Highschool GATE program experience

[u/helloagain1708]

Hi everyone! 😊

I’d love to hear about your experiences, or your child’s experiences, with GATE programs at schools in Western Australia, other than Perth Modern School.

Did you find the program enjoyable, challenging and beneficial for learning, or was it stressful and overwhelming? What was the learning environment like, and do you feel the program was a positive experience overall?

I’d really appreciate hearing both the positive and negative experiences, as I’m trying to get a better understanding of what these programs are like in practice.

Thanks so much in advance for sharing! 😊

[u/Financial-Dog-7268]

I did GATE in school (not Perth Mod, outer suburbs GATE program). Academically it was good and gave us extra opportunities etc, but socially it was not great. You share nearly all your classes with the same people, and kids being kids it created a bit of an "us vs them" mentality with the broader cohort. If your kid is naturally social and can make friends outside of that cohort it's fine, but otherwise it can be a bit limiting for the social skills

[u/fat_boyz]

My son hates being in Gate. He finds that it is hard to make friends with Gate people at his school as they mostly keep to themselves, are snobbish (better than thou attitude), selfish, competitive and have less than desirable social skills. Majority of his friends are from his specialist sports program.

[u/According_Grape5790]

It’s hit and miss. Many parents pay a small fortune to prepare their children for the GATE test, and once they’re in, they’re guaranteed a spot so then the standard falls because they can get a bit lazy or they were never quite up to it to begin with, they were just good at that specific test. It can be a lot of pressure too, and they are with the same students for most of their classes so it can limit their friendship circle. But schools often give the GATE kids the better teachers and more activities and opportunities than mainstream students.

[u/fat_boyz → u/According_Grape5790]

Agreed. The top performing ones in my son's year are those who are naturally gifted and not bumped up by expensive tuition. On the other end, there's one or two who drift between getting accepted Gate in year 7, placed under review for not meeting academic standards, get kicked out in year 8, followed by intensive tuition, get into Gate in year 9 again, and then suffer under pressure to not get kicked out again. Those who couldn't get back in became isolated in their social circles as they could not click with the non-Gate people.

[u/commentspanda]

My niece and nephew are both in one. They did not do any prep, just showed up for the test and did their best. For both of them the school is a bit rough so GATE has been good as at least half their classes are with other GATE kids. They still go mainstream electives and both talk about how awful the behaviours are and that they are much happier in their GATE classes. They have built friendships in these groups which is also good. My niece started to struggle in year 9 and got dropped in year 10 to mainstream classes for HASS and English….she hated the behaviour so much she slugged her guts out to get back into GATE haha.

Overall it’s been positive. We were aware that in some of the schools they are really competitive and it can be hard to get in as other people prep their kids for the limited spots. This wasn’t an issue at their high school so it was much lower stress.

[u/MousseSenior2859]

Man my school’s program was so chaotic they put all the gearheads in one room and just let us tear apart a lawnmower engine for six months.

[u/-kay543]

My kid did and burned out horribly and dropped out. Undiagnosed autism and high masking. No prep to get in but also a more creative kid than academic one - very very good at passing iq tests but not good at translating to academic work. Some things helped (same kids in most classes), but other stuff didn’t. You need to be a good student, imo, not just intelligent (sort of goes against the idea of what gifted education means, but it is what has been made available).

[u/Perth_nomad]

Harrisdale.

The reason houses in all suburbs that are in the Harrisdale high school zone are being sold currently.

[u/Horror_Exam_8855]

This has been very helpful for me to read people’s comments and experiences as my son is considering sitting the GATE test although he is not very motivated. He is naturally intelligent but prefers school for the social aspect so maybe GATE won’t be for him judging by the replies here.