wheretolivebooks.com
Barbican Publishing.

Hope this helps :D

Decile ratings again!!!

You quote 10 as being the best and 1 being the worst but the best what and the worst what?

This rating has nothing to do with the educational ability of the school.

Ian

[kzn2nz]

Hi and welcome!

Completely unrelated to your thread, but a warning nonetheless, we were given basically 2 days notice that our things were to be delivered. We knew it had landed but the timing would have left us with a bit of a problem had we been in furnished accommodation.

Enjoy it, the first few days are a wild ride that you will look back on with fond memories!

[nippa&pippa]

Decile ratings again!!!

You quote 10 as being the best and 1 being the worst but the best what and the worst what?

This rating has nothing to do with the educational ability of the school.

Ian

:yes doesn't mean "best" school at all, just ask word of mouths from other parents and visit schools before you decide. Oddly I never visited any schools as well as my son's school before he started school few weeks ago, just trusted local mums' word of mouths as well as spoken to other mums from other areas, as useful info have picked up like one school near us got poor history of controlling bullies issues, so we avoid this school even got "10" decile..
What is most important to me is that will my son love this school?, will he be happy there? happy child mean happy to learn anything.
I know other child who go to school in city which got "10" and she hate it.

[dharder]

Decile ratings again!!!
[...]
This rating has nothing to do with the educational ability of the school.


That would be in an ideal world. I'm not saying that you should discount a school because of a lower decile rating, and certainly in rural areas, the decile is not as much of an indication of anything really as in urban areas.

But I would expect a school with a very low decile rating to have to deal with other issues than a school with a high decile rating, to direct funding into different areas, and to concentrate on different areas of education and behaviour management.

I think in some respects, low decile schools are better, for example dealing with behaviour issues (like bullying), simply because there is an expectation of it and more resources in place.

We live equidistant between a decile 1 and a decile 9 (due to 'cunning' zoning policies, surely soon a decile 10 school) school. There is a marked difference between the two.

Personally, I believe that at the primary level, what you need is a dedicated teacher who can relate to the children, and Bob's your uncle. But which school caters best for whose needs is something every parent will have to decide for themselves. We have our kids in the decile 9 school, for numerous reasons, but mainly because they went to an inner city type school in East London for years, and we are familiar with a lot of issues this setting brings (and the demographics were like the decile 1 school next door).

I guess to cut a long story short, the decile rating does say things about schools, but not whether your child would do better at one than at the other, if the parochial care is good, if your kids will get along with the teachers, etc...

Good luck,

Daniela

[thewoodies]

An ex colleague of mine has returned to NZ (kiwi)he told me 10 was best 1 worst - has to do with local catchment - i agree only a starting point and you need to check! He also told me decile 10 schools he had worked in were better than our current private one we were both working in in the UK.!!!!!(and our school is a good one??)Hope no one knows who I am !!!!!! Thats the only advice I have been given again I will need to be in NZ to check this out for myself.

Again any school in any country has to meet the individual needs of the pupil. (or ideally in most cases)

The education review office forNZ is www.ero.govt.nz which according to the book i mentioned has regular reports on individual schools .

Decile rating reflects the socio - economic level of the population from which the school draws its students - not academic results . Factors determining decile ratings are household income, occupation, crowding levels and teritary educational quailifications.

Again this is only what I have read or been told.:cheers

[akp713]

The decile rating, you sould keep in mind, rates the socioeconomic status of the school zone, not of the actual families who send children to that school. I taught at one high school on the North Shore that was ranked decile 7 but which all the teachers said had a decile 5 or 6 student body because many parents who could afford it sent their children to the decile 9 and 10 schools across the motorway, leaving the less afluent students and those with behavioural or learning issues who were expelled from the higher decile schools.

However you schould be aware that the high decile schools often have a very strict model for their students to follow. Schools like Westlake even offered to pay our school or others on our side of the motorway to take special-needs or otherwise troubled students who hurt their test scores.

A third issue to consider is the fact that decile rating is used to determine school funding by the government. Lower decile schools are determined to be in need of more government funding that high decile schools. As a result lower decile schools often have the newest and best facilities and resources.

The best way to really choose a school is to visit it and to read the ERO report on it. Here is a link to a page where you can view ERO reports:

http://www.tki.org.nz/e/schools/graphical_search.php?gs_region=North_Shore_City

Just click on the school name and at the bottom of the page with the school description there is a link to the ERO report.